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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has become increasingly important in the Oil and Gas industry. Despite the various advantages WSN has compared to the wired counter parts, it also faces some critical challenges in the oil fields; one of them is the power supply. The periodic replacement of batteries for the WSN in the downhole environments has been economically inconvenient and the enormous cost induced by the maintenance has turned people's attention to the energy harvesting technology, hoping for a more sustainable solution. Power supply is only half of the problem. To retrieve the data recorded by the various sensors in the downhole environments, a reliable way of wireless communication is required. A new approach utilizing acoustic communication was proposed. This thesis presents an Archimedean Screw Turbine (AST) based energy harvester that takes advantage of the abundant flow energy in the upper stream section of the oil production cycle, especially in the water injection wells and oil extraction wells, with the goal of providing power supply to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and underwater acoustic modems deployed in the various locations in the downhole environments. Parametric study on the number of blades, screw length, screw pitch, and rotational speed was conducted through CFD analysis using Ansys Fluent in order to determine the optimal geometry and operating conditions. The relationship between power generation and AST geometries, such as AST length and AST pitch, were discovered and the optimal rotational speed was revealed to be solely dependent on the screw pitch. Experiments were conducted in the lab environment with various flow rates and various external resistive loads to verify and determine the maximum power generation of the designed harvester. FEA analysis was conducted using the Acoustic and Structural Interaction Module of COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS to determine the attenuation characteristics of acoustic waves propagating in the water-filled pipes buried in soil. Experiments with and without the harvester integrated in the pipe system were conducted in lab environment using a pair of under water acoustic modems to determine the acoustic communication capability. The impact of the integrated harvester on the acoustic communication was tested. Combining energy harvesting technology and underwater acoustic communication together, this system can potentially achieve real-time monitoring and communication in the oil downhole environment. / Master of Science / Oil and Gas industry has been the primary energy source provider for our society for hundreds of years. As this industry evolves with new technologies, it also faces new challenges. One of the main challenges is the power supply problem in the oil field because of the limited lifespan of traditional batteries used in the oil production process. This study present a novel energy harvesting device that can replace the traditional batteries. By taking advantage of the constant fluid flow in various wells at oil field, the device can provide power for electronic devices, including but not limited to wireless sensors, communication modules, at the oil extraction sites, without needing additional power supply. This novel energy harvesting device can also be integrated with communication modules that uses acoustic wave to achieve wireless acoustic communication between underground and the surface. In this study, the harvester design, optimization, tests, and integration with acoustic modems were presented. With the help of such energy harvesting device, Oil and Gas industry will be one step closer to achieving true wireless, and real-time monitoring and communication. This will not only reduce maintenance cost but also greatly improve the production efficiency.

Yes / EMNEs from Africa are missing in global places and spaces, and Africapitalism is also meagrely represented within the capillaries of international investments, relative to the opportunities offered by globalisation and Africa’s rich natural resource endowment. Using the Penrosian MNE growth theory, we investigate how African firms' managerial competence and entrepreneurial behaviours can be enhanced by engaging foreign executive directors during pre, early and post-internationalisation. We conduct our analysis by using data from 157 companies domiciled in 17 African countries. Our results show that whilst access to liquidity, foreign managerial know-how, and experience are key drivers of early foreign listing of African EMNEs, these factors have less effect on corporate outcomes during the 3rd and 5th year without the moderating effect of foreign executive directors. We contribute to the international business and international entrepreneurship literature by showing that African EMNEs can succeed in global spaces if they leverage the expertise of foreign executive directors as they bring idiosyncratic industry and market knowledge during early internationalisation. EMNEs intending to internationalise must use a polycentric governing board structure to reflect the intended destination country. Our results imply that early listing on the international stock markets is among the key strategies latecomers use to enter a global game they are just learning to play.

Work-family balance practices (WFBPs) in the workplace have caused growing interest amongst employees and employers in developing countries like Malaysia. Previous research has shown that the application of work-family balance interface (e.g. work-family integration) in the workplace has an impact on the role of manager, particularly at the micro level analysis. The study has four objectives, which are: (1) To explore how managers and executives in the O& G sector perceive the notion of WFBPs; (2) To identify the type of WFBPs introduced in the Malaysian O&G companies; (3) To compare the WFBPs in both government-owned and privatelyowned O&G companies; and (4) To evaluate the role of a manager in implementing WFBPs in O&G companies. A qualitative method was employed in this study by using a face-to-face, semi-structured interview approach. The interview approach was used to explore the concept and dimensions of the understanding of WFBPs, as this is the appropriate approach to gain a viewpoint from an individual perspective. The empirical result of the investigation has recognised the significant themes of the implementation of WFBPs on the O&G employees' work-life balance. Firstly, it provided the WFBPs' notions of the integration, separation and integration-separation concept between work and family lives to the O&G workforces. Secondly, the study identified and examined the utility of the WFBPs that enables the comparison of formal and informal WFBPs for both government-owned and privately-owned O&G companies. Thirdly, the study evaluated the role of the manager in undertaking the WFBPs and factors that motivate the O&G workforces in the workplace. This study also revealed the impact on the individual and the organisation from the implementation of WFBPs. Hence, the study showed the interconnected manager roles in achieving the work-life balance whilst working with the O&G industry.

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Oil and gas companies in Alberta, Canada lose millions of dollars per year due to ineffective management of retired assets. Ineffective management of inactive oil and gas assets in Alberta has led to over 80,000 inactive wells, highlighting the practice of prolonged deferment of asset end-of-life costs. Using the corporate sustainability model and asset management concept model as frameworks, this multiple case study was conducted to explore the strategies that asset managers in small- and medium-sized oil and gas companies used to manage retired assets effectively to increase organizational sustainability. The population for the study included 3 business leaders of small- and medium-sized oil and gas companies in Alberta who implemented effective strategies to manage their retired assets. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with the leaders and review of artifacts including firm documents and websites. Data were compiled, disassembled into fragments, reassembled into a sequence of groups, clarified, and interpreted for meaning. Methodological triangulation and member checking validated the interpretations. Data analysis resulted in 7 themes: responsible leadership commitment, adoption and communication of corporate social responsibility philosophy, regulatory compliance, asset management software tools, dedicated inactive assets and reclamation champion/team, annual budget/long-term planning, and performance measurement/reporting. The findings may contribute to positive social change by providing insights for small- and medium-sized oil and gas business leaders on strategies for managing inactive assets and for fostering an environmental culture among employees that has beneficial impacts on their families and communities.

Net energy exporting countries (NEECs) and net energy importing countries (NEICs) depend on each other for mutual gains. However, NEICs pursue strategic policies to reduce consumption of energy from conventional sources and increase that of renewable energy in order to attain energy security and macro environmental and carbon accountability. On the other hand, NEECs such as Nigeria depend heavily on oil and gas exports to NEICs to generate revenue. As a result of this inter-dependent relationship, this PhD project adopts a dependency theory and strategic issue analysis framework to underpin the study. Accordingly, the study approach is founded on the ideas of pluralism as a social reality and adopted pragmatism as the research approach. Consistent with these approaches, the study was undertaken by analysing both secondary and primary data, including macro-economic statistics of annual time-series dataset (1980-2014) and semi-structured interviews respectively. The quantitative part of the project used Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds testing approach. This method was used to investigate and analyse the effect of renewable energy consumption and carbon emissions reduction on Nigeria’s oil and gas exports. The qualitative part involved interviews with twenty senior government officials in Nigeria from six selected Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), representatives of civil society groups and academicians, to support the quantitative results and answer certain research questions. The short-run quantitative results and qualitative findings show that renewable energy consumption in developed NEICs affects Nigeria’s oil and gas exports. However, the reverse holds true for emerging NEICs. Both the quantitative results and the qualitative findings show that carbon emissions reduction in developed NEICs affects Nigerian oil and gas exports in the long run. Also, the quantitative results show that renewable energy consumption in developed and emerging NEICs does not affect Nigerian oil and gas exports in the long run. However, the qualitative findings only support the quantitative results for emerging NEICs but do not support those of developed NEICs. Similarly, the qualitative findings indicate that other external and internal factors such as discovery of shale oil and gas; improvement in energy efficient technologies; the use of long-term contract in other NEECs; stringent nature of the Nigerian Content Law and lack of passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill amongst others currently contribute in affecting Nigeria’s oil and gas exports. Moreover, the qualitative findings show that global energy transition has an impact on the Nigeria’s oil and gas revenue, savings made to the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund, budget financing and will continue to affect Nigerian revenue and budget if the economy remains undiversified. Finally, the qualitative findings indicate that global energy transition has negatively affected Foreign Direct Investment flow into Nigerian petroleum industry and discoveries of new oil and gas reserves. These findings have several implications. Firstly, Nigerian oil and gas exports are affected by the carbon emissions control regime, which makes future oil and gas revenues uncertain; thereby putting pressure on budget financing and socio-economic growth and development. On this note, there is the need for Nigeria to take cautionary position in the global climate change debate in order not to adversely affect the country’s economic interest. Secondly, the consumption of energy from renewable sources in both developed and emerging NEICs is an opportunity for Nigeria to export not only its conventional energy but also renewable energy if commercially harnessed. This suggests that Nigerian should also invest heavily in renewable energy production. Thirdly, the major findings of this study provide evidence in support of the relevance of dependency theory and strategic issue analysis framework within the context of energy transition in NEICs on one hand, and Nigerian oil and gas exports to these countries on the other. This implies the need for Nigeria to focus on developing internal market trajectories to increase domestic utilisation of its conventional energy rather than being dependent on external markets for the sale of the nation’s energy resources.

This empirical study is concerned with whether the oil and gas reserve value data reported by petroleum producers have been utilized by investors. Reporting reserve value data based on a present value approach is the initial step toward the development of the Securities and Exchange Commission's new accounting method called "Reserve Recognition Accounting" (RRA) for oil and gas producers. Experimentation with this new accounting concept in the oil and gas industry has been adopted as a tentative resolution of the long-standing controversy over valuation of oil and gas reserves and the measure of income from oil and gas exploration. Evidence gathered in this research will be valuable to the SEC in its efforts to assess the usefulness of RRA. This dissertation assumes capital market efficiency and address two specific questions. First, do investors behave as if the reported end-of-year reserve value data are effective signals for pricing securities of oil and gas producers? Second, has the SEC-mandated reserve value disclosures induced any response in the capital market? Two research designs were employed to permit extensive investigation of these two questions.

The Berea Sandstone is a Late Devonian, tight oil and gas reservoir that intertongues with the Bedford Shale in eastern Kentucky. In order to evaluate the Bedford-Berea interval in the subsurface, 555 well logs from the Kentucky Geological Survey’s oil and gas database were used to construct structure maps, isopach maps, and cross sections of the interval and its possible hydrocarbon source rocks. Gamma-ray logs were compared to known cores in order to separate Bedford from Berea lithologies. Maps and cross sections were compared to known basement structures to evaluate possible structural influences on the interval. The Bedford-Berea interval is thickest along a north-south elongate trend which extends from Lewis to Pike Counties and cuts across basement structures. Along this trend, the interval is thickest and the percentage of Berea lithologies is greatest on known basement highs. The interval is thinnest and dominated by Bedford shales above structural lows and west of the main trend. Several wells are also reported in which the Bedford-Berea thickens on the down-thrown side of major faults. Also, in northeastern Kentucky, where the Berea is thickest, possible submarine channel facies are identified which cut into the underlying Cleveland Shale near the Waverly Arch.

This thesis empirically investigates how well the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) ensures value for money (VfM) in its exploitation of Nigeria’s oil resources. This focus on VfM distinguishes the study from other researches carried out on the performance of national oil companies (NOCs) where the common approach in the literature has been to assess performance using the metrics applicable to private oil companies. The rationale for the new approach is that the NNPC is a quasi-public sector organisation and thus its performance should be measured in the same way as that of public sector bodies and state owned enterprises (SOEs). Informed opinions on NNPC’s management roles in Nigeria’s oil and gas upstream sector were sought from a range of relevant experts in twelve stakeholder groups involved in oil and gas upstream operations. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire and interview surveys, and further subjected to statistical analysis to determine and assess significant differences in views between respondent groups. The empirical results obtained from the questionnaires were used to draw a conclusion on the hypotheses formulated for the study. Furthermore, the findings of the interview survey were used to validate the conclusions drawn. The study revealed that the NNPC was perceived to be deficient in keeping its mandate of adding value to Nigeria’s hydrocarbon resources. In specific terms, the respondents were of the view that NNPC has not been able to ensure VfM in its operations because of defects in its organisational structure, administrative system, and accountability. External factors such as political interference, instability and an inappropriate legal framework against which NNPC operates have also been perceived to impede the corporation’s performance. The main conclusions were: firstly, it is argued that the use of conventional private sector metrics to evaluate the performance of NOCs makes it difficult to form an appropriate view on their performance. Secondly, NOCs with numerous conflicting roles as is the case with NNPC are unlikely to achieve satisfactory performance. Thirdly, the NNPC lacks the capability required to ensure multinational oil companies’ (MOC) conformity with operational provisions and best practice. Finally, the thesis concludes that establishing a standardised performance/benchmarking framework is an essential requirement to ensure value addition, VfM and accountability in Nigeria’s oil and gas operations.