Depleting fossil fuel reserves in EU and energy consumption growth lead to the fact that the European Union is becoming increasingly dependent on energy imports. The most important energy partner of the EU is Russia which delivers the biggest volumes of oil and natural gas to european countries. High rate of energy dependency on Russia is - especially in the context of gas crisis - perceived as a threat to EU energy security and it is necessary to deal with it immediately. The aims of the European Union policy on energy are to achieve higher territorial diversification of fossil fuel suppliers and transit countries and diversification of the EU energy mix, to promote renewable forms of energy and to establish common energy market to ensure solidarity among EU member states. European Union also should learn how to act as "one actor" and "one voice" on energy relations with Russia because that could help to ensure better negotiation position and to become a sovereign partner in mutual energy relations with Russia.

The management of health and safety risks in the oil refinery tends to be centred on the collection and simulation of technical data which can then be used to make decisions on the wellbeing of the workforce as well as the refinery installations. While the number crunching in the process is immensely vital, there tends to be a problem of ignoring or, at the very least, side-lining the social-cultural values of the people dealing with health and safety risk assessment processes. The economic driver for the operation of the oil refinery tends to be more important because of the generally huge initial financial outlay, and the eventual high costs of maintenance; hence health and safety risk management should have evidence of ensuring that the installations, as well as the people that work in them, are well catered for. In the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company this problem is more evident in newer installations where lean management processes have been instituted by oil firms so that they can reduce waste in the oil refining process without compromising the occupational health and safety needs of the refinery. Therein lies the initial problem of integrating health and safety risk assessment processes because most approaches concentrate on the technical elements of waste elimination while ignoring the social-cultural factors that impact on the health and safety of the workforce. This is an exploratory piece of research that examines the impact of rational and cognitive decision theories – herein called the psychology of risk – and how they impact on the occupational health and safety systems in the oil and gas refining sector of Kuwait. The research concludes that the application of lean concepts in the oil refining process is noble in itself but it needs to be integrated with the rational and cognitive detection factors that are necessary to incorporate and support the social-cultural tendencies of the workforce. The research recommends a framework for incorporating social-cultural values in the decision making process pertaining to health and safety risk assessment in oil refining process plants. Key Words: occupational health and safety risk assessment; lean management; social-cultural values; rational and cognitive decision making; oil and gas process plants.

Située à l’intersection de la recherche en stratégie et de la théorie des organisations, la thèse s’intéresse à la manière dont une idée, émise par des instances internationales sous la forme d’une doctrine imprécise, le développement durable, a transformé en profondeur la stratégie, le fonctionnement et la nature même des entreprises. Pour comprendre ce phénomène, la recherche mobilise la notion de performativité, c’est-à-dire la capacité d’une théorie à créer la réalité qu’elle décrit. Mais toutes les théories ou doctrines ne performent pas les comportements des acteurs et trois conditions de performativité ont été identifiées. Lorsque ces conditions sont réunies, deux processus de performativité peuvent intervenir, par cadrage et par débordement. Le développement durable peut donc performer les pratiques si cette doctrine est transformée en principes opérationnalisables (première condition), incorporés dans des dispositifs à différents niveaux, de la méta-organisation au dispositif micro-local dans les firmes (deuxième) et que ces dispositifs sont performants ou deviennent incontournables (troisième). Parmi les dispositifs étudiés au niveau de la deuxième condition, l’accent a été mis sur le rôle joué par les méta-organisations (des organisations dont les membres sont des organisations). La thèse constitue la première recherche empirique sur le rôle de ces dispositifs d’action collective dans un secteur industriel, le secteur pétrolier. La méthodologie est compréhensive, s’appuyant sur 80 entretiens semi-directifs, sur la construction d’une base de données de 100 méta-organisations et la mise en place d’un dispositif de recherche intervention sur le problème émergent du bruit marin. La thèse a mis en évidence des formes nouvelles de méta-organisations, thématiques et multi-parties prenantes, opérant comme un espace de négociation interorganisationnelle, comme dispositif stratégique de légitimation des firmes et comme dispositif normalisateur participant d’une gouvernance distribuée. La notion de performativité a été précisée par la mise en évidence de ses conditions de réalisation et les deux types de processus qu’elle peut emprunter. La théorie des méta-organisations a été prolongée par l’identification des types jusque-là peu étudiés. La thèse a ainsi des implications managériales pour l’élaboration de stratégies collectives par les firmes. / Drawing on research in strategy and organization theory, this thesis focuses on the way an idea that was formulated by international instances as an imprecise doctrine – sustainable development, still managed to deeply change firms’ strategy, practices and even nature. This research uses the concept of performativity, i.e. the capacity of a theory to create the reality that it describes. However, all theories or doctrines do not necessarily succeed to perform behaviors and the thesis identifies three conditions of performativity. When the conditions are met, two performativity processes can occur, a framing and an overflowing process. Sustainable development can perform practices if it becomes operationalisable principles (first condition), if these principles are incorporated in devices at different levels, from meta-organizations to micro-local instruments in firms (second) and if these devices are efficient or irremediable (troisième). Among the studied devices, the accent was put on the role of meta-organizations, organizations which members are themselves organizations. The thesis constitutes the first empirical survey of this collective action device’s role in an industrial sector, the oil and gas. Using a comprehensive methodology, data collection consisted in 80 semi-structured interviews, constructing a database of about 100 meta-organizations and setting up an intervention-research device on the emerging issue of marine sound. The thesis highlights new forms, thematic and multi-stakeholder, that act like an inter-organizational negotiation space, as a strategic device for the legitimization of firms’ activities, and as a normalizing device participating to a distributed governance of business conduct and society. The thesis clarifies the concept of performativity by identifying its conditions of success and the two processes it can follow. The thesis also contributes to the literature on meta-organizations by showing its empirical diversity and by identifying types that we knew little about before. As such, the thesis has managerial implications for collective strategies of firms.

No description available.

This thesis is based on the historical base, a deep look at the Norwegian referendum results and public opinion development. We concentrated on three research questions and on three related hypotheses studying Norway history, Norwegian politics and the possibilities of Norwegian integration to the European Union. We studied intrastate and also international aspects of this integration process. The Nordic cooperation is very important for this research. This Nordic cooperation provided a platform for alternative economic cooperation and this cooperation is also a special first stage on the way to the EU. We fulfilled the thesis goals, we answered the research questions and we verified all three hypotheses. In conclusion, we think that Norwegian admission to the EU is unreal nowadays because there are non-sufficient economic and non- economic reasons and stimuli for that. Norwegian political parties are not interested in this topic because this topic is very risky. Moreover, Norwegian public opinion is against the full membership in the EU.

Gas hydrate formation and corrosion can cause serious safety and flow assurance problems in subsea environments. One aspect that has been given less attention is the corrosion behavior of materials in gas hydrate formation environment (GHFE). This work introduces a new technique/method for corrosion testing of materials exposed to low temperatures GHFEs. This technique allows pH monitoring, and control of test conditions like temperature. In this work, GHFE is defined as an environment that includes water, methanol and its degraded products in the presence of corrosive agents like CO2 and chloride salt at gas hydrate formation temperatures (GHFT). After 20 hrs immersion in CO2-saturated salinity environment at GHFT, as-deposited Ni-Mo alloy coating has the highest corrosion resistance of 33.28 kΩ cm2. The corrosion resistance dropped to 14.36 kΩ cm2 and 11.11 kΩ cm2 in the sweet low-salinity and sweet high-salinity test solutions respectively. The combined results of SEM/EDX showed that the Ni-Mo coating oxide layer broke down quicker in sweet high-salinity environment than sweet low-salinity environment. When carbon steel was immersed in a CO2-saturated high salinity environment at GHFT, there was slight overall change in corrosion rate (CR) as salt concentration increase from 3 wt% to 25 wt%. In degraded methanol environment, methanol showed an inhibitive effect on the corrosion of carbon steel. Higher methanol content (up to 50 vol. %) increased the corrosion rate of carbon steel at gas hydrate formation temperature, however, the corrosion rates were lower with methanol contents between 10 to 20 vol%.

No description available.

No description available.

Northeastern British Columbia (Canada) is a region of oil and gas exploitation. Oil and gas extraction activities can emit contaminants, including radon, but studies on indoor air contaminants in regions of oil and gas exploitation are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate the association between the density/proximity of oil and gas wells and indoor air radon concentrations in Northeastern British Columbia. Data from the British Columbia Radon Data Repository (BCRDR) and the Exposures in the Peace River Valley study (EXPERIVA) were used, with 497 radon measurements taken from dwellings between 1992 and 2019. Within different buffer zones around each dwelling (2.5, 5 and 10 km), well density was calculated and an exposure metric, Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), of both well density and proximity was derived. Linear regression models were used to evaluate the associations between well density and IDW and indoor air radon concentrations while adjusting for the floor where measurement was taken. A higher radon concentration was measured in basements than upper floors. Statistically significant and negative associations (p<0.05) were observed between well density/proximity and radon concentrations. For example, an increase of one well within 10 km was associated with a modest decrease of 0.1% (95% CI: 0.05; 0.20) in radon concentrations. We observed no positive association between well density/proximity measurements and radon concentrations. The negative associations were primarily influenced by radon measurements made in 1992, when oil and gas development used very little hydraulic fracturing. Additional studies with more measurements, information on dwelling type, and phase of oil and gas operations could allow a more precise and powerful analysis. / L’exploitation gazière et pétrolière, parfois associée à de la fracturation hydraulique, peut entraîner l’émission de contaminants comme le radon dans les régions présentant des puits d’exploitation. L’objectif de cette étude était d’évaluer l’association entre la densité/proximité des puits de gaz et de pétrole et les concentrations de radon dans l’air intérieur des résidences du Nord-Est de la Colombie-Britannique. Une base de données comprenant 497 concentrations de radon mesurées dans des résidences de cette région a été utilisée. Cette base de données contenait plusieurs études de mesure du radon réalisées entre 1992 et 2019, dont des données de l’étude EXPERIVA et un regroupement de données (British Columbia Radon Data Repository) réalisé par le British Columbia Centre for Disease Control. En matière d’exposition, une approche par pondération de la distance inverse (appelée Inverse Distance Weighting, ou IDW), et le nombre des puits furent calculés dans trois périmètres autour des habitations (2.5, 5 et 10 km), permettant d’estimer pour chaque habitation l’importance de l’exposition aux puits d’exploitation (par leur proximité et la densité des puits). L’analyse de l’association entre les IDW ou le nombre de puits, et la concentration de radon a été faite par analyse de régression linéaire multiple, ajustée pour l’étage de la résidence auquel la mesure fut réalisée (sous-sol ou autre étage). Une plus grande concentration de radon a été mesurée dans les sous-sols qu’aux étages supérieurs. Des associations statistiquement significatives et négatives (p<0.05) ont été observées entre la densité/proximité des puits et les concentrations de radon. Cela a mis en avant que, dans l’échantillon, les régions présentant des densités de puits plus hautes étaient associées avec une concentration de radon plus faible, avec une différence de concentration de radon de 0.1% par puits additionnel dans un rayon de 10 km (I.C. 95% : 0.05 ; 0.20). Nous n’avons observé aucune association positive entre les mesures de densité/proximité des puits et les concentrations de radon. Les associations négatives retrouvées étaient principalement influencées par les mesures de radon réalisées en 1992, période durant laquelle l’exploitation gazière et pétrolière n’utilisait que très peu la fracturation hydraulique . Ainsi, il serait intéressant d’approfondir ce travail, en incluant un échantillon plus large et comprenant plus de données en milieu rural. Aussi, l’inclusion de covariables additionnelles pourrait mieux contrôler la contribution potentielle d’autres facteurs (p. ex. âge et état du bâtiment, type d’isolation et de ventilation, phase de l’exploitation gazière ou pétrolière lors de la mesure radon).

[pt] Project finance é uma modalidade de financiamento que vem sendo apontada como alternativa para suprir as elevadas necessidades de investimento existentes nos países em desenvolvimento.O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a utilização de project finance nos setores de óleo/gás e energia elétrica no Brasil, estabelecendo um paralelo com sua aplicação nos países emergentes da Ásia, que se destacaram pelo grande número de projetos implementados antes da crise de 1997.Apesar das aparentes diferenças culturais, Brasil e Ásia apresentam muitas similaridades em relação às dificuldades encontradas na estruturação de project finance, associadas principalmente à escassez de recursos e aos riscos regulatório, político e cambial. As soluções que governos e investidores estão buscando para esses problemas na Ásia, podem auxiliar em uma melhor implementação dessa modalidade de financiamento no Brasil. / [en] Project finance is a financing modality that comes being pointed as alternative to supply the high existing necessities of investment in the developing countries. The present work has as objective to analyze the use of project finance in the sectors of óleo/gás and electric energy in Brazil, establishing a parallel with its application in the emergent countries of Asia, that if had detached for the great number of projects implemented before the 1997 crisis. Despite the apparent Cultural differences, Brazil and Asia they present many similarities in relation to the difficulties found in the estruturação of project finance, associates mainly to the scarcity of resources and the risks regulatório,cambial politician and. The solutions that governments and investors are searching for these problems in Asia, can assist in one better implementation of this modality of financing in Brazil.