Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-129).

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-136). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Law, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 651-699.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

This thesis carries out a comparative analysis between the modes of operation adopted in the oil and gas industries of Nigeria and developed countries (with an emphasis on the UK), examining in the process, the existing and persistent problem of pollution which has plagued the Nigerian State and gone virtually unchecked for over five decades, and dealing with the lacunae in the law currently in place in Nigeria. This analysis is carried out to ascertain the possibility of improving environmental protection in Nigeria. A course is charted through the history and development of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, extensively reviewing the environmental legal regime adopted in Nigeria, with particular reference to the oil and gas industry. Issues concerning inadequacy of legislation are addressed as well as the knotty problem of proper enforcement and indeed compliance within the industry. Also addressed is the extent to which flaring is a significant problem in Nigeria, as this is responsible not only for huge amounts of environmental pollution, but also for the loss of a considerable amount of revenue for the Nigerian government and populace. Furthermore, this thesis considers the difficulty the Nigerian judiciary has in maintaining its impartiality and the problems of corruption as well as the judicial approaches to powerful economic actors. Parallels of the Nigerian oil industry are drawn with the exploration and production processes of oil companies operating in the United Kingdom. As a consequence, this work puts forward possible solutions for the adoption of sustainable practices successfully utilised in developed countries which have not been replicated in Nigeria.

Specialopgave. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

This thesis considers the problem of residue upgrading operations in an oil refinery. Visbreaking is a residue-upgrading process that improves profitability of a refinery. The economics of converting the heavy residue into the lighter and more valuable streams, coupled with the installation of a modem visbreaker unit at the Engen Refinery in Durban, provides sufficient motives to develop a mathematical model to simulate the unit's capability and estimate the economics of the visbreaking process and fuel oil operations. Furthermore, the proposed model should provide a crude-dependent visbreaking yield that can be used in the refinery's global linear programme (LP), employed to evaluate and select the crude and to optimise refinery's operations. Traditionally, kinetically based models have been used to simulate and study the refining reaction processes. In this case, due to the complexity of the process and some unknown reactions, the performances of existing visbreaking simulators are not fully satisfactory. Consequently, a neural network model of the visbreaking process and fuel oil blending operation is developed. The proposed model is called the adaptive visbreaker paradigm, since it is formed using neuroengineering, a technique that fabricates empirically-based neural network models. The network operates in supervised mode to predict the visbreaking yields and the residue quality. It was observed that due to the fluctuation in the quality of feedstock, and plant operating conditions, the prediction accuracy of the model needs to be improved. To improve the system's predictability, a network reciprocation procedure has been devised. Network reciprocation is a mechanism that controls and selects the input data used in the training of a neural network system. Implementation of the proposed procedure results in a considerable improvement in the performance ofthe network. 3 To facilitate the interaction between the simulation and optimisation routines, an integrated system to incorporate the fuel oil blending with the neurally-based module is constructed. Under an integrated system, the economics of altering the models' decision variables can be monitored. To account for the visbreakability of the various petroleum crudes, the yield predicted by the adaptive visbreaker paradigm should enter into the visbreaker,s sub-model of the global refinery LP. To achieve this, a mechanism to calculate and update the visbreaking yields of various crude oils is also developed. The computational results produced by the adaptive visbreaker paradigm prove that the economics of the visbreaking process is a multi-dimensional variable, greatly influenced by the feed quality and the unit's operating condition. The results presented show the feasibility of applying the proposed model to predict the cracking reaction yields. Furthermore, the model allows a dynamic monitoring of the residue properties as applicable to fuel oil blending optimisation. In summary, the combination of the proposed models forms an integrated decision support system suitable for studying the visbreaking and associated operations, and to provide a visbreaking yield pattern that can be incorporated into the global refinery LP model. Using an integrated decision support system, refinery planners are able to see through the complex interactions between business and the manufacturing process by performing predictive studies using these models. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Joint Operating Agreements (JOA) are well accepted standard agreements in the oil and gas industry. The basic aim of any JOA is to regulate the relationship of the parties in the Joint Venture: Operator and Non-Operators. The former is responsible to perform the operations on the behalf of the consortium and the latter is responsible to contribute with regards to the financial commitments and expenses of the Joint Venture. However, Joint Operation Agreements typically do not reflect the Non-Operator's perspective, as they traditionally focus on the strong position retained by the Operator. This reality is very clear as the most critical clauses (namely management of operations, limitation of liabilities and removal of the Operator) strengthen the Operator's position, often to the detriment of the Non-Operators. In consequence, such an unbalanced agreement can cause uncertainly, raises the potential for litigation and might even jeopardize the very existence of the consortium. It is important to note that some parties might still sign such an imbalanced agreement in order to secure investment into a project but they will be subject to these risks, and even ultimately termination of the agreement. However, the decline of production and the lack of new reserves (which together reflect the maturity of an oil and gas area) will lead major companies to leave such region in search for a province with greater rewards. As a matter of consequence, the strongest party of the JOA shall be replaced by smaller companies so as there will be a shift on the JOA context from a dominant position for another in equitable terms. Consequently, there is a need for a new and more balanced approach to the negotiation of Joint Operating Agreements, to apply to new, current operations and mature operations, where the Non-Operator's perspectives are fully considered and properly addressed.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-73). Also available on the World Wide Web.