No description available.

The study of the full cost method of accounting for finding costs in the petroleum industry is significant because it offers a unique opportunity to examine and emerging accounting practice and will indicate some of the reasons for a shift in the reporting practices of a portion of the industry.

M.A. dissertation, University of Hong Kong, 1976.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, January 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1976. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-157).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-111).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1956. / Typescript. Abstracted in Dissertation abstracts, v. 17 (1957) no. 4, p. 886-887. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 387-399).

The purpose of this study was to develop a probabilistic model that could be used by petroleum refiners to evaluate the economic potential of refinery capital investment proposals. The following two requirements were placed on the development at the outset: (1) that the model use linear programming to simulate refinery operations; and (2) that the model keep computer time within reasonable bounds. A probabilistic model was developed that requires the following steps for its application: (1) use linear programming to simulate both the operations of the existing refinery and the operations assuming that the investment is made; (2) select two variables that can be treated as probabilistic variables and assign either a theoretical or a subjective probability distribution to represent future values for the two variables; (3) develop return on investment interpolation data by computing a return on investment for all pair combinations of three tenth year values for each of the two probabilistic variables; (4) develop a return on investment distribution by selecting values at random from the two probability distributions and interpolating among the interpolation data to obtain return on investment data; (5) interpret the return on investment distribution. The model was applied to an actual refining situation that involved determining the expected internal rate of return of a proposed hydrocracker addition to a United States refinery. Total computer time required to evaluate the hydrocracker proposal was about 159 minutes. Accuracy of the interpolation feature of the model was also determined during the application. The average error of ten interpolated return figures that were selected at random for the accuracy check was 1.89 per cent.

This thesis examines various features of the market for petroleum reserves, in theory and empirically for the time period 1947-1970 in Alberta, Canada. The main thrust of analysis is directed towards the industry supply process in the reserves market which results from the activities of exploration companies. In particular the thesis focusses attention on the activity of New Field Wildcatting. A totally new data bank regarding oil and gas exploration in Alberta is established, containing many items of information which have net previously been available and whose lack was considered a major stumbling block in analysing the petroleum exploration process. For example, the data files show the direction of search of exploratory wells, towards either oil or gas, the class of well which discovered each petroleum pool, the company which was the principal operator of the discovery well, the cost of wells, etc. Thus, it was possible to analyse the discovery sequence from well class, etc. to the discovered pool and its detailed reserves characteristics. With this data bank an original and unique approach amongst studies of oil and gas supply and exploration was possible. The study isolates the geological and economic factors which contribute to the incentives and costs of participants in the market for reserves. It should be noted that the data bank, on computer tape and described in a 130 page manual, can be obtained upon request from the author. The hitherto unavailable detail of this data invites further analysis. On the demand side of the reserves market, data was generated which allowed a detailed estimation of the price incentive to explore for reserves. This included consideration of production delays, expected well productivities, royalties, operating costs, joint products, income taxes, etc. It is established that New Field Wildcat wells may be viewed as the primary discovery activity of the petroleum reserves market. A main objective of the thesis is to define the components of the economic market for reserves so that empirical tests may be conducted to demonstrate the economic linkages between the incentives to explore for oil and gas and the rates of wildcat drilling and subsequent reserves discovered. This objective is met by providing an extensive descriptive and statistical backdrop of the oil and natural gas industry in Alberta, developing theoretical economic models of petroleum exploration and production, and then fitting econometric equations to estimate the elasticity and shifting of the industry' s short run petroleum reserves supply function. It is shown that the short run elasticity between the reserves price incentive to explore and New Field Wildcatting for oil averaged between 0.3 and 0.4 during the period in Alberta. The comparable elasticity for natural gas was around 0.1. We stress, however, that these elasticities may be rather unimportant out of their context of a shifting supply function. They do not remain constant as a region is depleted and the rate at which the supply function shifts as a region is explored will be more significant in determining the longer run petroleum supply than the short run elasticity. Such shifting of the supply function is also estimated. Secondary objectives are to examine the exploration characteristics of large companies compared to the others. Statistical analysis shows that the "Big Eight" companies have realized higher success ratios in New Field Wildcatting, have discovered much larger oil and gas pools and have done considerably more geophysics on their land holdings than other companies. Many other features of the petroleum discovery process, such as the statistical nature of the populations of pools discovered in sequential time periods, are also examined. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate