This study examines the issues of collaboration and competition in the context of oil and gas sector organizations. The convergence of economics and organization science literatures suggests a connection between the prevalence of extraorganizational exchange and the role of technology in driving innovation and growth. Specifically, the role of collaboration as a strategy for increasing the returns to technology and providing competitive advantage is explored in this research. / Two questions were advanced to examine the framework. The first investigated the relationships between a set of organizational characteristics and collaborative success; four propositions were developed to test this question. The second issue explored how organizations manage collaborative-competitive tensions in an environment characterized as fiercely competitive and marked by widespread collaborative arrangements. / Using a qualitative research methodology, thirty face-to-face interviews were conducted with executives and senior-level managers from twenty-three companies over an eight-month period; a questionnaire was also used to gather the more objective information. The sample included diversified energy, exploration and development, pipeline and oil and gas service companies. The majority of firms were located in the Houston, Texas area. / The most important implications of the study pertain to innovation and organizational change issues. Principal findings were that the ability to manage complex and multiple time frames was positively associated with an organization's level of collaborative capability, a construct that measured collaborative experience and expertise; organizational boundaries that are neither completely permeable nor fully defined were consistent with more successful collaborations; and the proposed direct relationship between collaborative capability and competitive advantage was only weakly supported. Further results indicate that three-fourths of the sample did not experience conflict between collaborative and competitive strategies, while those firms that noted tensions were confined to oil and gas service companies; and collaborative arrangements were motivated by three imperatives of capital intensity, competition and dependency, each of which led to distinct organizational outcomes.

No description available.

Saudi Arabia is the largest petroleum producer and exporter in the world. Saudi Arabian economy hugely depends on production and export of oil. This motivates us to do research on oil production of Saudi Arabia. In our research the prime objective is to find the most appropriate models for analyzing Saudi Arabia oil production data. Initially we think of considering integrated autoregressive moving average (ARIMA) models to fit the data. But most of the variables under study show some kind of volatility and for this reason we finally decide to consider autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (ARCH) models for them. If there is no ARCH effect, it will automatically become an ARIMA model. But the existence of missing values for almost each of the variable makes the analysis part complicated since the estimation of parameters in an ARCH model does not converge when observations are missing. As a remedy to this problem we estimate missing observations first. We employ the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm for estimating the missing values. But since our data are time series data, any simple EM algorithm is not appropriate for them. There is also evidence of the presence of outliers in the data. Therefore we finally employ robust regression least trimmed squares (LTS) based EM algorithm to estimate the missing values. After the estimation of missing values we employ the White test to select the most appropriate ARCH models for all sixteen variables under study. Normality test on resulting residuals is performed for each of the variable to check the validity of the fitted model. / ARCH/GARCH models, outliers and robustness : tests for normality and estimation of missing values in time series -- Outlier analysis and estimation of missing values by robust EM algorithm for Saudi Arabia oil production data -- Selection of ARCH models for Saudi Arabia oil production data. / Department of Mathematical Sciences

The history and archaeology of the oil and gas industry has received little attention in cultural resource management. The sites of early exploration activity are being destroyed rapidly due, in part, to the fact that field archaeologists and historians have not been educated on the scientific and historical importance of this industry to the American culture. This thesis is an attempt to begin the education process. The document begins with an overview of the historical developments on a national level and in the State of Wyoming. Attention is then focused on the physical remains that can be found in the field with guidance on the identification, interpretation, and evaluation of the remains. The thesis concludes with the development of research, designs and avenues of future inquiry.

The giant Pascua Au-Ag-Cu high-sulphidation system is located in the El Indio belt in north-central Chile, and is hosted mainly by Triassic granitic rocks and locally by Miocene breccia bodies. Hydrothermal activity involved two distinct high-sulphidation alteration stages, the later of which was accompanied by main stage mineralization. The early hydrothermal activity consisted of extensive and pervasive advanced argillic alteration, local development of vuggy silica and distal argillic to propylitic alteration. This alteration was locally overprinted by an intermediate stage comprising argillic alteration, silicification and primary jarosite, more or less contemporaneously with the formation of Brecha Central, the main breccia body in the deposit. The superimposed second major hydrothermal event produced significant advanced argillic and vuggy silica alteration. The latter likely formed at pH near 0 owing to the limited buffering capacity of previously altered rocks. Termination of the second stage of alteration coincided with the main Au-Ag-Cu mineralizing event, in which Au dissolved in pyrite and enargite, formed inclusions in these minerals, and precipitated as isolated grains of native gold. Detailed EPMA and SIMS imaging and analyses of pyrite and enargite show that both contain Au, Ag, As, Cu, Se and Te and that their distribution is crystallographically controlled. The main trace element associations in the mineralized pyrite are As-Ag, Au-Cu and Se-Te. I suggest that the first two, As-Ag and Au-Cu, were the result of coupled substitution in the Fe site, whereas Te and Se replace S by direct anion exchange. The nature of the coupled substitutions observed in the gold-bearing pyrite underlines the fact that gold is not necessarily coupled with arsenic as previously thought and that arsenic can behave as a metal in the structure of pyrite. Approximately 55% of the gold in the deposit was scavenged from mineralizing fluids that were mainly under-saturated with respect to native gold and trapped into the structure of pyrite and enargite (50 and 5%, respectively). The remaining 45%, including - 7% as inclusions in sulphides, precipitated mainly in the form of native gold with lesser calaverite for which the gold depositional mechanism is interpreted to be an increase in pH that destabilized AuHS and AuCb". Substantial late-stage Ag-enrichment, characterized by halogen-bearing phases, is evident in the upper parts of the deposit and overprints previous alteration and mineralization. The silver enrichment event is interpreted to represent the waning stage of the hydrothermal system. Secondary leaching and weathering of pyrite, enargite and alunite created two supergene products, one dominated by secondary soluble sulphates such as voltaite, massive coquimbite, chalcanthite, and romerite, and one by jarosite. Abundant sulphides in vuggy silica altered rocks, which lacked the capacity to neutralize later oxidizing fluids, were the main locus of formation of the soluble sulphates. Elsewhere, the pH likely rose above 1, which inhibited precipitation of soluble sulphates and favoured formation of jarosite. Direct-ion SIMS images and trace element analyses of soluble sulphates indicate that these minerals likely contain gold in their structures.

No description available.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [127]-130). / Microfiche. / ix, 130 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This is the first academic study of well costs and drilling times for Australia???s petroleum producing basins, both onshore and offshore. I analyse a substantial database of well times and costs sourced from government databases, industry and over 400 recent well completion reports. Three well phases are studied - Pre-Spud, Drilling and Completion. Relationships between well cost factors are considered, including phase time, phase cost, daily cost, rig day rate, well depth, basin, rig type, water depth, well direction, well objective (e.g. exploration), and type of completion (P&A or producer). Times and costs are analysed using scatter plots, frequency distributions, correlation and regression analyses. Drilling times are analysed for the period 1980 to 2004. Well time and variability in well time tend to increase exponentially with well depth. Technical Limits are defined for both onshore and offshore drilling times to indicate best performance. Well costs are analysed for the period 1996 to 2004. Well costs were relatively stable for this period. Long term increases in daily costs were offset to some extent by reductions in drilling times. Onshore regions studied include the Cooper/Eromanga, Surat/Bowen, Otway and Perth Basins. Offshore regions studied include the Carnarvon Basin shallow and deepwater, the Timor Sea and Victorian Basins. Correlations between regional well cost and well depth are usually high. Well costs are estimated based on well location, well depth, daily costs and type of completion. In 2003, the cost of exploration wells in Australia ranged from A$100,000 for shallow coal seam gas wells in the Surat/Bowen Basins to over A$50 million for the deepwater well Gnarlyknots-1 in the Great Australian Bight. Future well costs are expected to be substantially higher for some regions. This study proposes methods to index historical daily costs to future rig day rates as a means for estimating future well costs. Regional well cost models are particularly useful for the economic evaluation of CO2 storage sites which will require substantial numbers of petroleum-type wells.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2007. / Thesis Advisor(s): Looney, Robert. "December 2007." AD-A475 762. Description based on title screen as viewed on January 18, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-76). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Published also as Thesis (LL. D.)--Catholic University of America. / "Table of cases cited" p. ix-x. Includes bibliographical references (p. 129).