Yes / A mature oil field rescaled contraction describes a switch to a technological alternative more appropriate for the depleted state of an underlying resource. Off-shore oil rigs are an illustration, since the original technological scale designed for very large output flows becomes inappropriate as the operational efficiency declines later in life and facing a dwindling output flow, so a more appropriate extraction technology becomes economic. A real option representation is formulated on a stochastic oil price and deteriorating output volume. We consider investment/divestment decisions both separately, and jointly, which have different implications for government policies and also option values. The resulting model yields analytical (or semi-analytical) results indicating that immediate switching to the lower cost technology could sometimes be hastened as the price volatility increases, depending on the current revenue, if divestment and switching are considered jointly. However, greater volatility could also promote hysteresis.

Submitted by Daniella Maia Gomes (daniellamaiag@gmail.com) on 2015-09-02T14:50:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_DaniellaMaiaGomes_vfinal.docx: 341003 bytes, checksum: 57bc56688ca256dba229a86c97027614 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by GILSON ROCHA MIRANDA (gilson.miranda@fgv.br) on 2015-09-22T13:29:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_DaniellaMaiaGomes_vfinal.docx: 341003 bytes, checksum: 57bc56688ca256dba229a86c97027614 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-09-28T16:43:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_DaniellaMaiaGomes_vfinal.docx: 341003 bytes, checksum: 57bc56688ca256dba229a86c97027614 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-28T16:43:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_DaniellaMaiaGomes_vfinal.docx: 341003 bytes, checksum: 57bc56688ca256dba229a86c97027614 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-29 / The iron ore market has gone through a period of stress in recent months. The slowdown of Chinese investments in infrastructure resulted in a negative outlook for the demand of this commodity. At the same time, the beginning of operations of new projects with significant production output increased the supply of this product. This scenario resulted in the decline of the iron ore prices in the global market and diminished returns to the mining industry. In this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the managerial flexibility available to managers of operating mining companies to suspend or close the operations depending on the iron ore prices. These decisions will be studied through the Theory of Real Options, where the switching option will be applied in the suspension and reopening situations for the mine and the abandonment option will be applied on the closing situation. The stochastic process to be followed by the iron ore prices will be the Geometric Brownian Motion, implemented through a Binomial Model as proposed by Cox, Ross and Rubinstein (1979). The result of the work proves the value of real options studied and indicates that these real options are more valuable in stress scenarios, when the iron ore price is undervalued. / O mercado de minério de ferro tem passado por um período de stress nos últimos meses. O arrefecimento dos investimentos chineses em infraestrutura resultou em perspectivas negativas para a demanda dessa commodity. Paralelamente, a entrada em operação de novos projetos com volume de produção relevante aumentou a oferta desse produto no mercado. Essa conjuntura de fatores resultou na queda do preço do minério de ferro no mercado mundial e em um cenário de retornos reduzidos para as mineradoras. Nesse contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo é avaliar a flexibilidade gerencial, disponível aos administradores de mineradoras operacionais, de suspender ou fechar o empreendimento dependendo do preço do minério de ferro. Essas decisões serão estudadas através da Teoria das Opções Reais, onde a opção de conversão será aplicada na situação de suspensão e reabertura da mina e a opção de abandono será aplicada na situação do seu fechamento. O processo estocástico a ser seguido pelo preço do minério de ferro será o Movimento Geométrico Browniano, implementado através de um Modelo Binomial conforme proposto por Cox, Ross e Rubinstein (1979). O resultado do trabalho comprova o valor das opções reais estudadas e indica que essas opções reais têm maior valor em cenários de stress, quando o preço do minério de ferro está desvalorizado.