Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY / Bibliography: leaves 49-54. / by Roberta Dean. / M.S.

O presente trabalho aborda a questão da interligação de poços de petróleo às plataformas de produção com a utilização de embarcações do tipo Pipe Laying Support Vessels (PLSVs). O objetivo do estudo é a maximização da curva de produção de óleo no período analisado, o que passa pelo melhor aproveitamento da frota de PLSVs contratada. São consideradas as especificidades da situação como, por exemplo, as restrições técnicas de cada embarcação para as atividades necessárias, a disponibilidade dos PLSVs, materiais para interligação e a já ocorrência da fase precedente, denominada completação. Considerando todo este conjunto de características do problema, desenvolveu-se uma formulação de Programação Linear Inteira Mista com pontos inovadores em relação à literatura, especialmente no que diz respeito ao incremento da curva de produção por conta da operação de poços injetores e ao declínio natural de poços produtores com o passar do tempo. Como os resultados obtidos nos testes da formulação matemática mostraram-se satisfatórios para pequenas instâncias, mas de alta complexidade computacional para um número grande de atividades, foram elaboradas duas versões de uma heurística construtiva adequada para a resolução de problemas de maior porte. Levando em consideração as mesmas características do problema que foram usadas na etapa de formulação matemática, puderam ser elaborados os algoritmos e suas devidas programações computacionais. A partir disso, foram realizados testes de pequeno porte para verificar a robustez dos algoritmos quanto aos seus comportamentos. Por fim, houve a comparação do caso completo, onde foram aplicadas as heurísticas, com o que ocorreu na situação real, tendo o resultado deste presente estudo apresentado um relevante ganho. / This research presents a real case of connection of oil wells in subsea environment to the production platforms with the use of ships of the type PLSV - Pipe Laying Support Vessels. The objective of this study is to maximize the oil production curve in the horizon considered, which is due to the best exploitation of the outsourced fleet. Specificities of the situation are considered like, for example, technical constraints of each vessel for the required activities, the availability of the PLSVs, materials for connection and the end of the previous phase, called completion. Considering all this set of the problem characteristics, it was developed a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulation with innovative aspects in relation to the literature, especially with respect to the increase of the production curve due to the operation of injector wells and to the natural decline of producer wells during their operation, in the course of time. As the results obtained in the tests of the mathematical formulation were satisfactory for small instances, but with a high computational time for a great number of activities, two suitable constructive heuristics were elaborated for the resolution of larger problems. Numerical experiments were conducted, in small scale, to verify the robustness of the algorithms. Next, the proposed methods were applied to a real case of an oil company and relevant gains were observed.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology could help reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. So far, CCS has failed to attract government support in the UK due to high costs of implementation. The broad deployment of CO2-EOR could aid the development of CCS by providing additional revenue streams for investors. The success of the CO2- EOR in the United States has raised the question of whether this success could be replicated in the UKCS. This thesis answers these questions by introducing two distinct models, which analyse the similarities and differences between the two oil provinces from the subsurface and economic perspectives. The first model integrates into the economic framework the behaviour of oil and CO2 in a reservoir. The model is applied to an oil field in the North Sea. It analyses whether the screening criteria developed based on the onshore US experience to screen for oil field candidates for the CO2 would be suitable for the oil fields in the UKCS. The second model is a theoretical CO2-EOR with storage model, which analyses how the inclusion of permanent storage changes the economics of CO2-EOR. The CO2-EOR with storage model allows for an endogenous switching point between the CO2-EOR and the permanent CO2 storage phase depending on the various economic factors, such as oil prices, sequestration subsidies and fees, CO2 price, and oil and gas tax rates. The CO2-EOR with storage model shows different behaviour compared to the case without permanent storage. On the policy level, the main difference between the two countries revealed that the UK strongly focuses on cutting CO2 emissions while the U.S. on boosting domestic oil production. Therefore, the third study in this thesis investigates the net carbon footprint of the CO2-EOR activity in the North Sea.

Although examination of the relationship between the media and crime has received considerable attention in the academic literature, only a few studies have examined news media coverage of environmental crimes. The present study examines print news media coverage of federal penalties assessed against the petroleum refining industry from 1997 to 2003. The Environmental Protection Agency initiated and/or settled 162 cases involving seventy-eight petroleum refining companies from 1997 to 2003. While a news search of the nations twenty-five largest newspapers produced seventy-four articles related to petroleum refining industry violations, only seventeen articles matched the EPA cases analyzed in the present study. The present study found that while there is a considerable amount of federal petroleum refining industry violations, only a few cases receive media attention.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosphy (PhD) / Over the last three decades there has been increasing pressure from stakeholders on businesses to be environmentally responsible. Business organisations cannot help but take this consideration seriously because it has a far-reaching impact on their very survival. This research is intended to bring insights into how and why a business’s management responds to environmental pressure from stakeholders. How a business responds to its stakeholders is known as environmental strategy. In addition, this study also investigates how proactiveness in implementation of each type of environmental strategy impacts on a business’s environmental effectiveness and competitive advantage. In Malaysia palm oil is the most important agricultural commodity in the country, and contributes substantially to the economy. Unfortunately, its activities are not without environmental costs. Deforestation, depletion of flora and fauna, excessive use of chemicals, air and water pollution are the results of the industry’s activity. But due to stakeholders’ pressures, the industry has embraced environmental management in its activities, albeit at a slow pace. Against this background, this study seeks to investigate the efficacy of corporate environmentalism, using a number of palm oil companies as case studies. This study is paramount as no such study has previously been conducted in Malaysia. The Malaysian palm oil industry offers an interesting case for studying corporate environmentalism in developing countries. Using a mixed-methods or triangulation of analysis of nine palm oil companies, which are listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, as case studies, this research investigates the environmental practices of the palm oil companies, and the relationship of these practices with stakeholders’ pressures, environmental effectiveness and competitive advantages. The results of the study reveal that three levels of overall environmental strategy are adopted by the participating palm oil companies. They are labelled by the researcher as minimalists - four companies; intermediators - two companies; and proactivists - three companies. The minimalists refer to companies that exercised the lowest environmental strategy, while the proactivists are those who exercised the highest environmental strategy. The intermediators are in the middle, that is, those companies that seem to be in the early stage of becoming proactivists, but have yet to achieve such a level. The proactivists were classified as those who exercised a proactive strategy, but both intermediators and minimalists exercised a reactive environmental strategy. In terms of the relationship between environmental proactiveness and stakeholders’ pressure it was found that the management of the more proactive companies tended to perceive a wider range of threats from environmental stakeholders compared with reactive companies. Apart from regulatory stakeholders, they also perceived pressure from primary stakeholders, especially their top management, as well as secondary stakeholders including ENGOs, competitors, and the media. On the contrary, reactive companies only perceived threats from regulatory stakeholders. Not only did proactivists differ in terms of stakeholders’ pressure, they were at the same time perceived to be more environmentally effective and to gain more competitive advantages than less proactive companies. Based on the research findings it seems there is a significant positive correlation between a proactive environmental strategy and both environmental effectiveness and competitive advantage among Malaysian palm oil companies. In this study measurement of the environmental strategies and environmental effectiveness was solely based on a triangulation of surveys (seven-point scale items) and in-depth interviews. In order to increase the validity of the study, future researchers need to triangulate these data with other quantitative data. For instance, at a company level, a company’s resources can be measured based on its financial statistics such as sales, net profit, return on investment, and the amount spend on research and development. Moreover, the environmental effectiveness of a mill can be measured in terms of monthly data of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), of palm oil mill effluents and Ringelmann Chart of air emissions, and the amount of money expended on de-sludging for certain periods of time. In both plantations and mills, future researchers can gather data related to environmental accidents, fines and court cases. The key findings of this research are instructive. The majority of the participating palm oil companies in Malaysia adopted reactive environmental strategies. Only a few adopted proactive environmental strategies, and they were more likely to exercise environmental practices at strategic and tactical levels such as top management involvement in environmental issues as well as deploying environmental management systems which mostly related to the bottom line of their businesses. Serious attention towards the destruction of the tropical rainforest as a result of their activities is lacking among participating companies.

This paper develops a framework that analyzes how mergers and acquisitions in Alberta’s oil and gas industry affect stock prices. In this experiment, a multivariate regression is applied to several industry-specific variables to determine if they have impacts on the abnormal stock returns of acquirers. The results show that abnormal returns 5 days prior to the public announcement of the transaction are, in fact, driven by several industry-specific variables. However, the returns immediately after the M & A announcements are similar to previous research done in other industries. Acquirers’ gains 2 days after the announcement are essentially unaffected by the transaction. After a 90-day period, the share performances of acquiring firms tend to beat the index by 7% on average, but this is not thoroughly explained by the variables in the regression analysis.

Critics often cite poor executive compensation schemes as one of the leading causes of the recent credit crisis. This paper investigates whether compensation structures at the end of the 2006 fiscal year created incentives for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in the oil industry to take on excessive risk, which subsequently may have lead to weaker firm performance during the crisis. I find no evidence to support the argument that higher pay sensitivity through option and other incentive awards lead to worse firm performance. In fact, results do not provide any evidence that company performance during the crisis was related to CEO incentives.

M. Tech. Architecture (Professional) / At present the South African olive oil industry is highly dependent on international imports due to local olive oil producers being unable to meet the local demand. The need for extra virgin olive oil has increased each year since people have become more aware of the health benefits of the product. This dissertation documents the design of an olive oil production facility near the foothills of the Draaiberg mountain range in the Touws River valley. Situated in close proximity to the Touws River railway station, the proposed architectural intervention responds to the current situation of neglected railway towns through the implementation of agri-tourism in the area. Public interest creates a platform for the market to educate the broader public about health benefits, which has caused a gradual, growth in the olive oil industry. This in turn shows that olive oil farms need a public interface, such as an information centre, a shop and tasting room to entice the consumer and create awareness of the quality level of olive oil South Africa has to offer. The aim of this thesis is to design an olive oil production facility, focusing on the production of extra virgin olive oil and relevant alternative products. The facility will not only function as an agricultural olive press for a private farming concern, but will also act as a community press facility to allow for continuous growth in the olive industry. One of the design objectives is to create a space for information and social interaction. The main building's size is informed by the size of the productive landscape and formulas were used to calculate the volume of oil produced per hectare. The production process can be followed by the visitor, giving rise to a linear building typology.

Iraq is one of the world’s major oil suppliers, and over ninety percent of its government revenues come from oil exports. Developing an oil management strategy that politicians from all sects and ethnic groups can agree on is therefore paramount to the future political and economic health of the Iraqi state. Yet the new Iraqi government cannot agree on a comprehensive hydrocarbons framework that would allocate oil ownership rights and share revenues eight years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. One major political battle preventing Iraq from developing its hydrocarbons industry is over the nature of federalism among all of the sects battling for oil wealth in Iraq. This paper focuses primarily on the issue between Kurds and Arabs, because the Kurds have actively promoted oil exploration. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is now a constitutionally-protected region, and has signed 37 production sharing agreement contracts with international oil companies. The federal government in Baghdad deems these contracts illegal. The KRG and Baghdad also cannot agree on the borders for the region, as both sides claim oil-rich Kirkuk. This paper analyses major developments in the KRG and Baghdad oil industries since 2003 and examines possible future scenarios for the country’s oil sector. Drawing on international lessons learned from other oil-rich divided societies such as Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates, the paper suggest that oil ownership and revenue allocation should be decentralized to reduce secessionist pressure. The paper concludes with recommendations that the government needs to not only take care of obvious issues such as resolving ambiguities in the constitution and passing comprehensive hydrocarbons legislation, but it also needs to address export agreements and institute measures to ensure transparency. The KRG needs to develop its own oil industry, complete with access to export pipelines, and should be allowed to keep a higher percentage of KRG oil revenue over its current 17%. Iraq needs international mediation to resolve issues on Kirkuk and should also make innovative changes to the structure of its national oil company. These changes will facilitate the proper investing of oil wealth for future generations of Iraqis. / text

Waste is one of the biggest problems in every European country. Formation of waste reveals technological level of a country and creates costs to a society from the economical and ecological point of view. In Europe waste is usually collected and loaded in dumps. Recently, amounts of waste burning are increasing. The effects of waste burning and dumps are obvious: during burning the pollution spreads to an environment, affecting global climate warming; also extremely toxic pollutants (dioxins and furans) and their volatile derivatives form. At present the major part of waste in Lithuania is taken to dumps. Most of dumps in the country do not satisfy even the environmental and sanitary-hygienic requirements. Stiffening the ecological requirements, applying directives of European Union, most dumps will be closed. The waste at the moment ending in dumps may be processed and recycled in future. The integrated application of local raw materials together with various wastes may solve many environmental problems in Lithuania and may affect positively the European ecological balance. To investigate the possibilities to apply the waste, causing the most problems in our country, to the production of building ceramics made of local easily fusible hydro-micous clays. To determine the most optimal quantities of additives such as oil industry waste (used catalyst of GP534 grade, Russia) and shredded rubber of auto tyres, to select the most suitable burning regimes, to analyse the... [to full text]