No description available.

No description available.

M.I.T. World Oil Project. / Research supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant no. SIA75-00739.

M.Phil. (Energy Studies) / South Africa has no commercially proven indigenous crude oil deposits. The country therefore follows a well formulated longterm energy policy to ensure a continuous and uninterrupted supply of transport fuels. The development of a very successful synfuel industry contributes to the national desire of maintaining a minimum level of self sufficiency in transport fuels. The Government also plays a supportive role in financing synthetic fuel projects from the Central Energy Fund. South Africa has abundant coal resources at a reasonable cost, as well as the offshore gas field near the coast of Mosselbay. The objective of this study is therefore to evaluate and compare the re1athe economics of certain direct and indirect coal liquefaction process routes, as well as the conversion of natural gas to transport fuels. The methanol option as a transport fuel is also addressed. Information for this study was collected mainly from the literature on this subject as well as Government institutions and private companies that are actively involved in the production of synthetic transport fuels. The primary conclusions of this study are: Synthetic fuel projects are capital intensive. The number of commercially proven options for the production of synfuels are limited to the well proven technology of the Sasol process, conventional methanol synthesis technology and to a lessor extent the Mobil methanol-to-gasoline technology. Accurate costs comparisons will therefore only be possible when more of the direct liquefaction options have been commercially demonstrated. Commercial realisat ion of the unproven technologies also involve enormous financial resources and a high risk. The Sasol synfuel option with the lowest thermal efficiency of approximately 42% requires the highest capital investment per ton or barrel of final product. The high severity direct processes (H-coal, Exxon-Donor-Solvent or EDS and the German Technology) as well as the Mobil-MTG capital investment follows, with the low severity and high thermal efficiency SRC-1 and SRC-2 process capital requirements the lowest, except for the very low,capital investment for a methanol synthesis plant...

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master's of Technology: Chemistry, M L Sultan Technikon, 1999. / Saturated long chain hydrocarbons, such as paraffin waxes, have a large variety of applications. These applications may, however, be restricted by certain properties of the wax such as brittleness and in compounding. Cross-linking of the long chains in waxes may provide improved physical properties and hence a wider application of these waxes / M

No description available.

The purpose of this research is to study and improve decision accuracy in the real world. Spot price prediction of petroleum products, in a budgeting context, is the task chosen to study prediction accuracy. Prediction accuracy of executives in a multinational oil company is examined. The Brunswik Lens Model framework is used to evaluate prediction accuracy. Predictions of the individuals, the composite group (mathematical average of the individuals), the interacting group, and the environmental model were compared. Predictions of the individuals were obtained through a laboratory experiment in which experts were used as subjects. The subjects were required to make spot price predictions for two petroleum products. Eight predictor variables that were actually used by the subjects in real-world predictions were elicited through an interview process. Data for a 15 month period were used to construct 31 cases for each of the two products. Prediction accuracy was evaluated by comparing predictions with the actual spot prices. Predictions of the composite group were obtained by averaging the predictions of the individuals. Interacting group predictions were obtained ex post from the company's records. The study found the interacting group to be the least accurate. The implication of this finding is that even though an interacting group may be desirable for information synthesis, evaluation, or working toward group consensus, it is undesirable if prediction accuracy is critical. The accuracy of the environmental model was found to be the highest. This suggests that apart from random error, misweighting of cues by individuals and groups affects prediction accuracy. Another implication of this study is that the environmental model can also be used as an additional input in the prediction process to improve accuracy.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (February 23, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-66)

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1958 T38

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2017 / The study examined the relationship between oil price shocks, volatilities and stock indices in the African emerging markets. The ARDL and Bivariate BEKK GARCH models are used in this study. The countries examined are Botswana, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Tunisia, and the MSCI’s World Index. The study shows a bidirectional relationship between oil price shocks for Nigeria and the MSCI, but unidirectional flow from oil price shocks to Botswana, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, and Tunisia. In addition, there is evidence of unidirectional volatility spill over from oil returns to Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Mauritius and Kenyan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana. Finally, the study found bidirectional volatility between oil and index returns in MSCI, South Africa, and Tunisia. / MT2017