An Agglomeration Benefits of Oil and Gas Firms: An Exploratory Study Through Industrial Cluster

Abstract

The research investigates the agglomeration pattern of seven national, international oil and gas extraction and production companies through an exploration of oil and gas cluster components and subcomponents.For this exploratory study, data is collected through primary sources via in-depth interviews from managers of national and international oil and gas MNCs working in Sindh, Pakistan and through secondary sources ofbusiness reports. The content analysis is adopted to analyze the data. Results of this study reveal that there is strong existence of exploration and production companies which results in agglomeration, however, other components of oil and gas cluster like refineries, marketing companies, supporting institutes, media and government poorly exist in Sindh province of Pakistan. Findings also highlight that the Sindh as a resource-rich region is still underdeveloped due to poor management of resources or because of the absence of ideal oil and gas cluster components and coordination among them in the region. _________________________Keywords:Agglomeration, Oil and Gas sector, cluster components, regional development Sindh, Pakistan.INTRODUCTIONPakistan is rich in oil and gas reserves that can sufficiently help to accelerate the economic growth of the country (Haque and Arif, 2007).According to Akbar (2005), Pakistan is the country which mainly depends on oil and gas resources for their energy consumption. Since the 1980s, the country's crude oil consumption is greater than the production. The average crude oil production in the year 2013 is 51.32, and its consumption is 285.38 barrels per day, respectively