Corporate Portfolio Management in NOCs: The Implementation Dilemma in Real-Life Business

Abstract

Abstract One of the key strategic directions in Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) 2040 vision is the optimization of the portfolio to capitalize on opportunities and rationalize non-core and unprofitable assets. In this context as conventional low risk oil assets are becoming more mature, compensating for the associated oil production requires building a new efficient portfolio with new higher risk opportunities for filling this future gap. KOC as a National Oil Company (NOC), will have to work within the boundaries of available resources established in the National Development Plan (New Kuwait 2035) which sets the nation's long-term development priorities focus on diversified economy to reduce the country's dependence on oil export revenues in an environment with increasingly limited resources. A robust corporate portfolio management framework is necessary for dealing with a combination of existing assets undergoing operations and new opportunities that shall mature to become projects or programs related to tertiary recovery (EOR), production optimization (IOR) and development of non-conventional assets, all of which have higher uncertainties, risks and total cost per barrel. KOC 2040 vision identified four strategic dimensions that focus on delivering an efficient corporate portfolio: processes, operating model, organization structure and capabilities. The corporate portfolio management will have to deliver the maximum value prioritizing the opportunities, considering internal constraints on capabilities and resources, standardizing governance processes and then maturation of selected opportunities with sufficient subsurface definition (Front End Loading), for business capital investment decisions. The portfolio management will be assisted by unified models in economics, risks, reserves, production and capital allocation. Achieving the efficient corporate portfolio will require the preparation of a Master Change Management Project which will address the four strategic dimensions. Implementing this master change management project in an NOC, will face resistance or hesitation because of a deeply rooted culture. This paper proposed a framework to implement corporate portfolio management in KOC that can accommodate the challenges and align the processes with incremental changes across the dimensions instead of disruptive changes. The proposed framework allows the combination of several strategic objectives with certain economic values to produce the efficient portfolio by: 1) adapting current processes to worldwide best practices for opportunity assessment, including improved reservoir management practices as a fundamental step to identification of optimal opportunities that add value in the corporate portfolio, and 2) application of capable software to reduce complexities to manageable levels. As there is not a general corporate portfolio management model that can be replicated across oil companies, this paper is a contribution to resolve the implementation dilemma in real-life business, particularly for NOCs.