Foreign Oil Companies Research Articles

Local content and participation in Ghana's oil and gas industry: Can enterprise development make a difference?

In 2013, a local content law was passed with the purpose of promoting internal and external linkages between Ghana's oil and gas sector and the broader economy. An Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) was established to enhance the capacity of indigenous Ghanaian firms and promote their participation in the oil and gas industry. This study examines the forms of linkage the EDC project promotes. Drawing on Bourdieu's distinction between social, cultural, economic and symbolic capital, different aspects of and ways of enhancing local entrepreneurial capacity are examined. It finds that the EDC facilitates interaction between local entrepreneurs, officials of state institutions and foreign oil companies, which enhances local entrepreneurs’ knowledge of the oil and gas sector and provides enterprises with an entry point. However, it is argued that only a few well-established medium to large-scale Ghanaian enterprises are able to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the EDC project to expand their operations. The majority of relatively new and small businesses are still unable to gain entry.

End of the Concessionary Regime in Mexico

End of the Concessionary Regime in Mexico By Mario Pulido On March 18, 1938, President of Mexico Lazaro Cardenas formally announced his Expropriation Act, expropriating the property of several oil concessions in Mexico. Among the companies that were expropriated were Standard Oil of New Jersey, Mexican Eagle, and Royal Dutch Shell. This thesis will address questions regarding what caused this change, what was predicted to happen, what actually happened, what the consequences were for Mexican foreign relations, and in the aftermath of the nationalization, asking if it was a general success. I argue that the main reason that caused the nationalization was the mistreatment of the Mexican oil workers by foreign oil companies. I move on to discuss that shortly after the nationalization, Mexico was predicted to collapse by the companies that were expropriated. Instead, Mexico saw prosperity from catering to its own domestic market and providing a new national identity with its then new state-owned oil company, Pemex, which stemmed from a sense of economic freedom and liberation. I also argue that Mexican foreign relations were embittered, but restored shortly after 1941 with World War II inevitably approaching. Finally, I argue that despite the embitterment the nationalization initially caused, it was a general success. Here, I define that success was achieved by kicking out foreign oil interests that were mistreating and underpaying Mexican oil workers.

Oil and Governance in Uganda

Many critical governance issues were created with the discovery of major oil deposits in Uganda. Because developing countries like Uganda lack strong institutional foundations, it is widely assumed that riches flowing from oil will result in huge sums of money being diverted to politicians while the country ends up worse off in the long run. Uganda certainly faces this “natural resource curse,” but the potential for corruption is only one of many governance issues arising from the potential of oil riches. The government needs to work effectively with foreign oil companies and neighboring countries to recover and transport the oil. It must also establish institutions and procedures to manage its new oil economy. Moreover, questions must be answered regarding ownership the oil producing lands and how the fragile environment of the country can be protected.

Innovation in a Small State: Qatar and the IBC Cluster Model of Higher Education

Innovation in a Small State: <scp>Q</scp>atar and the <scp>IBC</scp> Cluster Model of Higher Education

Production Sharing or Joint Venturing: What Is the Optimum Petroleum Contractual Arrangement for the Exploitation of Nigeria Oil and Gas?

Over time, stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry have been experimenting different contractual arrangement with the view of coming up with a best contractual arrangement for the industry. However, any shift from one contractual arrangement to another may affect the revenue generation position of the government and investments potentialities of the foreign oil companies. Similarly, the growing concern ranging from challenges of sustainability to transparency and accountability of transactions in the industry put the contractual arrangements on which the industry operates under question. Therefore, this study is aimed at finding out which among joint venture (JV) and production sharing contract (PSC) is optimal for exploitation of the Nigerian oil and gas industry in terms of economic rent, transparency and accountability derivable from the contract. Using contractual elements, pattern-matching and content analysis was used as the main techniques in analysing data. The results of the study have proved JV optimal in terms of economic rent, while PSC was found optimal in terms of accountability and transparency. On the overall, the results proved JV as optimal for the stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The study recommends government to place more emphasis on JVs in the industry, increase efforts towards fight against corruption in its agencies and officials, and increase the disclosure requirements of both its agencies and other operators in the industry particularly on those aspects of the processes that are more prone to corruption. Lastly, the FOCs operating in the industry should embrace and implement internationally acceptable good industry practices.

Analisis Kualitatif Nilai Ekspor Migas Indonesia Dan Kepemilikan Blok Migas Oleh Perusahaan Asing Di Indonesia

The post conference of Time Life Corp in Geneva and the enactment of the Foreign Investment Act of 1967, foreign corporations began to exploit oil and gas in Indonesia. At first, the foreign corporation only managed the upstream oil and gas business. However, the oil and gas Act number 22 of 2001 made the foreign corporations do the business in the downstream sector. Data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral showed that there was 69.9 percent of foreign domination in the Indonesian oil and gas industry. Other data showed that the value of exports of oil and gas in Indonesia decreased by the end of July 2013. The existence of these two phenomena of economic resources made the author try to examine the relation between the ownership of oil and gas blocks by foreign companies and the level of oil and gas export value in Indonesia using qualitative methods with critical paradigm. As a result, the number of oil and gas companies in Indonesia was influenced by the attitudes and government regulations, the state of technology and state of the Indonesian economy. The low value of oil and gas exports was as the result of exporting crude oil price with lower pricecompared to that of processed oil. The existence and the number of foreign oil companies influenced the level of oil and gas export value of Indonesia. The more dominated growing number of foreign companies in Indonesia, the less export value of the Indonesian oil and gas would be.

Modifying theLibyan fiscal regime to optimise its oil reserves and attract more foreign capital part 1:LEPSA Iproposal

AbstractThe currentExploration andProductionSharingAgreementIV(EPSA IV) has deficiencies that militate against increased capital investment inLibya's petroleum industry. This paper proposes an improved technique for determining the equity split called the ‘share equation’. The proposed share equation would simplify the Libyan fiscal regime and will provide an incentive for foreign oil companies to invest more during the contract period by raising their percentage share of production when they increase their capital expenditure. More capital expenditure will lead to increasing the recoverable reserves and will subsequently improve the oil recovery for individual fields and for the entire country. The share equation will change the percentage share of production automatically with any change in the oil price. It will increase the percentage share of production of theLibyanNationalOilCorporation when the price goes up, and increase the percentage share of production of the foreign oil companies when the oil price goes down. Furthermore, the share equation takes into consideration the probability of success in each of theLibyan basins. The foreign oil companies will get an increased reward when deciding to take more risks by exploration in unknown basins such as theKufra basin andCyrenaica platform. But, the share equation will eliminate the restrictive parameters likeAandBfactors, base factor andRratio in the currentEPSA IVmodel. This proposal for modifying theLibyan fiscal oil regime aims to increaseLibyan oil reserves and attract more foreign capital. By giving more flexibility to the foreign oil companies, theLibyan oil sector will get more contributions of foreign capital and technology. This will improveLibyan oil production and increase the remaining oil reserves. We call this new agreement theLibyanExploration andProductionSharingAgreementI.

Niger Delta Pollution- A Tragedy of the Commons

Niger Delta has been an ugly centre of oil exploration and production for decades in Nigeria by different multinational oil companies. The biodiversity rich wetland is grossly polluted without definite stand as to who bears the responsibility of its pollution. Foreign oil companies and the indigenous operational towns had traded blames as to the major polluter of the operational environment. While oil industry places emphasis on sabotage, the indigenes implicate the faulty standard operating procedures, equipment failures and lack of functional environmental plans and templates for the safety of the operational ecosystems by the multinational oil companies. This short editorial looks at the pollution of this sensitive dynamic ecosystem of Niger Delta based on the earlier theory of Garrett Hardins Tragedy of the Commons that shared environmental resources are overused and eventually depleted at the expense of all other users. The paper while commenting on the sharing quota systems of the environmental resources and negative externalities, portrays that instituting a legal structure that rewards all the citizens for stewarding the common-property resource will effectively address the environmental and social costs which have far-outweighed the benefit of oil production.

Expectations of future income and real exchange rate movements

We show that changes in expectations of future income driven by exogenous factors (such as the discovery of oil and an increase in global demand for natural resources) can cause movements in the real exchange rate (RER) in excess of, and sometimes even in the opposite direction to, what one would expect given the changes in current income. We provide both a theoretical model and empirical evidence of this. In particular, we show that the signing of numerous production sharing agreements (PSAs) between the government of Azerbaijan and foreign oil companies in 1994–1998 fueled expectations of higher future incomes, resulting in a considerable appreciation of the RER. Some of these PSAs subsequently failed or ran into difficulties, which led to a downward revision of expected future income and a depreciation of the RER in 1999–2003, even though the current income started to rise, due to an increase in the current oil revenue.

Научно-технические соглашения в концессионной системе Норвегии в 70—90 годах ХХ века

This article is devoted to the formation and use of research and technology agreements in Norway, which had positive influence on the development of relations with foreign oil and gas companies during the period of formation of the Norwegian oil and gas industry. On the basis of archival documents, this article considers Norwegian experience of conclusion of research and technology agreements in order to provide transference of the latest technologies of exploration and oil and gas production to national oil and gas companies during the formation of the Norwegian oil and gas industry. The author comes to a conclusion that Norway has made significant scientific and technological progress through promoting active cooperation with foreign companies. Norway’s successful experience could be applied by the Russian state authorities in order to develop relations with foreign oil companies that could take part in offshore exploration in the Russian Barents Sea through concluding similar agreements between Russian state institutions and foreign oil and gas companies, which can give impetus to the development of the technological component of Russian oil and gas sector. Research and technology agreements have been used by Norwegians in order to diversify the economy and prevent excessive dependence on the energy sector, which is one of the major challenges faced by Russia.

Application of Organic Inclusion in Hydrocarbon Exploration

Inclusion as a research method was mainly applied in the study of mineral deposit geology in the beginning. In recent years, organic inclusion research has become one of the important means in hydrocarbon exploration. The study of the inclusion can determine the role of diagenesis and reservoir of time and temperature, infer hydrocarbon migration, tectonic movement and paleo-heat flow history, in order to better guide hydrocarbon exploration. This paper mainly discussed research method of hydrocarbon inclusions type and oil and gas inclusion, and summarizes the inclusion of the fracture structure used to study and hydrocarbon accumulation relations, determines the gas accumulation time, evaluate hydrocarbon, calculate fluid potential, predict oil and gas accumulation zones, and other aspects of the role. Inclusions found early, at first is mainly applied in the study of mineral deposit geology. Since Marray (1957) discovered larger hydrocarbon inclusions in quartz especially[1], in the 70 s, with the development of oil geochemical, the minerals fluid inclusions in the oil field geological research has been widely used. G. m. Gigashvili and v. p. Kalish in 1977 are the first to report the use of mineral inclusions as the hydrocarbons containing hydrocarbon migration of physical and chemical condition of fluid of the index. At the beginning of the 80's, the technology has already been foreign research institutions and oil company are widely used in reservoir the diagenesis of research and oil and gas exploration [2,3,4]. China has begun to set up in the 1960 s, the early main inclusions laboratory to research various metal hydrothermal ore deposits in the ore-forming temperature and the composition of the ore-forming fluid. ShiJiXi (1985,1987) will fluid inclusions method is used to study the carbonate formation of China and the thermal evolution degree, division of hydrocarbon generation evolutionary stages, according to package the body type, distribution, homogenization temperature, salinity, gas organic composition various inclusions observation and analysis data put forward the carbonate hydrocarbon source rocks and oil and gas reservoir has performance evaluation method and hydrocarbon index[2,5,6]. In petroleum exploration, through[[ First Author: Huiqing Liu (1980－), male, doctoral students, Major: mineralogy petrology mineralogy,E-mail:liu8935959@163.com]] the study of the sandstone reservoir formation of diagenetic minerals fluid inclusions, and combining with the chip observation to judge whether have oil and gas migration to reservoir, and oil and gas accumulation of time, ancient geothermal, formation water such as the salinity has a very important significance

Exxon-Venezuela arbitration dispute: next steps and impact on future investor-state disputes under ICSID

The ongoing arbitration dispute between ExxonMobil and Venezuela over the expropriation of the Orinoco oil fields has received a great deal of attention due to the large financial stakes and the aggressive stand taken by Exxon. Exxon won a significant victory in this process in 2010 when the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes accepted jurisdiction over the dispute, which placed Exxon in an excellent position to receive a favourable judgment given its strong argument on the merits. However, Exxon’s likely victory before the ICSID Tribunal does not guarantee ultimate success in bringing Venezuela fully to account. This article examines the uncertainty that recent ISCID annulment panel decisions have injected into the process and the further difficulties which Exxon may face in seeking to satisfy an award. With determined opposition from Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, I find that Exxon still has a difficult road ahead despite its clear claim for compensation, and that this difficulty has consequences for the ICSID process as well as for the general environment for international oil and gas investments. In the 1990s, the government of Venezuela, in a process which became known as the Apertura (‘opening’), opened up the country’s oil fields to foreign investment. This process was undertaken in an attempt to increase production and to gain access to advanced foreign technology. Since the nationalization of the country’s oil industry, the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) had slowly fallen behind technological developments in the industry as foreign firms were unwilling to invest in a country with a repeated history of nationalizations. Due to this history, the terms which Venezuela offered during the Apertura were generous. The Association Agreement (AA) undertaken by Exxon was one of four major projects to develop the extra-heavy oil fields in the Orinoco belt. 1 Such contracts were larger in scope and technical difficulty, requiring initial investments from the foreign oil companies of several billion

Legal Strategies in Upstream Oil and Gas Contracts to Attract Foreign Investment: Iran's Case

Legal Strategies in Upstream Oil and Gas Contracts to Attract Foreign Investment: Iran's Case

Transfer of Technology in Oil and Gas Contracts

Transfer of Technology is one of the significant issues in oil and gas contracts. At one side petroleum developing countries are concern about controlling and operating of all phases of their industry’s operation which in turn, has led to their awareness of the need to acquire at least an adequate understanding of the related technology. As it has been mentioned in a study prepared by UNCTAD secretariat, without some mastery of oil technology, petroleum developing countries can not ensure, for instance that their exploration efforts are adequate and that production rates are consistent with their national interest and oil requirements. Moreover where the size of the prospective reserves is not large enough to be economic and attractive for the international oil companies to invest in, but perhaps large enough for domestic or local consumption the domestic technology and basic skills of the countries concerned might be the only way to use the potentialities. At the other side, referring to old concession contracts, the physical and temporary imports of the machinery and the equipment and skilled expatriate personnel, have been sent back to the countries where they have come from or are maintained on the job as long as is necessary, without any effective transplanting of the know-how involved to the recipient countries. Even in the case of proper and permanent transfer of technology, it seems essential to remark that there is a genuine divergence of interests between the developing petroleum countries and the International or foreign oil companies which have most important role in developing and investing in the developing petroleum countries oil and gas industry. “It is fundamental to the understanding of the transfer of technology to appreciate that development of the local technological capacity is not in the interest of multinational corporations.” In fact, notwithstanding the issue of the least amount of necessary and basic technology needed for exploration and operating a profitable oil or gas project, transfer of technology is a costly and time consuming process for an international oil company or any other investor, but the more significant part of fact is that technology in general and oil and gas industry’s technology, in our case, is a valuable good which can be monopolized by limited number of companies. Thus transfer of such a precious technology in full can decrease the importance of those companies as a sole supplier of such an economically vital technology for petroleum developing countries. It may lead to an economic and technological competition in this regard and again decrease the dependency of petroleum developing countries to international oil and gas companies which is per se and increasingly profitable for such companies. Apart from the problems mentioned above, usually, certain amount of vagueness, beyond the normal political and some times economic problems which may arise, cast shade on the transfer of technology; the substance of transfer of technology or a real transfer of technology, the capacity of developing petroleum countries for absorption and adoption of required technology, the various channels for transfer of technology in oil and gas industry and the suggested alternative ways. With these initial considerations as a background, we will attempt to compare transfer of technology through different oil and gas contracts, with consideration on Iranian Oil Buyback Contracts, to find their problems and make some suggestions for improvement of transfer of technology through oil and gas contracts. For this purpose this article proposed in three main chapters to investigate the issue; in the first part we will try to clarify the concepts of “Technology” and “Transfer of Technology” For the purposes of this essay, in two distinct parts. In the second chapter, we will discuss “Transfer of Technology through Oil and Gas Contracts” as one of the main legal arrangements through that petroleum industry technology has been transferred in three sections. Third chapter relates to the Alternative Channels for the Transfer of Technology in Oil and Gas Industry apart from the traditional ways in the oil and gas contracts. We will also discuss this chapter in three sections. Finally we will conclude with due regard to all above mentioned issues.

米州における超重質油開発

While it is becoming more and more difficult to find new conventional oil fields, the importance of extra-heavy oil in Venezuela and bitumen in Canada has been increasing. Recently, there were two remarkable events occurred in Orinoco development in Venezuela. One is the reserve evaluation project based on inter-government agreements. Some groups have created joint venture companies with PDVSA to enter into development phase after the reserve evaluation work. The other event was the first competitive bidding for Carabobo area development. Two projects were awarded as a result of the bidding process including the project led by Chevron with the participation of JOGMEC, Mitsubishi Corporation and INPEX Corporation. Orinoco development has an advantage over oil sand development in Canada in terms of lower production cost because cold production is the standard method due to relatively low viscosity of oil. However, the severe and unstable investment climate in Venezuela is making it difficult for foreign oil companies to invest in big projects. The development of oil sand in Canada will grow steadily if high oil price continues and appropriate measures are taken to minimize environmental impacts such as carbon dioxide emission, land damage and byproduct disposal. The development of extra-heavy oil in Orinoco, Venezuela can be called as “Frontier” even though certain improvements in investment environment are required to encourage new project startups.

Calculated risk: The advance of IOCs and NOCs into the Iraqi investment theater

Although at times still quite painful, Iraq is experiencing widespread positive growth in its efforts to rebuild its country and economy. Because significantly increased production from its oil and gas fields is the only path to sustainable economic development, it is likely to occur despite the obvious challenge sets. The results of the first and second Petroleum Licensing Rounds demonstrate that the leaders of Iraq realize that they cannot reach their production and revenue goals without the capital and expertise of the International Oil Companies and National Oil Companies. Many foreign oil and gas companies have made the calculation that the potential rewards of investing in Iraq outweigh the risks and have entered into Technical Service Contracts that, while far from ideal for either party, provide the framework for the development of Iraq’s energy resources and infrastructure. There is still much to be played out - which will likely occur in dramatic and sometimes tragic fashion - and the short-term investor is advised to pursue other options. However, as was suggested in Caveat Investor, there is sufficient rationale for a long-term investment in Iraq that can pay dividends to both the host country and its foreign investors. The risk metrics in Iraq are indeed complex and variable, but they are mitigated in large measure by the unique level and types of support that the country receives from governments and NGOs from around the world.

Oil and Armed Conflicts in Africa

Popular geopolitical representations of oil in Africa conjure up images of corrupt politicians, disgruntled populations, and predatory foreign oil companies: a volatile mix that would supposedly keep African “petrostates” locked in armed conflicts. This article queries these geopolitical narra, and offers a different perspective: while several countries—such as Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Sudan—have indeed experienced long and deadly conflicts, African oil-producing countries have not, on average, been more frequently at war than non-oil producers. The article explores this perspective by reviewing the main arguments linking oil and armed conflicts, providing a brief overview of conflict trends, and identifying some of the major conflict risk factors. These factors should inform future risk assessments for African oil- producing countries, while motivating further research considering broader forms of violence and their geographies.

North African oil and foreign investment in changing market conditions

Abstract Since the 1960s, the experiences of the North African oil producers of Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan within the oil industry have followed separate paths, which have led them into different relations with foreign oil companies. While reflecting broader trends of “resource nationalism”, these relations have also been affected by a number of factors specific to these countries. In tracing the evolution of the oil investment frameworks of these countries, as well as their concomitant relations with IOCs, this paper probes the roles played by these factors and argues that the type and size of remaining reserves as well as the capability of NOCs are likely to determine the most future developments in the region's oil industry.

Managerial Organization in the CIS Region: The Case of Azerbaijan Oil Market

This article focuses on how foreign managerial structure could affect a local company, and refers to the oil market of Azerbaijan. Although Azerbaijan got independence from Former Soviet Union (FSU) the country still uses Soviet system of managerial structure in the governmental organisations. In this article we reviewed and analysed the difference in the managerial structures of foreign and local oil companies: the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan republic (SOCAR) in comparison with British Petroleum (BP) and STATOIL. These two companies had shares in the same projects together with SOCAR in Azerbaijan and represent major shareholders in total national production. Our conclusions indicate that in Azerbaijan oil companies might be practicing European managerial structure, which is improved and has a proved worldwide known system. By worldwide system we meant practicing of improved managerial structures, International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) standards, which are unavoidable divisions of the construction projects.

China’s New Security Strategy for Africa

In December 2008, the Chinese Navy deployed three warships into the Gulf of Aden. This operation is not just a key moment in the development of China's blue-water navy, but also demonstrates China's growing willingness to secure its economic interests in Africa. The question is how successful this policy will be. The deeper China ventures into the resource-abundant African continent, the more it stumbles upon various security challenges. It is obvious that the People's Republic of China (PRC) desires to be Africa's most prominent economic partner. It is also unmistakable that the PRC is swiftly gaining diplomatic leverage. What is less clear, however, is how it will respond to the perils that lie ahead. Throughout history, most external powers for whom Africa's mineral wealth became indispensable to their industrial growth backed up their economic forays with a projection of military might, to suppress local resistance in their dominions or defend their realms from imperialist competitors. The dispatching of forces to Africa derived from the desire to reduce vulnerability while not having to rely on others. (1) Now China has achieved a stage of economic development which requires endless supplies of African raw materials and has started to develop the capacity to exercise influence in most corners of the globe. The extrapolation of history predicts that distrust and uncertainty will inevitably lead the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to Africa in staggering numbers. In application of the self-help paradigm, China is expected to confront security challenges autonomously, while keeping other powers at bay. This article provides an overview of recent security challenges and the ways in which China has been adapting its security policy, then discusses what China's options are for the future and to what extent unilateral military action in Africa is feasible. Security Challenges There are several sources of uncertainty regarding China's aspirations in Africa. Chinese mining activities often fall prey to endemic instability and violence in economic partner states. Since 2004, several Chinese companies have been in the frontline of internal conflicts. In 2004, rebels abducted Chinese workers who were working in southern Sudan. (2) In April 2006, a separatist movement detonated a car bomb in the south of Nigeria, warned that investors from China would be treated as thieves, and threatened new attacks on oil workers, storage facilities, bridges, offices, and other oil industry targets. A spokesperson for the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta condemned China for taking a $2.2 billion stake in oil fields in the delta. (3) In July of that year, violent protests erupted at the Chinese-owned Chambisi copper mine in Zambia, resulting in five deaths and severe material damage. In November, Sudanese rebels launched three attacks on Chinese oil facilities and briefly seized the Abu Jabra oil field close to Darfur. (4) In January 2007, five Chinese telecommunications workers were kidnapped by gunmen in the oil city of Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria. Two weeks afterward, another nine Chinese oil workers went missing after being attacked by an armed group in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. (5) A month later, four assailants raided a Chinese stone plant in Kenya and killed one Chinese employee. (6) In April 2007, nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopian oil engineers were killed during an assault on an oil exploration site operated by SINOPEC's Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an ethnic Somali group, kidnapped and later released seven Chinese men. The ONLF has repeatedly warned foreign oil companies to leave the region bordering Somalia. In 2008, the Chinese government organized the evacuation of 212 compatriots from Chad to Cameroon after clashes in N'Djamena, Chad's capital. In the seas around Africa another risk looms. …