International Oil Companies Research Articles

Rotational Work and Negative Impact on Mental Wellness: A Study on Sleep and Endurance among Oil and Gas Workers

The impact of mental wellness on the work performance and wellbeing of workers has generated much academic and corporate debates. Most recently, due to some high-profile cases involving the performance and wellness of sports people, conversations around the impact of mental wellness on work performance have dominated public discourse, yet the nature and degree of this impact has not been sufficiently studied and analysed and many questions remain unanswered. Indeed, there has been a growing awareness of the centrality of the role of mental wellness in the productivity of workers, especially in the Oil and Gas industry. Thus, this research sought to investigate how rotational work, its impact on sleep and endurance, affect workers in the Oil and Gas industry, using as methodology a simple random sampling of workers from the Port Harcourt metropolis, in the oil-rich delta area of Nigeria. To obtain data, this research used questionnaires, telephone interviews and cohort discussion session. Questions posed during this research focused on sleep and its perceived effect on endurance. The questionnaires were administered to the workers from selected international Oil and Gas companies located in Port Harcourt. Findings revealed that both sleep and the circadian cycle were negatively affected and impacting the self-reported well-being and productivity of the workers. From the data collected, 27.5% and 66.2%, which represented a total of 93.7% of the respondents, agreed and strongly agreed that their sleep was affected. 100% of the participants in the cohort session agreed that their sleep was affected. Furthermore, the interview sessions revealed specific details as more than 50% of the interview respondents indicated that the sleep distortion affected them even up to the first week of their time off. 48.8% and 37.5% agreed and strongly agreed to the fact that rotational work had effect on their endurance on site. This represented a total of 86.2% of the participants whose endurance level was affected due to rotational work. Over 60% of the participants in the cohort session admitted to feeling of extreme tiredness towards the end of their rotation period and prior to departure from site. The participants unanimously submitted that shorter rotation would give room for adequate recuperation and make work more productive and enhance the sense of mental wellness for rotational Oil and Gas workers.

Sustainable Recovery: The Multiple Benefits of Collaboration

The oil and gas industry is recovering along with the health situation and the world’s economy following one of the largest downturns in its 160-year history caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. What comes ahead brings its own challenges. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group 1 contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, published in August, highlighted the “widespread and rapid acceleration of climate change,” with the 1.5°C threshold reached as early as the end of this decade. The dramatic weather events around the globe this summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) with historical temperature records on the North American Pacific Coast and in the central and eastern Mediterranean regions, and huge fires impacting those regions and others such as Siberia, were a reminder that the transformation is occurring now. In this context, the energy mix that the world uses today needs to evolve to a more rational use through energy efficiency and with a lower carbon content, starting from the use of coal. The oil and gas industry has been pioneering the development of technologies such as carbon capture and underground storage and blue hydrogen. International oil companies and national oil companies rank amongst the largest technology investors in renewables and energy storage. Renewables also have a strong potential in applications such as steam injection. Collaboration among the industry and with other peripheral sectors will be an essential ingredient to accelerate the transformation of the energy sector. I personally started in the oil and gas industry more than 4 decades ago in research and development (R&D) with a large oilfield service company, where I led a team of scientists investigating hydraulic fracturing. One of the projects was related to acid fracturing, which required the injection of a viscous non-Newtonian pad to fracture the formation and keep the fracture open, followed by acid which had a much lower viscosity. The two-fluid displacement inside the fracture led to an instability called viscous fingering. In order to understand the phenomenon, we put together a very diverse team, comprising a mathematician, an astrophysicist, a physicochemist, and a geologist. The team was unable to initially work well together and collaborate. The breakthrough came when a high-level scientist from Boston University, a specialist in critical phenomena, was added as a catalyst to the team. Within a few months, the team managed to develop and validate a model for viscous fingering using diffusion-limited aggregation and fractal theory, and its work was published in Nature and the American Physical Society’s Physical Reviews Journals. The team then developed a new set of models for wormholes created by the injection of acid through matrix acidizing and fracture acidizing which were used to create the required chemistry to ensure effectiveness of the treatments. I remain convinced that if we had not included the diversity of the skills and used a catalyst for collaboration, we would not have cracked the research code so rapidly.

On management evaluation of oil-gas industry enteprises in modern economic condition

The article shows the history of the oil industry in our country and its current situation. Since the establishment of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) to date, a number of successes have been achieved, especially since the launch of a new oil strategy in our country. Thus, during the years of independence new oil and gas fields were discovered, modern technologies were mastered, new agreements were signed with international oil companies, qualified human resources were developed and other achievements were made. International financial reporting and risk management in oil and gas industry enterprises were assessed. The application of the advanced work and projects mentioned in the article has shown that SOCAR has also strengthened its position in the international financial market and benefited from new banking products. As a result, oil and gas industry enterprises with international financial reporting have a favorable investment climate, which allows for efficient management of competitive production. Keywords: oil-gas industry; enterprise; development; management; finance; report; riscs.

Corporate social responsibilities of international oil companies as a panacea to conflict management in selected host communities in southern Nigeria

The study examined corporate social responsibility and management of Oil-related conflicts in South-South Nigeria. The CSR was seen as rooted in the relationship between employee, business and State-social relationship. The aim of the study is to examine the level of relationship between the oil companies and the host communities. Objectives to Investigate the CRS programs carried out by IOC’s in the host communities, Ascertain the significance of CSR as conflict management strategy by IOC’s to the host communities, Evaluate the factors affecting the implementation of the CSR by some IOC’s in the region. The population of the study area was 2,358,000. The Taro Yamene formula for sample size determination was used to arrive at 400 for the study of the 27 host Communities. Three core oil producing States were selected. Out of these three State, three Local Government areas and three communities each based on their oil producing capacity. Data collection was semi-structured: questionnaire interviews, focused group discussion. Secondary data was by reports, books, and journals. Descriptive tool such as frequency, mean, standard deviation, tables and maps was used to answer research questions. The statistical tool for hypothesis testing was independent T test. The study revealed that frequent conflicts in the study area have been characterized by the relationship between Oil prospecting Companies and their host communities; a close look at the conflicts shows that most of such have direct or indirect link with IOC’s, as a result of inadequate CSR management. Some recalcitrant cash-in by way of vandalism, etc., others through legitimate agitations. The impacts of a supposed sustainable development of oil and gas exploration in the area is hitherto environmental degradations, e.g. effluents, unemployment, lack of social amenities, non-inclusion. The study recommended a practicable participatory paradigm shift, where planning with the Community will be mainstreamed.

Corporate social responsibilities of international oil companies as a panacea to conflict management in selected host communities in southern Nigeria

Corporate social responsibilities of international oil companies as a panacea to conflict management in selected host communities in southern Nigeria

International Comparison of Nigerian Petroleum Fiscal Regime with the US, UK and Norway: A Real Option Analysis on Deepwater Projects Investment

Given the mission of the international oil companies which is to find, develop, refine and market hydrocarbon resource in a fashion that achieves the highest economic returns to the owners coupled with the competitiveness of attracting international investment capital, it follows then that oil producers would give priority to oil provinces or regions with economically attractive petroleum fiscal regime that could aid their mission. The relationship between taxation of mineral resources and investment attraction for efficient recovery of hydrocarbon resource has been established by compelling theories. However, the fact that the behavior and effect of fiscal regime on investment decision are not apparent without detailed economic analysis makes empirical analysis imperative. Thus, this study investigated the economic efficiency and competitiveness of international petroleum fiscal regime using real option analysis in Gulf of Guinea, Gulf of Mexico, and the North Sea with sampled Petroleum Fiscal System in Nigeria, The United States, The United Kingdom and Norway. The economic impacts of the fiscal regimes were estimated by real option analysis methodologies for Large and small new oil fields development. Three future oil prices of $30, $45 and $60 per barrel were considered for the economic analysis. For large oil fields, under the worst case oil price of $30 per barrel, the post-tax option values per dollar investment were $0.67, $0.95, $0.54 and $0.60 respectively for Nigeria, The United States, The United Kingdom and Norway showing the United States as preferred investment destination for international investors. However, for a small oil field, Norwegian fiscal system promises better returns than any of the other oil provinces particular during adverse operating conditions.

A Norwegian Oil Company Could Play a Key Role in Brazil’s Gas Transformation

Equinor could play a critical role in Brazil’s drive to boost its economy by opening up its gas markets. The Norwegian oil company operates two huge deepwater blocks with enough gas to lower prices in the country where big users pay some of the highest prices in the world. The development plan for one of those blocks, BM-C-33 in the Campos Basin, would deliver an average of 14 million m3/d of gas—about 15% of the country’s gas demand on a high-consumption day, which is about 92 million m3/d, based on data from Rystad. A second project in the heart of the presalt, Bacalhau, could become a model for how an international oil company can market gas successfully in the country’s richest oil play, the Santos Basin presalt. The gas potential in that play is also huge; the gas/oil ratio is high compared with other Brazilian fields but has largely been untapped. So far, Equinor and its partners in the projects have not committed to developing gas on either lease, but Equinor appears to be seriously considering doing so. The big question it needs to answer is what the gas market there will look like in a year or so. Brazil has set out to promote domestic gas supplies by ending Petrobras’ virtual monopoly in the pipeline business in favor of a less-regulated, competitive gas market. Equinor avoided gas sales at Bacalhau with an $8 billion Phase 1 plan that will use the popular practice of reinjecting produced gas. Gas reinjection maintains reservoir pressure and allows the development to comply with Brazil’s ban on routine flaring. Brazil’s energy regulator, ANP, said that when Equinor develops a plan for its second phase of development, the company needs to con-sider gas production. The role of gas market pioneer is the latest technical challenge taken on by Equinor in Brazil. Previously, it became the operator of an offshore heavy-oil field—Perigrino—and an aging giant—Roncador—both in the Campos Basin. While the Norwegian company has not promised to take on that role, it has a huge incentive to do so as the operator of Block BM-C-33, where most of the reserves are in the form of gas. The resource is estimated at 3 Tcf of gas and 700 million bbl of condensate, according to Offshore Technology. Equinor and its partners Repsol and Petrobras have developed a plan that would move the liquids by tanker from the platform, which is in water as deep as 2900 m, and build a pipeline about 200 km from there to shore. When asked about the status of the project, Geir Tungesvik, senior vice president for project development at Equinor, said the company is working to “improve the business case.” A Potential Case Study Tungesvik’s bland description fails to reflect the risks and uncertainties faced by those trying to put together offshore gas marketing plans in Brazil. If Equinor and its partners go forward with their plan to monetize that massive gas reserve, the result is likely to be a case study for those who follow. It could either be a model for successful development or a cautionary tale.

Отечественные и международные показатели производственного травматизма и профзаболеваний, используемые при реализации нефтегазовых проектов

The article provides the analysis of applying of the production traumatism and occupational diseases indicators in the projects of Russian and international oil and gas companies. The advantages and disadvantages of the main indicators were considered. The application features in occupational risk assessment and a possibility to compare the occupational safety level in different companies were discussed as part of implementation of oil and gas projects. While investigating the international indicators, an assessment of application possibility of these indicators was presented in terms of the current aspects of the accident statistics in domestic companies. The regulations and criteria of the occupational risk indicators system development in oil and gas companies were designed. The article offers the list of indicators to provide sufficient information for assessment of occupational health and safety conditions in the company and to develop risk response activities.

Assessment of Influence of Process Safety Culture on Employee Attitude towards Violations in Selected Petroleum Companies, in Niger-Delta

The study examined Influence of Process Safety Culture on Employee Attitude towards violations in Selected Petroleum Companies, Niger-Delta. A descriptive cross-sectional oilfields based study. Study utilized non-probability sampling method combining purposive, convenience and quota sampling techniques. Purposive sampling is centred on the intent or purpose of the study. The research was a descriptive cross-sectional study, the population was made up of a sample size of one thousand workers of the processing unit of ten selected International Oil Companies (IOCs) and Local Oil Companies (LOCs) selected by convenience sample techniques. The study adopted Regression analysis for testing and modelling the research hypothesis. Before carrying out regression analysis, multicollinearity was checked to know if it is good fit for regression analysis on SPSS IBM 20 version. Outcome of the test shows that; regression analysis was acceptable because the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) of the checked multicollinearity was 1.000 which means there was no awkward multicollinearity. This study adopted the 95% confidence level and 0.05 significance level. The study discovered that process safety culture influences employees’ attitudes toward violations in Oil and Gas industries with positive coefficient of standardized coefficient(β) of 0.397 and p-value 0.000 less than the significance level 0.05 and t-statistics being 12.354. It is recommended that ways to motivate employees to adopt the safety habit should be adopted and may be done using the carrot and stick method propounded by Abraham Maslow. Management must learn to choose the most suitable approach to motivate employees to abide by the safety expectations of their organisation. Awards can be given at the end of every quarter to the most safety conscious employee or acts of recognition or even monetary rewards. For employees who do not obey safety rules when positively motivated, penalties, fines, punishment.

Optimizing Production and Improving Well Accessibility With Expandable Technology

Collapsed tubing occurs when external pressure outside the casing is greater than the pressure inside. There are several circumstances which can lead to a collapse, including high pressure outside the casing during operations such as cement squeeze, pressure testing in the annulus, and when the mud level inside the casing drops due to a loss of circulation. The well location within the rock formation can also have an impact on the potential for collapsed tubing. Seismic activity can cause significant damage to the casing and tubing so careful well design and strict operating procedures are essential to reduce the risk. When the issue does occur, it can create a significantly restricted area in the wellbore and often results in failure to gain access below the collapsed area in a wellbore. This, in turn, can cause extensive nonproductive time (NPT) to remediate the issue. Planned drilling or intervention work is halted, and production may be deferred. In the most severe instances when the casing collapses the well is completely abandoned. While the industry continues to focus on enhancing hydrocarbon recovery from existing wells, these operations must remain economically viable. Therefore, preventing and resolving well integrity and access issues have never been more important. With advancements in expandable technology, it is now possible to reform the restriction in a tubular, enabling the inner diameter (ID) to be opened. This allows for either reinstatement of production back to surface or access to equipment below, permitting operators to resume operations with minimal NPT.Coretrax recently deployed its ReForm wellbore repair tool when an international oil company experienced collapsed tubing in a remote well off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The solution uses hydraulic pressure applied at surface to reform collapsed, oval, or restricted tubulars. Overcoming Traditional Limitations During drilling and production activity, tubing and casing are exposed to a range of axial loads and temperatures as the operator utilizes various methods to reach, and then extract, hydrocarbons from the well. In drilling activity, mud losses can often be encountered through thief zones which leads to a lower mud level. With the consistent pressure outside the casing, the collapse resistance can be affected, resulting in full collapse in the wellbore. Swaging is a conventional and widely used method of repairing collapsed tubing. The process involves a series of swages run downhole to gradually open the collapsed area. It can be done with specialized swage packers or with a hydraulic expandable swage. Both methods provide a bond to the existing casing once properly prepped. The technique can take a significant amount of time to open the area due to the number of different swages required. Each time a larger size is needed, the operator must use significant rig time to trip out of hole. While it can have successful outcomes for repairing damaged areas of well casing or screens for example, due to the weight required in the pipe to swage, this procedure is not suitable for shallow or lateral wells.

Consolidating Peace in the Niger Delta for National Development in Nigeria: Rising Beyond Tokenism

This study attempts an investigation into oil politics and other related issues that have generated security crisis in the Niger Delta region, which made peace to elude the people over the years. For decades, peace in the Niger Delta remains a mirage because of the violence and counter violence unleashed by the different stakeholders in oil production in the Niger Delta. While the militants in the Niger Delta resorted to kidnapping of expatriates, oil theft, and the destruction of oil installations of the international oil companies to register their grievances against the Nigerian state and international oil companies over the debilitating development conditions in oil producing communities, the Nigerian state had militarized the region to maintain law and order in the oil producing areas in order to secure oil installations of the international oil companies which were targeted for destruction by the militants who felt the federal government and oil companies have not done enough to improve the living conditions of the people. To pacify the Niger Delta people and to ensure seamless oil production in the region, the federal government introduced some initiatives and created different Commissions such as the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, increased derivation formula in revenue allocation to 13 percent and the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission to engender peace and development in the region. In recent times however, the federal government in furtherance of its commitment to resolve the Niger Delta crisis created the Ministry of Niger Delta and equally granted Amnesty for repentant militants with a view to re-integrating them back to the society in the interest of national peace and development. Except for Amnesty Programme which introduced relative peace in the Niger Delta, which itself failed to address the root causes of underdevelopment, all other initiatives have not engendered development and lasting peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. These initiatives and Commissions were simply tokenism as they failed to fundamentally, reposition the region on the path of sustainable growth and development. However, in generating data for this research, both primary and secondary data were used for analysis. The primary data were obtained from questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions carried out in Bayelsa and River states. The study concluded that peace and development is possible in the Niger Delta if conscious and deliberate efforts are made by the government and international oil companies to improve the lots of the people who bear the devastating consequences of oil production in Nigeria.

Enhancing Internal Operational Capabilities: Interplaying Top Management Commitment and Leadership Agility Development

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between top management team (TMT) commitment and leadership development on agile leaders as part of enhancing the operational capabilities of the upstream oil and gas sector. This study adopted a quantitative method with a total of 175 participants from national and international oil companies in Indonesia. Based on the structural equation modelling analysis, the research indicates that leadership agility development has a significant impact on agile leaders, and it has a key role in operational capabilities. TMT commitment has an insignificant impact on agile leaders. Future studies should examine the other consequences of the insignificant variables.

Occurrence, distribution and composition of marine mammals in the bight of Bony, Nigeria

Information on the distribution, occurrence and population structure of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) of the Atlantic coast of Nigeria in West Africa remains fairly sparse to date, with few detailed studies being conducted on this valuable marine resource. This paper highlights the abundant cetacean community sighted in the Nigerian coastal waters and the respective importance of this area as a prime coastal habitat for these mammals. The secondary objective was the evaluation of this resource and development of appropriatemanagement policies. Opportunistic data was collected on board six different marine vessels belonging to some international oil companies (IOC) in Nigeria, whose primary objective was to conduct seismic operations. 8,327 hours and 36 minutes of effort was logged during 2 wet and 3 dry seasons respectively, covering almost 880 km2 at a depth range of 10 to 70 m. The total number of individuals recorded was 2199 of which 80% were dolphins and 20% were whales. Out of these, 55.14% was sighted at depth range of 21 – 30 m. This was followed by 30.42% recorded at depth range of 31 - 40 m. The least frequency of 0.75 % was recorded at depth range of 61- 70m. Five hundred and twenty-five (525) individual whales was recorded, out of which 77.14% were adults and 22.86% were juveniles, while 1674 individual dolphins were recorded with 52.63% juveniles and 47.37% adult. Four species of dolphins were identified. The bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus was the most abundant owing to the large size of the groups observed, followed by common dolphin, Delphinus delphis. All species of dolphins identified occurred throughout the sampling months. Two species of whales were identified with the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) predominant and killer whales (Orcinus orca) which seem to be present in just a part of a year. Nigerian coastal water is moderately rich in cetacean diversity, which is currently underreported due to limited research.Keywords: Whales, dolphins, species diversity, opportunistic surveys, Nigeria.

IMPACT OF PRODUCTION SHARING CONTRACT PRICE SLIDING ROYALTY: THE CASE OF NIGERIA’S DEEPWATER OPERATION

Petroleum fiscal regime has been a controversial issue in Nigerian economy. The basic issue is which regime will lead to the greatest benefit to the government without negatively affecting the performance of the international oil companies. Nigeria has in the past used different regime and had adopted the current price sliding royalty regime in 1996. The aim of this study is to examine how the new price sliding royalty affects the stake of government and contractors. This study adopts ex-post research design approach using data from various sources between 1980 and 2019. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) regression approach was adopted for the data analysis. The unit root results reveal that the time series data consists of a mix of I(1) and I(0) variables. The ARDL bound cointegration test shows that all the variables specified in the models have long run relationship. Estimates from the models indicate that the royalty regime in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract has positive and significant impact on the stake of government in the long and short runs, but negative impact on the stake of contractors. Furthermore, the royalty regime has negative impact on contractors’ performance in the long run. However, the impact on the three fiscal indicators (oil revenue, government expenditure, and deficit-GDP ratio) is positive. The study therefore recommends the repeal of the Nigerian petroleum fiscal policy with the new price sliding royalty to encourage investment and development of the petroleum sector.

Comments: Growth in Battery Storage Sparks Chase for Metals

Natural gas is considered the fossil fuel to facilitate the transition from hydrocarbons to lower-emissions energy sources such as renewables. Wind and solar projects factor significantly into major international oil and gas companies’ goals of achieving net-zero emissions in the future. For example, both BP and Royal Dutch Shell intend to reach net zero by 2050. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts total installed wind and solar PV capacity is on course to surpass natural gas in 2023 and coal in 2024. This represents progress toward the achievement of the 2050 goals. However, wind, solar, and hydropower, which together account for about 90% of all renewable-electricity generation, are largely dependent on variable weather conditions. And the variability in weather translates to an undesired variability in availability and reliability. For wider adoption, utility-scale batteries are needed to store energy for use when a light breeze barely whispers, or the skies are cloudy. Battery-storage projects are not a new concept, but their recent growth is notable. Although California is the global leader in the deployment of high-capacity batteries, news from other parts of the world offers indicators of progress. In 2020, global installed energy-storage capacity totaled 173.6 GW, including pumped-hydroelectric, compressed-air, advanced battery-energy, flywheel-energy, thermal-energy, and hydrogen-energy storage systems. The US had 0.74 GW of rated-power battery-storage projects based on lead-acid, lithium-ion, nickel-based, and sodium-based batteries. A Tesla subsidiary, Gambit Energy Storage LLC, is currently constructing a 100-MW+ battery-storage facility in Angleton, Texas, about 40 miles south of Houston. It is expected to become operational 1 June. Elon Musk (best known for his Tesla electric vehicles and SpaceX) launched a 100-MW lithium-ion battery project in South Australia in 2017 adjacent to a wind farm. Soon to become a “hot(ter)” commodity will be the lithium, rare earths, and other minerals needed to build the batteries. The global lithium and cobalt markets rallied in January and February in response to the resurgence of demand for electric vehicles (EV) in Europe. Last year, sales in battery EVs and plug-in-hybrid EVs in Europe outpaced those in China. Adamas Intelligence reported that the second half of 2020 saw a global 205% increase in battery cobalt deployed, a 192% increase in battery lithium deployed, and a 135% increase in battery nickel deployed vs. the second half of 2019. Investors and companies are chasing this potentially lucrative sector. Startup DeepGreen Metals, whose partners include Maersk and Allseas, aims to mine the deep sea for battery metals and on 4 March announced an agreement to merge with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corp. to list on the Nasdaq. Cornish Lithium, holding rights to explore for lithium within geothermal waters in areas off the north and south coasts of Cornwall, UK, recently signed on MarineSpace to help it begin its desk-based exploration program to identify potential geological targets for later research. Physical exploration work is not expected for at least 4 years.

Deep oil. Offshore deposits of the Gulf of Mexico

This article continues a series of reviews of the worlds oil and gas basins, where active exploration and development of hydrocarbon deposits in superdeep (6 km +) horizons are taking place, as probable analogues of projects in the Caspian megabasin, primarily the Eurasia project. In this regard the Gulf of Mexico is of great interest, since this region is very well studies over such a long history of its development and thus makes it possible to analyze a huge amount of data collected during this time.
 The Gulf of Mexico includes the deep-water, offshore and coastal parts of three countries the United States, Mexico and Cuba, and is one of the most important oil and gas provinces in the world. Its deposits are represented by various complexes from the Middle Jurassic to modern sediments, with a total thickness of 14,000 m and more. Exploration for hydrocarbons has been going on here for almost 100 years. During this time, various new technologies have been developed and successfully applied, such as forecasting abnormally high reservoir pressure, cyclostratigraphy and seismic facies analysis, characterization of low-resistivity productive reservoirs and the search for ultra-deep hydrocarbon deposits.
 Of all the variety of objects developed in the Gulf, in the context of the study of deep deposits, the main interest and possible associations with the Caspian megabasin are the deposits of the Norflet Formation of the Upper Jurassic, which are discussed in the main part of this article. Of course, we are not talking about a direct comparison; in particular, the aeolian origin of part of the section makes this object significantly different. Nevertheless, according to the authors, studying it, as well as understanding how a successful project for its development is being implemented right before our eyes, can provide a lot of important information for working in the deep horizons of the Caspian region.
 The article is divided into two parts. The first examines the geological history of the formation of the Gulf of Mexico Basin, the features of the deep-lying productive complex of the Norflet Formation. The second part provides information about the history of exploration of the Norflet productive complex, characteristics of the main discoveries, as well as the prospects for discoveries of new superdeep deposits in the Norflet Formation within the Gulf of Mexico (sectors of the United States and Mexico). Analysis of the history of the development of this complex by the global player Shell, is very important, as one of the scenarios for the development of deep horizons in other oil and gas basins, incl. Caspian. International Oil Companies are able to mobilize the necessary resources and technology to effectively address this challenge.

NEGOTIATION ON NATURAL RESOURCES

The host government (HG) of resource-rich countries (RRC) dealing with multiple International Oil Companies (IOCs) faces a choice between making a simultaneous multilateral offer and a sequential bilateral offer on equity shares from resource value. Provided that the HG treats all its foreign partners in a simultaneous negotiation as a single entity, it is argued that the HG is predicted to gain a higher equity share from a simultaneous multilateral bargaining deal than from a sequential bilateral one with each player. Furthermore, we argue that in case of positive weak externality from a sequential bilateral game, HG would still prefer a simultaneous multilateral game due to superadditivity and efficiency properties of grand coalition.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY AND FIRM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM INTERNATIONAL OIL COMPANIES IN NIGER DELTA

This study examines the relationship between environmental responsibility and financial performance of international oil companies in Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In pursuance of this, a sample of twelve (12) international oil firms was used for the study. Secondary data were obtained from the audited annual financial reports of the selected companies and Federal Ministry of Environment covering the period of 2009 to 2018. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, panel causality test and fixed effect, selected as the appropriate strategy after using the Hausman test. Based on the data analysis, the study reveals that there is a bi-directional relationship between environmental responsibility and firms’ financial performance. The study further reveals that there is a positive relationship between environmental responsibility and firms’ financial performance. When environmental responsibility interacts with corporate governance, the impact is found to have a significant positive relationship with firms’ financial performance. The study also finds that growth opportunities and firm size are positively and significantly related to firms’ financial performance. Based on the findings, the study recommends effective regulation, strong institutional mechanism and good corporate governance structures to enforce or engender environmental sustainability and compel firms to adopt the culture/strategy of sustainable finance. Such strategy will alleviate the curse of dependency and poverty that comes with the destruction of the environment and the means of sustenance of the people in oil producing communities.

Big data intelligent platform and application analysis for oil and gas resource development

With the rapid improvement of exploration and monitoring technologies, the oil and gas industry has accumulated a large amount of data in the fields of seismic exploration, logging, production, and development. How to transform the huge “data resources” into “data assets” and fully utilize data and tap their real value to better serve society is a main concern in the oil and gas industry today. Therefore, the oil industry needs to complete the industrial upgrading of “Smart Oilfield” through digital and intelligent transformation. In recent years, the rise of big data technology and artificial intelligence have allowed international oil companies and oil service giants to accelerate the construction of digital and intelligent oil fields. The overall framework of the big data intelligent platform of oil and gas resources should be based on data resources with big data platform computing power as the support and artificial intelligence algorithms as the core. To meet the production needs of the oil and gas industry, it is of great urgency to build an oil and gas data resource pool that integrates exploration, development, and production data. The data quality can be improved via data cleaning and fusion. Physical simulations, data mining, and other approaches should be combined to achieve the modularization of service functions. Additionally, the goals of intelligent monitoring, early warning, and display on multi-dimensional platforms such as PC, control screen, and mobile apps can also be achieved. The analysis of artificial intelligence methods such as deep learning in the context of the oil and gas industry shows that these methods have good application prospects. In the future, oil companies should work together with scientific research institutes to tap the huge potential of oil industry data, achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase, and build a new smart oil and gas industrial ecosystem to complete industrial upgrading.

Origins of the African Offshore Oil and Gas Cooperation Milestone: The Nigeria – São Tomé & Principe Regime

This paper aims at identifying and explaining the design principles of the joint development regime between Nigeria and São Tomé & Principe, analysing the subsequent dynamics – the nature of cooperation – generated by the regime's design. In order to fulfil its objectives, it shall start by explaining the applicable socio-legal research methodology, then continue with the analysis of the case study, finishing with the relevant conclusions. Characterized by large oil reserves, low development capacity, international oil companies appetite, and corrupt governments, this work depicts Nigeria and São Tomé e Príncipe as large oil reservists with potential but low development capacity, resulting in a dyad of international oil companies keen on offshore development and corrupt governments looking to exploit it. On the other hand, recognition of the offshore development potential in their overlapping claim zone and international oil companies’ pressured the States to improve their political governance, developing on both countries the decision to achieve an international development regime (JDZ) proven profitable for both countries in many ways – not only economic.