Kuwait Petroleum Research Articles

Time to pay the piper: Fossil fuel companies’ reparations for climate damages

Time to pay the piper: Fossil fuel companies’ reparations for climate damages

Development of Alternative Fuels in Europe Presents Opportunity for the Middle East

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 198165, “Alternative Fuels Development in Europe: Threat or Opportunity for the Middle East?” by Maarten Van Haute, Kuwait Petroleum Research and Technology, prepared for the 2019 SPE Kuwait Oil and Gas Conference and Show, Mishref, Kuwait, 13-16 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed. In December 2018, the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED) [European Union (EU)] 2018/2001 was implemented, establishing a new binding renewable EU energy target for 2030 of at least 32%, with a clause for a possible upward revision by 2023. The subtarget for renewable energy in transport was raised to 14%. The scope of the complete paper is limited to the 14% renewable energy target in transport and its possible effect on the Middle East. Introduction The first portion of the complete paper includes an extended discussion of the RED and definitions needed to appreciate its conclusions that the production and consumption of fossil fuels will be reduced gradually and replaced by renewable alternatives. This is an economically threatening situation for any country whose gross domestic product is dependent upon oil. The energy transition is a slow but steady process, so nations of the Middle East are reviewing their long-term strategies. Energy-transition and renewable-energy developments, however, may offer solutions and opportunities for these nations. Overview of Renewable Fuels Biofuels. According to the definition provided in the RED, biofuels refers to liquid fuel for transport produced from biomass. A delineation from crude oil is in order before these fuels are discussed in detail. One might consider crude oil a fuel from biomass, but, because the biomass is fossil and the process cannot be replenished within a human time scale, it is not considered renewable. Biomass used to produce biofuels is a mix of hydrocarbons that has high oxygen content and a limited amount and type of unsaturated hydrocarbons. The role of oxygen and unsaturated hydrocarbons (which are less stable) and the limited amount of hydrocarbon species are the biggest challenges for biofuels production. These feedstocks all need a pretreatment step to liquefy or gasify the hydrocarbons so they can be processed in a refinery. Many pretreatment options exist for different feedstocks under development. The RED makes a distinction between first-generation biofuels and advanced biofuels. The latter are those made of feedstocks that generally are waste-based or nonfood-based feedstocks. The allowed percentage of first-generation biofuels is capped. The supply of this first generation is not limited by availability or lack of conversion processes but rather by its competition with the food chain and vast deforestation. To achieve sustainability, the development of advanced biofuels, where the choice of feedstock and pretreatment and conversion technology is key, should be prioritized. Feedstocks will be at much lower volumes than crude and less consistent in quality, so the advanced-biofuels-processing industry likely will comprise many small bioprocessing units.

The impact of intellectual capital in organizational innovation: case study at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational innovation in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) through a case study at KPC on the employees of the corporation (The study population was 2,180 respondents and the sample size was 335 respondents).Design/methodology/approachThe statistical package for social science was used to analyze the data. While trying to explore the relationship between intellectual capital and innovation, the researcher used the descriptive analytical method and the case study methodology using various references, periodicals, internal and external documents and data, in addition to conducting a field study on a sample of employees of KPC, through a questionnaire form containing the axes that reflect the study variables.FindingsThere is a relative approval between the sample of the research on the existence of a good role for training in the corporation in terms of availability for all employees and the compatibility of training programs with the actual needs of employees, and linking the training paths and career paths for promotions in the corporation. The researcher attributed this to the employees' awareness to the importance of training and its role in raising their performance levels, and the awareness of the corporation to the importance of training and capacity building of the human element.Originality/valueThe research, in general, demonstrated the importance of human capital as the organization's most valuable assets, especially as it supports creativity and innovation, thus enabling competitiveness. The research stressed that human capital is the most important element in the formation of intellectual capital, which requires decision-makers to support it and give the intellectual and human aspects a strategic content that meets the needs to develop innovation and institutional education and to recruit systems and indicators to measure the performance objectively to achieve the goal of survival of the corporation in a competitive sustainable environment, through providing material and moral potentials that can support the implementation of organizational innovation at various levels.

Effect of Entrepreneurial leadership on Maximizing Competitiveness An Applied to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC)

Effect of Entrepreneurial leadership on Maximizing Competitiveness An Applied to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC)

Comments: Better Days for E&P

Editor's column After years of reined-in spending, major operators are beginning to cautiously loosen their E&P budgets. The crash in oil prices that began in 2014 caused operators to tighten capital spending across the board, but particularly on large upstream projects. Those cuts led to many prospective developments being delayed, downsized, or canceled. The largest publicly listed companies slashed spending by 40% after the downturn began. The reduction was so drastic that it caused the International Energy Agency (IEA) and some consultancies to warn that the world could face a supply crunch just a few years out because of the impact. Supply growth would stall if E&P spending by operators did not increase, the IEA warned in a report last year, and spare production capacity would drop to its lowest level since 2008 within 2 years. But now that oil prices have apparently stabilized, upstream spending is on the rise. In its latest US Oil and Gas Reserves Study, published this year, consultancy EY notes that the 50 largest US operators are increasing capital expenditures this year for the first time since 2014, and not all of it on shale. Spending is 32% higher than in 2016 and 5% higher than in 2015. Proved oil reserves for these companies increased 21% last year. In 2017, 32 major new developments were given the go-ahead, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie, and 18 had received approval by mid-year this year. National oil companies (NOCs) as well are seeing some budget relief with rising oil prices. But, as international oil companies have to hurdle the barriers of Wall Street, NOCs often face pressure from their governments for increased revenue when times improve. As did private companies during the downturn, NOCs slashed spending, sharpened efficiency, and cut costs during the downturn, leaving them in good shape to take advantage of current conditions. Both Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) have announced sizable upstream budget increases for this year. Many Middle East NOCs are investing heavily in the downstream as well. Saudi Aramco, KPC, Adnoc, and Qatar Petroleum are investing in refinery and petrochemical projects at home and abroad, particularly in Asia, to ensure long-term demand for their hydrocarbons. A boost to upstream confidence has been recent major discoveries. More than 2.5 billion bbl of recoverable reserves have been found in the deepwater Atlantic margin, says Wood Mackenzie. Among the largest are ExxonMobil’s Guyana development, discoveries in the US Gulf of Mexico by Shell and Chevron, and Eni’s find on the Mexican side of the Gulf of Mexico. The Liza complex alone in Guyana accounts for 15% of total conventional oil found since 2015. In addition, the Dorado-1 well in Australia has turned out to be a major gas and oil find. Another source of confidence is coming in the form of merger and acquisition activity. Transocean’s $2.7 billion bid for Ocean Rig in September could be a sign that the ultradeepwater outlook is picking up. US shale remains a bright spot, although infrastructure constraints are capping activity. Both Schlumberger and Halliburton warned in their second-quarter earnings reports that lack of infrastructure could hurt their activity and revenue in the region. Recent news reports indicate that those restraints may not be resolved until next year.

Application of formation water geochemistry to assess seal integrity of the Gotnia Formation, Kuwait

A very large database of formation water geochemistry has been acquired for the Kuwait petroleum system. This database makes it possible to explore the geological history of Kuwait’s formation and ground waters in a way that is not possible by other means. Working at this regional scale spatial and formational variation in groundwater chemistry in Kuwait identifies lithostratigraphy and physical barriers to flow that can be explored in the context of Kuwait’s geological history. Cretaceous oil reservoirs in north Kuwait have formation water saturated with Na (>50%) that is anomalously abnormal in salinity for its depth. The most likely subsurface source of such saline water is the Upper Jurassic Gotnia Formation which comprises beds of evaporite halite, and/or pre-Gotnia formations of deeper reservoirs. To reach their current location, both parts of the Gotnia and Hith formations must have been breached. To date, this is the only evidence to show that the sealing capacity of the Gotnia Formation has been overcome, implying that the formation, and therefore units beneath, are capable of sourcing fluids to younger and shallower reservoirs. Given the ubiquity of samples of formation water in many other regions, applying formation water geochemistry to other petroleum systems would appear a good method for evaluating basin models and understanding of fluid migration in mature petroleum provenances.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) estimation from Kuwait's petroleum refineries

a b s t r a c t A detailed study of carbon dioxide (CO2) sources from petroleum refineries in Kuwait was conducted. The aim was to estimate the amount of CO2 being emitted and determine the influencing factors on physical and chemical process in refineries. Three refineries were considered in this work, processing around 900 Mbpd of crude oil. Process heaters stacks constituted 62–75% of the CO2 emissions, ranking at the top of the sources. Hydrogen production (HP) units via steam-methane reforming ranked seconded in the final assessment, ranging from 12% to 25% in the studied refineries. The configuration of the refinery was determined to be a critical factor in such work. The properties of the processed oil, in terms of density, sulfur content and API were essential in comparing results obtained in this work to other refineries specific rates. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) presents itself as a viable solution for the reduction of the carbon footprint of Kuwait downstream sector, especially when considering the purity of the HP units product gas. The work presented in this paper can be considered as the cornerstone of future carbon mitigation plans in the country.

Kuwait Unveils Upstream Opportunities

The inaugural SPE Kuwait Oil and Gas Show and Conference (KOGS), held 7–10 October 2013 in Kuwait, attracted more than 3,000 delegates representing major oil and gas companies from all over the world. The event, under the patronage of Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, carried the theme “The Power of Collaboration...People and Technology in the Oil and Gas Industry,” Hosnia Hashim, KOGS conference program chairperson and vice president of operations at Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC), said that the gathering allowed exploration and production professionals to network with colleagues from around the world and celebrate key successes in the industry. “For the first time ever in Kuwait,” she said, “we launched a technical event with outstanding participation, having received more than 520 papers, from 104 organizations and 69 universities, from 37 countries.” In his opening remarks at the Conference Opening Ceremony, Kuwait Deputy Premier and Minister of Oil Mustafa Al-Shimali, reiterated Kuwait’s unflinching commitment, in its capacity as a main oil producer, to ensuring regular supplies to world markets. “This conference is timely and logical, as the Kuwait oil sector is undertaking plans to ensure that it meets and fulfills its international role as a reliable supplier. We have allocated billions of US dollars to reach production capacity of 4 million BOPD by 2020. An international exchange of technology and experience is critical to realizing these plans,” Al-Shamali said. At the Executive Plenary Session, Nizar Al-Adsani, chief executive officer of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), aentation titled “Kuwait Experience: The Power of Collaboration, People, and Technology in the Oil and Gas Industry,” that the challenges ahead for his country are great. “The emergence for new competitors, changes in supply and demand dynamics, social and environmental pressures, and demographic shifts, are transforming and reshaping our industry,” he said. Al-Adsani said that technology has been the driving force behind the industry’s continued ability to deliver increased oil and gas production safely, efficiently, and in an environmentally friendly manner, adding that he believes that the excellence required is only provided through the strength of human resources. The CEO said that his company is proceeding with its ambitious plans to enhance KPC’s role in the international oil industry and to be more effective in supply security for the world’s energy, adding that KPC wants to focus on the upstream. “Achieving our crude oil production growth target of nearly 1 million BOPD by 2020, and maintaining it through 2030, depends on the successful implementation of advanced technology in both improved and enhanced oil recovery,” he said.

Economic analysis of clean energy options for Kuwait

PurposeAn economic assessment was performed of the potential for clean energy options to contribute to the power and desalination needs in the State of Kuwait over the next 20 to 40 years. The paper aims to summarize two analyses that were performed for the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research to develop a strategy promoting renewable energy and evaluating alternative technologies including nuclear energy.Design/methodology/approachThe analyses were performed using a power and water model for Kuwait that was constructed using the International Energy Agency – Energy Technology Systems Analysis Programme (IEA‐ETSAP) TIMES modeling framework. Data provided by the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) and the Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) characterizes the projected demand for power and water; the existing and planned power generation and water desalination plants, including the expected retirement of existing plants; and future fossil fuel prices and availability. New power generation options – including renewable energy (RE), nuclear, combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) and reheat steam power plants (RHSPP) – were compared in this least‐cost optimization framework.FindingsThe model results indicate that by 2030 the cost‐effective RE share is 11 percent of electricity generation in the reference case and 8 percent in the case with the nuclear option. The RE technologies alone provide a 2030 net‐back value compared to the reference case of US$2.35 billion, while in the nuclear case they increase the 2030 net‐back value by an additional US$1.5 billion. Increasing the RE share, as a government policy, to 10 percent, 15 percent and 20 percent, decreases the 2030 netback benefit by US$1.0, $3.6 and $8.3 billion, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsSensitivity runs based on scenarios that assume higher RE costs or lower availability, lower demand growth, lower oil and gas prices, higher nuclear plant investment costs, and RE capacity credit were analyzed.Practical implicationsThe analysis provides a compelling economic basis for initiating a renewable energy program in the State of Kuwait. However, these forecasted benefits will only materialize to the extent the projected RE investments are achieved if they begin in earnest soon.Originality/valueThe analysis identifies a cost‐effective share of renewable energy use in Kuwait as about 11 percent of electricity generation in 2030. The investment in renewable energy provides the State of Kuwait with a net‐back value of US$2.35 billion, due to the fuel savings that are generated by using renewables.

Techbits: IPEC 2012: Promoting Industry Diversity

Techbits The International Professionals in Energy Conference (IPEC 2012) “Empowering Women’s Leadership” was held recently in Kuwait under the patronage of the Kuwait Minister of Oil and Chairman of the Board of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Hani A. Hussain. During the two days of IPEC 2012, attendees representing international oil companies, national oil companies, multinational service companies, consulting firms, and academia discussed topics related to gender diversity in the industry. More than 270 delegates representing 53 companies from 15 countries attended. The opening ceremony featured Farouk Al Zanki, deputy chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO, Kuwait Petroleum, and Hosnia Hashim, deputy managing director, North Kuwait, Kuwait Oil, who was also the conference chairperson. The executive plenary session included Sami Al Rushaid, chairman and managing director, Kuwait Oil; Maha Mulla Hussain, chairperson and managing director, Petrochemical Industries Company; Andrew Gould, chairman, BG Group; and Bernadette Spinoy, senior vice president, refining and petrochemicals Eastern Hemisphere, Total. The speakers shared their personal experiences and their companies’ strategies for creating balanced leadership. Held alongside IPEC was a Region-al Education Day, attended by 200 students from public and private schools in Kuwait. The aim was to introduce students to the discipline of petroleum engineering and the industry in general. Three key concepts arose during the conference: The inclusion, retention, and empowerment of women in the workforce is a clear business necessity. Companies need to ensure that all employees positively embrace the increased presence of women in the workforce. The implementation of gender-balanced guidelines for promotion processes is necessary. The inclusion, retention, and empowerment of women was described as important because the expansion plans of the industry to meet global energy demand will require new staff. The second concept, one met with surprise by several attendees, is the recognition of the need to train men in the industry to accept and embrace the incremental presence of women in all roles and ranks of the workplace, especially in field operations, where a female presence is still uncommon in many places of the world. In field operations, special accommodations and facilities may be needed to follow cultural acceptance. The third key concept will require implementation of gender-balanced guidelines for promotion to maintain managerial balance in companies. Panelists concluded that the industry’s workforce is in need of change to reach its potential, and that future energy challenges will require richer and more diverse viewpoints. The oil industry must incorporate concepts of diverse work teams as well as best practices in diversity and inclusion processes to enable and promote contribution from professionals with different experiences and perspectives. This diversity will allow for better decisions.

Sustainable Energy Growth Tops Middle East Conference Agenda

Conference review The 15th annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), organized in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, attracted major national and international oil and gas companies from around the world to discuss common challenges and the opportunities in the region. Involvement from Middle Eastern countries was higher than ever at the conference, with delegations from Saudi Aramco, Qatar Petroleum, Kuwait Petroleum, Sonatrach, and many other international companies discussing their strategies and technologies. The largest oil and gas show outside North America were held under the theme “Sustainable Energy Growth: People, Responsibility and Innovation.” More than 50,000 people from 91 countries attended. SPE organized the conference and technical sessions, which covered a number of topics that influence the industry including technical, economic, personal skills, and capability issues. More than 50 technical sessions presented by 300 industry experts were delivered during the event. Mohamed Bin Dha’en Al Hamli, UAE minister of energy, opened the ADIPEC conference. He said the scale of ADI-PEC and its setting in Abu Dhabi made it an ideal platform to address the complex technical and logistical challenges of exploring for and producing oil and gas at a time of increasing global energy demand. Formally introducing the conference, Ali Rashid Al Jarwan, chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) and chairman of the ADIPEC 2012 conference, said the itinerary was the most comprehensive to date. “This year, the event offered more depth and scope than ever before. ADIPEC was founded on the principle of sharing knowledge and experience. This principle is as relevant now as it was 25 years ago when ADIPEC was established,” he said. Speaking on the challenges of growing global energy demand, Christophe de Margerie, chief executive officer of Total, said that demand for oil and gas from non-OECD countries has increased and this creates a challenge. “Meeting the increasing demand is a bit challenging due to projects’ complexity, access to finance, and geopolitical constraints,” de Margerie said. “To meet this soaring demand, new LNG (liquefied natural gas) projects are needed to satisfy European and Asian demand, even with potential additional supply from shale gas.” To address the new challenges facing the industry, companies should focus on leveraging technology, he said. “This will help unlock resources and improve recovery, optimal development through innovation, as well as operational excellence,” he said. Sami Al Rushaid, chairman and managing director of Kuwait Oil Company, said that his company is strongly focusing on optimizing recovery through primary, secondary, unconventional, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and development of heavy oil. “Significant oil is also expected to come from exploration activities,” he said.

Middle East Attacks Raise Cyber Security Questions

Cyber security Cyber attacks on Saudi Aramco and Qatar’s RasGas have forced oil and gas companies in the Middle East to heighten their computer system security controls to prevent security breaches and to protect their assets. Companies operating in the region are also reviewing their security software and firewalls to ensure that they are updated and able to withstand more attacks. Both Saudi Aramco and RasGas were hit with the Shamoon (also known as Disstrack) trojan, which led to serious network disruptions. Shamoon takes control of a system connected to the Internet before spreading to personal computers in an organization’s network. The second stage overwrites files and the master boot record of a machine, which makes a personal computer unbootable. Computer systems at Saudi Aramco and RasGas were shut down for weeks into September after the first attacks in mid-August, but oil and gas production was not affected. Kuwait Petroleum was not hit by the attack but immediately increased security to protect its information technology systems. The attacks were similar to those carried out against Iranian computers earlier this year that wiped numerous hard drives. Security officials said they believe the attacks were unrelated and believe it was a copycat virus. After the attacks, Saudi Aramco organized an information technology cyber security and protection response workshop in September, inviting representatives from the Saudi Arabian government and the country’s largest corporations to discuss the issues and share best practices. Saudi Aramco talked about its reaction to the cyber attack and shared information about its crisis management and response strategies to counter cyber security threats. “We always realized that no matter what protections we had in place, we cannot be 100% sure that our information systems will not be breached,” said Khalid Al-Falih, president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco. “So we developed incident response plans to deal with different kinds of scenarios and contingencies. What happened to us can happen to anyone. Working together, we can increase our collective defense.”

Stress corrosion cracking of sensitized austenitic stainless steels in Kuwait petroleum refineries

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate stress corrosion cracking (SCC) for 304, 316, and 321 stainless steels in petroleum‐processing environments.Design/methodology/approachSensitized austenitic stainless steels were subjected to a microstructure investigation and electrochemical test. Stressed sensitized 304, 316, and 321 stainless steels were selected and subjected to various environments that included polythionic acid, sour solution, and chloride solution that were prepared in the laboratory to simulate service environments in the petroleum refinery.FindingsMicrostructure investigation reveals more severe SCC in polythionic acid than in the sour and chloride solutions. Type 321 SS gives better resistance to SCC than do 304 and 316 SS in the three solutions. It is concluded that acidity of solutions has a relatively minor influence in promoting cracking. However, polythionic acid is found to be the primary causative agent.Originality/valueThe results demonstrated that SCC is more severe in polythionic acid than in chloride and sour solutions.

Kuwait Petroleum Company explores the value of its training

Kuwait Petroleum Company explores the value of its training

Iraqi violence, Nigerian chaos and some EU proposals

This section summarizes downstream developments of the previous month. Exploration & Production are covered in 'Upstream Review'. The year opened with no let‐up in the violence in Iraq. At the beginning of February, more than 130 were killed by a bomb in a Shi'i district of Baghdad, following a year in which some 35,000 civilians were killed, according to a UN estimate. US President George W Bush announced that extra troops are to be sent to Iraq in an attempt to bring the situation under control. Product shortages inside Iraq were made worse by attacks on downstream installations and the temporary suspension of product deliveries by Turkey. The Turkish government had objected to an Iraqi request for it to liaise with officials in the Kurdish‐controlled region of northern Iraq over delivery schedules. Ankara refused to deal with the Kurdish regional authorities on the grounds that it was opposed to all forms of regional autonomy for Kurdish groups. Baghdad meanwhile is trying to re‐establish some form of central control over the oil industry in the Kurdish north to prevent it from unilaterally signing contracts with foreign oil companies and to ensure that a proportion of any oil revenues generated in the north is remitted to the central government. Figures released by the Oil Ministry showed that oil exports rose by 7% in 2006, to 1.52 mn bpd, though exports from the northern fields fell by 8%, compared with the previous year, to 38,000 bpd as sabotage to pipelines and other facilities continued. The government of Kuwait has launched an official investigation into allegations of irregularities over the sale of refined products by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation to the US Army in 2003.

Kuwait: Have its oil and gas prospects been exaggerated?

Despite what appears to be abundant hydrocarbon reserves, Kuwait's oil and gas industries are in trouble. Plans to increase oil and gas production are behind schedule; the state‐owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and the Ministry of Energy have been heavily criticized for failures of strategy by the country's Audit Bureau; and even the size of the emirate's oil and gas reserves is being called into question.

Oil titans: national oil companies in the Middle East

The author tells the stories of Saudi Aramco, Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the National Iranian Oil Co., Sonatrach of Algeria, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. - oil titans which together produce one quarter of the world's oil and hold half of the world's known oil and gas reserves. Dr. Marcel explains the complex bond between each state and its oil company, tracing the relationship's evolution from the politically charged days of foreign concessions to today's world of profit-driven decisionmaking.

Aventis merger marches forward at double time

Germany's Hoechst and France's Rhone-Poulenc have worked out a new agreement and timetable for their proposed merger into a pharmaceuticals company called Aventis. It will be presented to shareholders at special meetings this summer. Under the agreement, Hoechst shareholders will own 53% of the new company, and Rhone-Poulenc shareholders will own the remaining 47%. Originally, the merger was envisioned as a straight 50-50 split, but it is widely thought that Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), Hoechst's largest shareholder, pressed for the new division. KPC is also thought to be behind the speedup of the merger. Seen as a complicated two-step process taking place over three years when it was announced late last year, the merger is now set to be wrapped up by this November. As it currently stands, Hoechst will distribute about $1.6 billion as special dividends to its shareholders, dependent upon successful completion of the merger. It will also buy back up to ...

Fleet management models and algorithms for an oil-tanker routing and scheduling problem

This paper explores models and algorithms for routing and scheduling ships in a maritime transportation system. The principal thrust of this research effort is focused on the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) Problem. This problem is of great economic significance to the State of Kuwait, whose economy has been traditionally dominated to a large extent by the oil sector, and any enhancement in the existing ad-hoc scheduling procedure has the potential for significant savings. A mixed-integer programming model for the KPC problem is constructed in this paper. The resulting mathematical formulation is rather complex to solve due to the integrality conditions and the overwhelming size of the problem for a typical demand contract scenario. Consequently, an alternate aggregate model that retains the principal features of the KPC problem is formulated. The latter model is computationally far more tractable than the initial model, and a specialized rolling horizon heuristic is developed no solve it. The proposed heuristic procedure enables us to derive solutions for practical sized problems that could not be handled by directly solving even the aggregate model. The initial formulation is solved using CPLEX-4.0-MIP capabilities for a number of relatively small-sized test cases, whereas for larger problem instances, the aggregate formulation is solved using CPLEX-4.0-MIP in concert with the developed rolling horizon heuristic, and related results are reported. An ad-hoc routing procedure that is intended to simulate the current KPC scheduling practice is also described and implemented. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach substantially improves upon the results obtained using the current scheduling practice at KPC.

Out-of-body experiences: migrating firms and altered states

Boundaries between major actors in the international system are less like lines in the sand than like frontiers encompassing broad areas of geographic and metaphoric overlap. Boundary locations are relative, variable and often contested, reflecting the contingency of claims by representatives of states and other corporate entities, in this case multinational firms, regarding the appropriate reach of each body's interests and the legal and practical limits to each one's authority. These propositions are tested by examining the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, a multinational firm composed of multiple domestic and foreign affiliates, during the period of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. Joint interests attenuated formal boundaries separating Kuwait from countries hosting its direct foreign investments, and served as primary motivations for external intervention. Boundary transgressions are effected by persons with multiple identities and roles who occupy positions of authority, not only in that these persons command strategic and economic resources, but also insofar as they are skilled manipulators of symbolic tokens of identity and expertise.