oil imports in 1970 (Ghosh 3). To continue, "During the 18-month period ending October 2000, gasoline and diesel prices hiked up over 50% throughout the United States" (Rueda), and they have risen even more dramatically in recent time
dependence on foreign oil decreased during the 1980s and 1990s, today it is higher than it has ever been, for a variety of reasons. One expert notes, "The United States has no national energy policy to enable us to manage our energy future to meet the pressing and sometimes conflicting goals of affordability, environmental protection, economic development, and security" (Sterzinger 5)
With expensive capital equipment to run the business, petroleum industry generally encounters lot of risks at micro and macro levels, which could ultimately escalate into industry-wide crisis. (Fernandes et al
"Uncertainty and risk are everywhere in the petroleum industry." (Nolan & Thurber 2010 P
This study prefers quantitative technique because it provides a reliable and valid method to test the significant of the chosen methodology to manage the risk within oil industry with special focus in Libya's National Oil Corporation. (Tewksbury, 2009)
In this case, we have a productive oil refinery that had paid off its initial investment long before. As we can see in the BP case, the Active Threats and Opportunities Management (ATOM) process is rarely implemented correctly (Hillson & Simon, 2007, 23)
Just in terms of financial losses, BP agreed to pay some $370 million in fines for the Texas City disaster and resulted in the changeover in CEOs. The Texas City explosion is illustrative because it does not involve other contractors and companies such as the Deepwater Horizon (Mouawad, 2010)
There was a history of safety issues at the plant, even before the 2005 fire. This ATOM analysis will concentrate on those reports because the reports after the disaster are predisposed to blaming John Browne and the upper management at BP, though this may be justified since the refinery was a BP asset from 1999 on (Trevor, 2007, 4) Therefore, the Telos Report of 2004 should yield some good objective information for the ATOM process
" And uses water and ambient air to react with an anode composed of magnesium to generate electricity. (Messina, 2010) The automobile manufacturer Toyota is also currently researching the use of a magnesium-sulfur batteries which would be available to power their automobiles
Research Methodologies Here analysis of the agility factor will be done of the mentioned oil companies, this will be done with respect to the following four main points, the production strategy, the technology, the human resources and the organization structure. 1) Production Strategy "The purpose of production strategy is to measure the decisions or the actions which are taken by any organization in order to produce its services" (Milgate, 2004), here the services are petrochemicals
"Here the safety is also a major concern for the buyer and a huge portion of this process depends on the safe start up of the equipment." (Gupta, 2004) In terms of oil and gas exploration projects, the related equipments such as drilling machines are checked and properly assured to deliver
"This gives rise to a command structure which ensures proper operational flow in the entire organization." (Meyer, 2002)
Questionnaire on technologies 1= Least, 5= Most How much field testing occurs for the assessment of current technological standards? [1-2 3-4-5] How much implementation is done in production strategies? [1-2 3-4-5] How much modification is required for the current equipments to modernize? [1-2 3-4-5] How much experimentation is done of the equipments to asses its technology? [1-2 3-4-5] How much staff training is done to get familiarized with latest equipments? [1-2 3-4-5] How do you rate the overall agility factor here which involves the oil firm's adaptation according to the latest technological improvements? [1-2 3-4-5] 3) Human Resources "Human resources describe the personnel which make up entire workforce of a company." (McKenzie, 2001) It has many key functions such as recruitment, selection, keeping records of employed personnel, design and development of organizational structures, management of employee relations, management of training and development for the employees and so on
Questionnaire on commissioning 1= Least, 5= Most How effective do you think are the logistics used in commissioning? [1-2 3-4-5] How effective are the current methods of time prior drilling? [1-2 3-4-5] How much improvement on project engineering occurs due to commissioning? [1-2 3-4-5] How much improvement on design and process engineering occurs due to commissioning? [1-2 3-4-5] How much effective benchmarking becomes after commissioning? [1-2 3-4-5] How do you rate the overall agility factor here which involves the commissioning of new and old equipments? [1-2 3-4-5] Production (WRM) "The production strategy defines the decisions being made or the actions being taken by any firm in order to produce its services." (London, 2003) This strategy defines the aims and operational functionalities which any firm takes
"The following objectives are covered under the production function, the quality management, the speed of delivery, the dependability of the product, the flexibility and the cost of the product." (Neely, 2002)
"Commissioning can be applied to many different parts of the firm's projects." (Alexander, 2004)
2008; Nandha & Faff 2008). The Deepwater Horizon spill specifically has raised questions about reporting practices and financial incentives affecting the oil industry, as well (Flournoy 2011; Post 2011)
The fifth and final chapter of this research project will present a detailed summary of findings, including a SWOT analysis of BP and conclusions regarding the general state of the company and its likely potential in the near-term and further ahead in the future. Literature Review An examination of valuation and accounting practices in the oil industry has raised some serious questions about the industry and its impact on total global trade in the past decade (Misund et al
Accounting in British Petroleum Scope, Aims, and Objectives The research project proposed herein will examine the role of accounting in the past progression and current situation of British Petroleum, the company that came under intense public scrutiny last year due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico (Urbina 2010)
has already settled with BP, the world's fourth largest company, in order to hold back dividend payments until the end of the year. They have set aside $20 billion in an escrow account as a starting point in order to pay for damages (Froetschel, 2010)