Business Case Study: E & P Of Oil And Gas

The following short case will give you a good idea of how risks surface in business and project planning and what companies do about it. Consider that you are the Risk Manager as you look at this case, as it will be a good exercise for the time when you will be that Risk Manager!

The age demographic segment of oil and gas industry is normally people in their late 40s and early 50s. There is also a group of neophytes but there are very few people with ages between the two groups. Also, most of the people in this industry are highly specialty engineers with experience and skills to make important decision about drilling. There are also other specialty people in the business sides to vision and plan the competitive strategies to compete with other companies.

If John D. Rockefeller, one of the first oil tycoons, were to look at the oil industry today, would he believe his eyes? With millions of oil barrels being imported and exported each year, the oil industry has changed dramatically since the 19th century. At the forefront of the oil industry is the emergence of an oil drilling technique known as fracking. Fracking is an unconventional drilling process that is accomplished by using high-pressured water to release oil and natural gas from rock formations, known as shales. The use of fracking in the United States has made it one of the top oil producing countries in the world. However, this newfound oil and gas drilling method has not come without its costs. Despite the economic boom near drilling locations, politically, fracking has caused some international relationships to be strained. Also, fracking is seen as highly controversial by conservationists because of the environmental threats that it poses. The drilling method of fracking has deeply impacted the United States from an economic, a political, and an environmental standpoint.

This report presents information regarding the industry, the primary operator of oil and gas field properties. The industry fuels its key buyers, the Natural Gas Distribution (22121) and the Petroleum Refining (32411) industries, with crude oil and natural gas. The industry continuously battles a shortage of available oil. In addition, many major oil fields have been in use for decades, slowly waning. Currently, the industry grosses among the most profitable in the US despite these and similar obstacles. The benefits of investing here

The Haynesville shale in Louisiana is one of several unconventional gas plays that have been discovered in the U.S. in the past decade and promise to dramatically change the course of future energy development given its enormous resource potential. Unconventional gas resources are abundant, but their development is particularly sensitive to technologic risk, geologic uncertainty, and gas price. To produce at commercial rates, shale gas wells require horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing which significantly increases the capital cost. The purpose of this paper is to examine the price sensitivity of Haynesville wells and the economic viability of the play. We characterize the operating envelope under which Haynesville wells are economic

Chesapeake Energy operates under the natural oil and gas industry. While government’s economic data may separate operations within this industry, the industry covers a broad range of activities and is separated into three segments: upstream, downstream, and midstream. Activities within this industry by oil and gas companies include exploring for crude oil or natural gas, drilling into wells, and such transportation of oil and natural gas. Just as any other industry, the gas and oil industry have major risks that companies take into consideration and extensively consider. These risks have the capability of drastically affecting operations, and ultimately the profitability and financial stability of a company. Three top risks related to oil and gas companies are volatile prices of oil and gas, regulatory changes, and finding new reserves or extending prior ones.

Global energy needs are at an all time high and do not appear to be tapering off in the near future. Even with all the advancements of technology and the development of alternate renewable resources, fossil fuels continue to be the leading source to facilitate these energy needs. The magnitude and effort needed to shift the world to alternative sources of energy is monumental and each has huge barriers when compared to fossil fuels (Troy 34). Traditional means of extracting oil, coal, and natural gas have historically faced scrutiny from environmentalists and lawmakers due to the various potential hazards these resources present. In truth their efforts have not been in vain; in many of the first world nations the extraction of these resources has been regulated and therefore tailored to pose as little risk to the environment as possible. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking as it is commonly called is not a new method of resource extraction but by no means would it be considered traditional. It is commonly understood that there are no completely perfect methods of extracting fossil fuels no matter their chemical or physical makeup and the same is true of fracking. There are challenges associated with the human error factor just as there are in any other types of project development; these generally surround the construction and best business practices surrounding the

These risks are present while the mining operation is in full swing. Difficulties may arise in the event of a natural catastrophe, BI (business interruption, which can be caused by a variety of factors) and project transition phase risk (involving the attempt to have a seamless transition between the construction and the operational phase) [17].

By 2001, almost 50 years after its inception, Petrobras had become a fully integrated oil and gas company. Petrobras was the seventh largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world based upon proven reserves, the largest Brazilian corporation, the third largest Latin American corporation, and the 185th largest global company, by 2001 consolidated revenues. In Brazil, Petrobras had a dominant position in both upstream and downstream activities. The company’s combined oil and gas production was 1,621 tbpd and it had proven reserves estimated at around 9.3 billion boe.5 (Exhibit 1 provides selected oil and gas data for Petrobras and other oil companies.) Most of the firm’s proven reserves were located in very deep waters (more than 400 meters) and Petrobras was the world’s pioneer in deep water oil exploration and production. Furthermore, with approximately

One area in which the application of decision analysis appeared to be successful is in the oil industry. The decision environment within which an oil company has to operate is characterized by limited information and complexity. Also, these decisions require intensive capital expenditures thus they are related to substantial risk (Hosseini, 1986). The case of Tomco Oil Corporation is a good example for this type of decisions made under uncertainty.

We used two analyses methods to identify background and to evaluate information that we have.

There is almost nothing in this world where there is no risk involved. Risk involved is a major topic of concern in everyday life more than ever before. This report gives an overview about the risks involved in everyday life and especially in the oil and gas industry.

Currently, the conventional approach is to aggressively explore and develop new fields. This has led to a growth in drilling deeper wells and looking to ‘off-shore’ sites for new production of ‘light’ crude. However, as recent events in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrate with the British Petroleum incident and the resulting clean-up costs and loss of credibility, this approach has risks. It

The completion of any project depends on the execution of various parameters mostly set at the beginning of the project. In order to complete the project to satisfactory levels, the project must be completed within the stipulated timelines, fall within the approximate budget and be of the required quality standards. However, most of the projects are affected by adverse changes and unforeseen events that occur during the execution period. Research shows that the magnitude of change is dependent on the size of the project, with large projects experiencing more uncertainties due to several factors including; planning and design complexity, interest groups having deferring opinions, resource availability, Economic and political climate and statutory regulations, which may necessitate change of plan. Most of the uncertainties are known to occur in the concept phase and if not intervened, they may affect the entire project. The burden falls on the management of such risk as some managers choose to ignore the uncertainties since they call for additional costs. Other inherent risks may go unnoticed and therefore remain unsolved,

The Pacific Oil Company a well-established oil company with an assorted diversified product line including “Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM)”. (Lewicki, 2010, p. 583) As one of the pioneer producers of VCM, Pacific Oil cornered the market share for contracting, distributing and selling their niche product, VCM worldwide. One of Pacific’s longtime customers was Reliant Corporation. This partnership was more than a decade old and was strong. However, if Pacific Oil decided to further diversify its product line to include Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) a VCM derivative, “it would not want to be in the position of supplying a product competitor with the raw materials to manufacture the product line, unless the formula price was extremely