Journal articles on the topic 'Petroleum revenue management'

The avoidance of resource curse is, in part, dependent on the management and administration of realized revenue from the exploration of its natural resource. This article evaluates the existing fiscal regime and the regulatory frameworks that Ghana established to manage its petroleum revenue from 2010 to 2013. The restrictive period accounts for the era where Ghanaians showed high expectations of increased benefits from oil. In this vein, the article analyses the preparedness reflected in the policy framework to manage accrued revenue and, by extension, the expectation of citizens on improved living conditions. This article established that existing mechanisms, legislation, and checks and balance procedures to manage petroleum revenues are not the final steps at ensuring sustainable development. Two crucial factors play a decisive role in this regard. First is the extent to which accrued revenue is expended in critical areas of the economy for accelerated growth. Second is the commitment to, and establishment of, strong public institutions to enforce the relevant regulations. Keywords: Fiscal Regime, Transparency, Tax, Petroleum Revenue.

This paper undertakes a five-year review of the management of oil revenues in Ghana since the commencement of oil production in 2010. Using reports from the Petroleum Transparency and Accountability Index, official records from key state agencies, and interviews with core individuals within the petroleum sector, the paper assesses the quality of transparency and accountability in the management of Ghana's oil revenue. It argues that even though some progress has been made in the transparent and accountable use of oil revenues, more can be achieved if certain critical bills are passed and proactive interventions pursued without further delay on the part of government and policymakers within Ghana's petroleum sector. These would help prevent both potential social conflict that may result from a lack of information on how oil revenues are utilised and the corrupt use of oil funds by politicians and people in authority within the oil industry.

Taxes from the petroleum sector constitute a significant share in indirect tax collection of the union as well as state governments in India. Understanding prospective revenue from petroleum taxes could help governments in better public finance management. The importance of revenue from the petroleum sector has increased after the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India, as fiscal autonomy of the governments (both federal and provincial) to augment tax collection through unilateral policy changes has been curtailed with harmonisation of the tax system. Revenue mobilisation from petroleum taxes is dependent on consumption (sales) of petroleum products, and, therefore, understanding consumption of petroleum products is important to understand prospective revenue from the petroleum sector. The objective of this article is to estimate the petroleum consumption function and revenue (tax collection) function. Based on the estimated functions, we project the petroleum demand and tax collection for the period from 2017–18 to 2024–25. JEL Classification: H25, Q41, Q47

The paper aims to explore how the introduction of an electronic tax system impacts on economic growth in Nigeria. The neoclassical growth theory and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used in the study. Based on diagnostic tests, Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds test regression model was adequately created. The quarterly secondary data of Central Bank of Nigeria and tax statistics data were divided into two periods for analysis: from 2011q1 to 2015q3 pre-electronic tax period (pre-e-tax) and from 2015q4 to 2020q4 post-electronic tax period (post-e-tax). In pre-e-tax in the long-run, education trust fund revenue strongly enhances economic growth, company income tax and stamp duty are moderate revenue earners for economic growth, while petroleum profit tax revenue have moderate negative impact on economic growth. Value added tax and capital gain tax revenues insignificantly decreases in economic growth in the same period. In post-e-tax in the long run, value added tax, petroleum profit tax, and capital gin tax insignificantly decreases economic growth, while company income tax, education trust fund, and stamp duty insignificantly enhance it. For pre-e-tax revenue in the short-run, education trust fund strongly decreases economic growth, value added tax and petroleum profit tax had insignificant positive influence, while company income tax, capital gain tax, and stamp duty had no impact. For post-e-tax revenue in the short-run company income tax had no influence, value added tax had moderate negative impact, petroleum profit tax had a strong positive impact, education trust fund, capital gain tax, and stamp duty had strong negative impact on economic growth. To optimize the relationship between tax structure and economic growth, tax evasion, corruption, and tax avoidance should be checked.

Nowadays banks, as the most important component ofmoney market, are playing a very important role in country’s economy. By developing money markets, banking and financial institutes’ activities it is extensively developed and with no doubts economic development is not possible without considering the role of banking and money markets. By virtue of special and sensitive role of banks in Iran economic system, any shock, disturbances and/or ineffectiveness in economic systems directly effect on banks’ and financial institutes’ performance as well as phenomenon such as high inflation and/or price shocks and fluctuations in other markets such as currencies shall directly and indirectly effect on banks’ risk and profitability. Hence in this paper the effects of economic macro variables on capital adequacy, liquidity risk and credit risk of banks have been reviewed. The results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between gross domestic product (GDP), petroleum revenue, and exchange rate oncapital adequacy of banks. But the effects of liquidity and inflation on capital adequacy of banks are negative and significant which means it causes decreasing of capital adequacy of banks. Increasing in the variables of petroleum revenue, liquidity and inflation result in increasing of liquidity risk and vice versa the increasing in variables of GDP and exchange rate decreased the liquidity risk. Petroleum revenue, liquidity and inflation increments cause increasing in banks’ credit risk as well as GDP and exchange rate increments result in decreasing in banks’ credit risk.

The aviation industry is one of the most widely used applications in transportation. Due to the limited capacity of aircraft, revenue management in this industry is of high significance. On the other hand, the hub location problem has been considered to facilitate the demands assignment to hubs. This paper presents an integrated p-hub location and revenue management problem under uncertain demand to maximize net revenue and minimize total cost, including hub establishment and transportation costs. A fuzzy programming model and a genetic algorithm are developed to solve the proposed model with different sizes. The mining and petroleum industry is used for case studies. Results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain a suitable solution in a reasonable amount of time.

The revenue, efficiency, distributional and simplicity effects of using a GST to replace some existing indirect taxes and to reduce income taxation are assessed. Replacing the wholesale sales tax (WST), the general revenue raising portion of petroleum excise and payroll tax with a goods and services tax (GST) promises efficiency gains and negligible net redistribution. The principal case for using a GST to fund reductions in Australia's hybrid income tax system is to increase the productivity of saving and investment.

The paper analyzed the impact of taxation on economic development in Nigeria as it concerns value-added tax (VAT), Company Income Tax (CIT) and Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT). For the purpose of this study, the major source of data was a secondary source. Data were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and Federal Inland Revenue Services. The data collected were analyzed with Ordinary Least Square Multiple Linear Regressions since there were more than two variables. The analysis revealed that all the independent variables (VAT, CIT and PPT) used in this study have a significant positive relationship on the dependent variable (GDP), which is used to measure economic development while value-added tax, company income tax, and petroleum profit tax were used to measure taxation. It was therefore recommended that the government should extend its database to capture all tax revenue by employing practically and technically oriented professionals. Results also imply it is recommended for the government to foster a favorable environment for young entrepreneurs to initiate and grow businesses that will lead to an increase in tax revenue for the government. It was also recommended that social science, which is the umbrella that covers management sciences, should be employed to manage businesses so as to ensure the survival of businesses and boast the nation’s revenue through tax, as it concerns training having an impact on resources utilization and allocation, thus promoting profit maximization.

This study examined the effect of taxation management on economic growth in Nigeria covering the period 1994-2020. Data for the study were collected from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin, 2020. The expo-facto research design was adopted owing to the fact that data used were secondary in nature. The study was anchored on the expediency theory of taxation. The method of data analysis is the linear multiple regression with the application of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique. Other diagnostic tests which include unit-root test, autocorrelation test, heteroscedasticity test, and normality test were conducted to verify the reliability of the regression numerical coefficients and it was discovered that the regression output is free from violating any of the regression assumptions. The major findings of the study are that value added tax management has a positive but non-significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria, company income tax management has a negative and significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria, and petroleum profit tax management has a negative and significant effect on economic growth in Nigeria. It is therefore the recommendation of the study that government should put in place adequate measure to ensure that revenue generated from VAT is effectively utilized to develop and grow the economy through proper infrastructural development and tax authorities responsible for income-tax administration should upgrade the tax database to capture all potential income tax-payers in order to broaden income tax.

Tax ranks next to the petroleum sector in terms of volume of public revenue generation in Nigeria as it is a major player in every society of the world. Government imposes taxes on the citizens in order to finance its activities and creates a conducive business environment for its citizens. In the process, responsibilities are assigned to three key elements namely, tax payers, tax authorities and the government. While tax authorities ensure effective collection of tax revenue to the government, tax payers are merely fulfilling their civic responsibilities and obligations. However, the tax system in Nigeria is confronted by myriad problems; multiplicity of taxation, especially among the three tiers of the government, low quality personnel, among others. This raises the need for reforms in the management of the tax system in Nigeria.

This study uses a Computable General Equilibrium model to analyze policy scenarios for a carbon tax on greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum fuels and kerosene in Ethiopia. The carbon tax starts at $5 per ton of carbon dioxide in 2018 and rises to $30 per ton in 2030; these rates are translated into taxes on the different energy types covered, depending on their carbon contents. Different scenarios examine the impacts with revenue recycling through a uniform sales tax reduction, reduction of labor income tax, reduction of business income tax, direct transfer back to households, and use by the government to reduce debt. Because petroleum fuels and kerosene are a relatively small part of the Ethiopian economy, the carbon tax has small impacts on overall economic activity and greenhouse gas emissions. In proportional terms, however, the impact on greenhouse gas emissions from these energy sources is notable, depending on the recycling scenario. The assumed carbon tax trajectory also can raise significant revenue—up to $800 million per year by 2030. The impacts on the poor through increased cost of living are not that large, since the share of the poor in total use of the taxed energy types is small. In terms of induced income effects through employment changes, urban households tend to experience more impacts than rural households, but the results also depend on the household skill level and the revenue recycling scenario.

The availability of oil resources in Nigeria has had a profound impact on the economy, particularly the economy's sectoral structure. Although the oil sector itself never did put pressure on the other sectors directly, since its labour requirements were negligible, the policy response by the authorities towards the oil revenue inflicted adverse effects on the agricultural sector. Exchange rates appreciated both in nominal and real terms, the latter considered to be a spending effect of the oil boom. Consequently, labour costs increased in terms of the exogenously determined agricultural product prices. The oil resource, undoubtedly, contributed to Nigerian agricultural deterioration.

Purpose The oil and gas sector are among the nonrenewable energy sectors that contribute immensely to the economic development of more than 98 countries around the globe. Nigeria depends largely on revenue from oil and gas. Unfortunately, oil and gas companies mostly evade taxes. This study aims to investigate the effects of variables subsumed in the economic deterrence theory of Allingham and Sandmo (1972), which comprise (tax rate, penalty and detection probability) with one additional variable royalty rates (RR) on petroleum profit tax compliance (PPTC). Design/methodology/approach The study used a survey to collect data from 300 local and multi-national oil and gas companies in Nigeria. SPSS version 25 and partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) version 3.8 were used to analyze the data. Findings The results reveal that there is a negatively significant relationship between tax rate and RR and PPTC. The findings also show a positive and significant relationship between penalty and detection probability and PPTC. Originality/value The implication of the current study is that the current tax rate and RR are determinants of PPTC in Nigeria. Policymakers, in collaboration with the tax authority, should revisit these variables to enhance the level of PPTC, which could lead to an overall improvement in the country’s tax revenue.

Using soybean oil to control insect pests, delay bloom, and thin fruit in peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] production could reduce yield losses and fruit thinning costs compared to the current practice of using petroleum oil spray to control insect pests alone. The higher annua cost of soybean oil spray compared to petroleum oil spray was more than offset by higher average annual revenue from increased peach yields and lower thinning costs. At one location, soybean oil to delay bloom and thin fruit unambiguously reduced production risk. At another location, both mean and variance of returns were higher, but a lower coefficient of variation suggested lower relative risk for the soybean oil spray alternative. Risk resulting from the unanticipated influence of weather and mismanagement on the effectiveness of soybean oil spray were not considered in this analysis. More research is needed to hone in on the optimum soybean oil spray rates under alternative environmental and management conditions.

As I mentioned in a previous column, the SPE Board of Directors and leadership are reviewing and updating the SPE Strategic Plan. This is a periodic exercise to define the strategic goals that will allow us to better meet member expectations and industry needs in the next 3 to 5 years. The current strategic plan was developed in 2017/2018 on the heels of three very difficult years for the industry, our members, academia, and SPE. Since that time, the industry has experienced even more hardship and changes like never before. The world we live in is not the same. The SPE Strategic Plan to be developed needs to take these issues into consideration and give SPE a solid foundation to best serve our members’ needs into the future using a financially sustainable model. For more than 30 years, SPE’s main source of revenue has been events. Although SPE quickly ramped up virtual programming in 2020, it did not make up for in-person events such as the Offshore Technology Conference, Offshore Europe, and the International Petroleum Technology Conference. This graph (developed from SPE financial data) illustrates that from FY2010 (April 2009 to March 2010) SPE had relied on events for at least 70% of its revenue. It also shows how revenue from events is used not only to pay for events but also publications (advertising has fallen dramatically) and for member programs and services. The graphic for Revenue Categories splits event revenues into corporate exhibit/sponsorship (the majority) and registration for comparison with dues and all other revenue sources. Dues only amount to approximately 15% of SPE’s revenue, except during the pandemic in FY2021. FY2022 was closer to the typical pre-COVID percentage, and the forecasts for FY2023 and FY2024 are projected to be the same. As a result, we need to review and diversify SPE revenue streams. This may mean new programs and services, markets, membership categories, etc. As our traditional sources of revenue evolve, they must be supplemented if we are to maintain or even add new services. Over the period of July to August, we have set up a plan for the development of the updated strategic plan which involves interviews of different SPE stakeholders, including leaders of industry companies and a cross section of members, students and academia, regional and technical sections, as well as near-members (who participate in the Society’s events without being members). A channel is being established on SPE Connect for individual members to give their feedback on topics related to the strategic plan. We will post thoughtful discussion topics to gain insight from members. If you are not familiar with SPE Connect, please log on and join the discussion. We look forward to hearing our members’ perspective on the future of our Society. As always, I welcome your feedback at president@spe.org.

The life cycle of the petroleum industry in Australia is necessitating decommissioning and remediation of aging onshore and offshore assets. This activity provides significant challenges for operators. Decommissioning and remediation is neither a core capability of operators nor a key driver of value for businesses that derive value from exploration, development and production. There is no revenue stream at the completion of decommissioning and remediation. This exacerbates the need for accurate cost estimates and well-planned projects. International experience has demonstrated that remediation costs have often significantly exceeded provisioning for rehabilitation. These issues are felt even more acutely in a low oil price environment. Finally, some Australian jurisdictions are currently developing policy frameworks and guidelines around the decommissioning and remediation responsibilities. This creates uncertainty for operators in planning and costing decommissioning and remediation work scopes. As well as satisfying legislative and policy requirements of governments, operators need to manage a range of other stakeholders that have interests in the decommissioning methodologies and remediation outcomes. This paper addresses these challenges and proposes that innovative decommissioning and remediation strategies are required to shorten project execution times, reduce costs, maintain high safety standards and produce suitable environmental outcomes. Decommissioning and remediation requirements differ significantly from development requirements; decommissioning project organisational capabilities should be structured to reflect these requirements. Case studies are used to demonstrate that effective waste management strategies are key determinants of success due to high waste disposal costs and the sensitivity of waste handling and disposal for key stakeholders.

Saudi Arabia is a petroleum resource-rich country, and half of the GDP of Saudi Arabia is based on the Oil Sector Revenue (OSR). The OSR is governed by the Oil Prices (OP), while GDP is also affected by the OSR in petroleum exporting companies. The volatility of OP governs the OSR and GDP positively and perfectly as the oil sector contributes approximately half of the GDP of Saudi Arabia. The study analyzes the governance of the Public Spending Avenues (PSA) by the OP, OSR, and GDP in the long and short run and based on the secondary data taken from the website of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA). Coefficient of Variations (CV), Chain-based Index (CBI) numbers, Fixed-based Index (FBI) numbers, and Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) of OP and other dependent variables calculated to get the normality, sensitivity, trend, and significance difference among the sensitivity and trend of variables, while Pearson’s correlations establish the cause-effect relationship among the variables. The study reveals that oil price volatility does not affect the OSR, GDP, and ultimately public spending in the long run. However, there is governance of volatility of OP that can be seen on OSR, GDP, and ultimately on PSA in the short run. Saudi Arabian government enhances its spending on PSA and especially on education while lowering the OP. There is a need to diversify the income resources to minimize the reliability of oil prices and budget deficit and consider the sensitivity of oil prices on the economy by the policymakers to formulate the policies to minimize the impact of volatility of OP on the economy. AcknowledgmentThe author would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia.  

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between various risk management strategies and risk management practices in order to design and hence enact a suitable supply chain risk mitigation (RM) plan. Additionally, this study proposes a hierarchical framework to explain the mutual relationship between supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices and strategies by considering the underlying dimensions between them.Design/methodology/approachAn amalgamation of systematic literature analysis (SLA) and correspondence analysis (CA) has been performed to develop the conceptual framework. A real-life case of Indian petroleum supply chain has been considered to validate and explain the proposed model.FindingsThe results reveal three underlying dimensions, which associate the relationship between RM strategies. They are, risk adaptability of SC managers with a variance of 34.71%, followed by resource capability of the firm and the degree of sophistication of RM practices, with variances of 27.72 and 20.35%, respectively. Risk avoidance strategy comprises of practices such as supplier evaluation, technology adaption, flexible process and information security. On the other extreme, the risk sharing strategy includes revenue sharing, insurance, collaboration, public–private partnership and so on as essential RM practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe study not only focuses on the distinction between RM strategies and practices, which were used interchangeably in the prior literature, but also provides an association between the same by exploring the underlying dimensions. These underlying dimensions perform a crucial role while developing a risk management plan. This study explicitly focuses on the RM step of SCRM process. Pre and post risk mitigation phases of SCRM process, such as risk assessment and risk monitoring, are beyond the scope of the current research.Originality/valueThe paper develops a framework for mapping various RM strategies with their corresponding practices by considering the Indian petroleum supply chain as a viable case study. Various theoretical and business implications are derived in the context of the developing country.

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the cleanest means of transportation compared to the conventional vehicles. Unlike conventional vehicles, EVs do not depend on petroleum products and thus use of electric vehicle is going to dominate the transportation sector soon. The battery electric vehicles need charging stations for their battery to charge. The proposed topology focuses on power flow management for charging of EV loads. it proposes electric vehicle charging system in which vehicle owners are allowed to park their vehicle in the charging station and EVs are charged up to their desired SOC level. The proposed system promotes penetration of RES to a larger extent which minimizes the kwh cost of grid energy consumption, and hence generating significant economical revenue of the charging station. In this paper, charging station is modeled with PV, battery and grid, and power management strategies are proposed among them. Regulation of load sharing and prevention of mismatch between circulating currents supplied by power sources is implemented using fixed droop method. The trend of power demand by EVs in the charging station is estimated and matching between demand and supply is implemented. Energy storage system is used in order to support continuous power availability in the station. The simulations are successfully implemented to validate the effectiveness of the system and to demonstrate the load management system by the uncoordinated method of charging. The overall system is implemented by algorithm run in MATLAB/Simulink.

Oil prices have exhibited considerable volatility over the past five or ten years and the management of oil price risk has become an important factor in underpinning the viability of many oil producing operations from both a lender's and investor's perspective. Various oil based hedging products are now available to protect against such volatility, ranging from products which fix forward prices to option based arrangements which set a floor price but retain some (or all) of the potential upside. These products have particular relevance for petroleum companies with limited financial resources or who are looking to limit recourse to particular assets/cashflows.There are a number of techniques which can be successfully combined to mitigate oil price volatility and the most relevant of these to a producer are discussed. The recent development of the Tapis swap and option markets, which have provided flexibility to Australasian producers, is also discussed.Oil based financial products can also be used as a method of funding (say for a development or acquisition) as an alternative to traditional cash based borrowing structures, thus creating a natural hedge against oil price movements. The use of such structures, coupled with a well structured revenue hedging program, can enhance a project's attractiveness from a lender's perspective (particularly with respect to protection against downside movements in oil price) and/or provide greater certainty of returns to producers.A case study of a recent commodity risk management based financing is presented which highlights many of the points discussed.

Oil-rich countries often face negative consequences of natural resources-led development on their overall economic performance. One of the reasons is that a country’s rising extraction rates frequently lead to various changes in its public policy and revenue management. Colombia has spectacularly increased its oil production by almost 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in ten years, which was the effect principally of the implementation of strongly market-oriented petroleum policies in 2003. It is now the fourth largest crude producer in Latin America, registering nearly ten times more export sales than at the end of the 20th century. The economic effects of the oil-boom are already visible, which has created many new challenges the government must face in order to ensure sustainable development in the country, and to be able to mitigate the impact of the recently dropping world oil prices. The purpose of the article is to present the latest findings on the impact of the oil sector development on the Colombian economy in the 21st century, focusing especially on the current situation.

The oil and gas networks are overlapped because of the inclusion of associated gas in crude oil. This necessitates the integration and planning of oil and gas supply chain together. In recent years, hydrocarbon market has experienced high fluctuation in demands and prices which leads to considerable economic disruptions. Therefore, planning of oil and gas supply chain, considering market uncertainty is a significant area of research. In this regard, this study develops a multi-objective stochastic optimization model for tactical planning of downstream segment of oil and natural gas supply chain under uncertainty of price and demand of petroleum products. The proposed model was formulated based on a two-stage stochastic programming approach with a finite number of realizations. The proposed model helps to assess various trade-offs among the selected goals and guides decision maker(s) to effectively manage oil and natural gas supply chain. The applicability and the utility of the proposed model has been demonstrated using the case of Saudi Arabia oil and gas supply chain. The model is solved using the improved augmented ε-constraint algorithm. The impact of uncertainty of price and demand of petroleum products on the obtained results was investigated. The Value of Stochastic Solution (VSS) for total cost, total revenue, and service level reached a maximum of 12.6%, 0.4%, and 6.2% of wait-and see solutions, respectively. Therefore, the Value of the Stochastic Solution proved the importance of using stochastic programming approach over deterministic approach. In addition, the obtained results indicate that uncertainty in demand has higher impact on the oil and gas supply chain performance than the price.

New public transport planning requirements are developed as many countries start to navigate their return to normality after the COVID-19 lockdown. This study combines key developments regarding public transportation and effect of the lockdown on energy utilization during the first and second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Data were sourced from the National Bureau of Statistic and Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) on distribution of Fuel and gas energies which thematically analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on transportation systems in Lagos Nigeria. The decline in vehicular density on roads which leads to reduced fuel consumption coupled with infection risk in public transportation in the so-called post-lockdown phase. Domestic gas consumption and electricity generation were slightly affected during this period. Changes in travel demands; Financial sustainability; Increased cost of transportation and Loss of revenue were revealed as significant impact of the pandemic. Lastly, this study identifies maintenance of key principles in mitigating the spreading of the virus, probable energy utilization, policy recommendations and future management of resources that are most inclined to the development objectives of developing nations in the time of COVID-19 and beyond.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new opportunities that offers Africa to companies. Groups working in the bank, telecommunication and petroleum sectors know Africa’s attractiveness for a long time. However, food companies are now more and more interested in this continent too, especially thanks to key factors: a high growing gross domestic product, an emerging middle-class, a high birth rate […] Danone is an interesting case of this phenomenon. The company which is one of the main worldwide player in the food market decided to go into mergers and acquisitions in Africa since the 2000s; its strategy and its results will be analyzed. Design/methodology/approach General review. Findings It is shown that Africa brings new markets and revenue sources to companies. As a first mover, companies can take a competitive advantage over competitors in developing their activities in a new growing market. However, before entering Africa, companies must collect relevant information and have a strong strategy. In fact, some countries of this continent are still instable; that is why, companies have to be careful before investing in one of them. Additionally, the paper reveals that the first key to success in Africa in the food industry is to adapt products to local needs, culture and way of life. Originality/value Africa is still a relatively untapped market, and mergers and acquisitions in Africa represent a promising opportunity for companies that want to expand their activities, and the current trends predict a great development of investments in Africa.

Purpose: The objectives of the study were to evaluate how PDO is adapting to the online work approach, to analyze and identify the operating costs of the company that got affected by switching to an online work approach, to evaluate the impacts of the online work approach on operating costs and to evaluate the effects of online work on financial performance and changes in operating costs. Design/methodology/approach: The population of the study was the employees of PDO – the managers and the employees of the accounting and finance department especially those who were involved with the financial issues and were responsible for the company’s cost and revenue calculations. The study included 54 samples from the population. The survey was conducted through a questionnaire using a Google Form and the samples were selected on a random sampling technique. Interview was also conducted. The data collected were analyzed using different data processing methods of data analysis. Findings: The study revealed that PDO successfully adapted to the transition from traditional working to online working and the technology played a key role in doing so. Employees felt benefitted from online working as they were able to manage work-life balance. It was also observed that working online with efficiency reduced the operating costs and increased productivity. It was confirmed the claim that the work-from-home online working benefitted the company significantly in reducing the operating costs. Research limitations/implications: It was suggested that the employees should be well equipped with modern technological equipment and advanced applications to support the online working conditions. The option should be given to employees to work from home should be made as a part of the work routine work even after the pandemic to maintain the work-life balance. Social Implications : The study suggested that the management including the project owners and managers must focus and work more on developing a work style that suits the requirements of different work teams in online working. Originality / Value: This is the first time a study of this kind was carried out to find out the impacts of pandemic on the operating costs and the financial performance of a company. This is a maiden attempt.

The oil and gas marketing firms in Lagos State are faced with issues such as natural disasters (pandemic), man-made hazards (pipeline vandalization and oil theft) and macro-economic events (economic downturn, high inflation and foreign exchange volatility). These challenges have critically affected consumers purchasing power, cause increasing high cost of operations, dwindling revenue and consequently decline in operating performance of oil and gas companies, especially oil and gas marketing firms. This study investigated the effect of supply chain risk management strategy on business performance of oil and gas marketing companies in Lagos, Nigeria as moderated by firm size. The study adopted a survey research design. The study population study was 1,044 full-time employees of five selected oil and gas marketing companies in the downstream sector of petroleum industry in Nigeria where a sample size of 362 employees were selected. The study adopted purposive, stratified and proportionate sampling techniques. An adapted and validated questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the respondents. Data was analyzed using descriptive and hierarchical multiple regression technique. Findings indicate supply chain risk management strategy had significant effect on usiness performance of oil and gas marketing companies in Lagos, Nigeria. Finding further revealed that firm size significantly moderated the relationship between supply chain risk management strategy and business performance among oil and gas marketing companies in Lagos, Nigeria. The study recommended that management of oil and gas marketing companies need to employ strategic agility measures in order to thoroughly understand the Nigerian oil and gas business environment which is germane for oil and gas marketers so as to enable them build a framework that will enable them survive the changing environment and gain overall performance. Keywords: Firm Size, Food and Beverage Companies’, Business Performance, Supply Chain Risk Management Strategy, Lagos State

Purpose The Oman economy is dominated by production and export of petroleum products and an overdependence on oil revenue, which may have contributed to the continuance of the “resource curse” phenomenon. The purpose of this research is to examine the co-integration of oil with macroeconomic indicators of Oman and of suggesting some policy reform measures to trim down overdependence on oil. Design/methodology/approach The authors culled out data from the annual reports published by the Central Bank of Oman from 1975 to 2016. Considering oil price and oil export volume as regressors, the long-term integration with other macroeconomic indicators was examined by using the bound test. Further, auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was also derived to check the impact of these cross-sectional relations. Findings Oil price is observed to have a strong long-term significant relation with all the macroeconomic variables used in this study. However, the volumes of oil exports do not appear to have significant influence on GDP and consumption but do naturally sway other variables. This indicates that less elasticity of consumption to the flow of macro income, because the consumption in the Omani economy is driven by perceived future income. Oil export revenue is not seems to be much impacting on the real sector as the deficits are funded by the government through compensatory spending. Oil prices and oil exports have exhibited a strong long-term integration with variables such as gross domestic savings (GDS), credit to government (C2G), credit to private (C2P), demand deposits (DD) and time deposits (TD). This hints that oil boom does constitute the key source of funding of the financial sector of Oman. Research limitations/implications This study offers a generalized submission to support the real sector of Oman to lead out of a resource curse through diversification. The study however does not provide industrial groupings to assess the impact of fluctuations in oil prices. Originality/value This research has confirmed the existence of “resource movement” effect and “spending effect” in Oman economy. The nation needs to take radical measures to come out of this phenomenon. For addressing this we have suggested the modified version of Shumpeterian model of creative destruction. In this model we call for demolishing the oil dependent structure with a diversification structure. The new move can bring more positive effect on real and financial sectors of the economy.

CCS projects “accelerated” in 2022 with the CO2 capture capacity of all CCS facilities under development growing 44% over the past 12 months, bringing the total capacity of those projects to 244 mtpa of CO2. In a report released in mid-October, the Global CCS Institute said 61 new facilities were added to the project pipeline in 2022 for a current tally of 30 projects in operation, 11 under construction, and 153 in development. The Americas, especially North America, lead the world in CCS deployment. Recent US and Canadian governmental incentives were cited by the Institute in a regional overview. The US Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes enhancements to Internal Revenue Service Section 45Q and $369 billion in funding for climate and energy. The legislation extends the start of construction timing to the end of 2032; lowers capture thresholds, including direct pay; and expands transferability. The US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes more than $12 billion to be spent on CCS over the next 5 years. Canada’s 2022 federal budget includes an investment tax credit: the credit rate is 60% for direct air capture projects, 50% for all other carbon capture projects, and 37.5% for transportation, storage, and use from 2022 to 2030. From 2031 to 2040, the tax rates drop to 30%, 25%, and 18.75%.The boost in activity is reflected in recent CCS‑related updates reported in JPT: - ExxonMobil joined CF Industries and EnLink in a blue ammonia project in Louisiana that could capture and store 2 million metric tons of CO2 starting in 2025. - Technip Energies signed a letter of intent to design and build a large-scale floating storage and injection hub offshore Australia. It would be the world’s first, since to date, offshore carbon capture and storage projects use pipelines to transport CO2 to injection sites. - Equinor and Wintershall Dea have agreed to develop a comprehensive CCS supply chain system connecting Germany with CSS storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. - Texas and Louisiana are stepping up efforts to assume regulatory authority for an emerging wave of CCS projects.- In October, Canada released draft guidelines on how new oil and gas projects should demonstrate “best-in-class” greenhouse gas emissions performance. SPE’s CO2 Storage Resources Committee, under the SPE Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilization, and Storage Technical Section, published Storage Resources Management System (SRMS) Guidelines to support the commercialization of CO2 storage. Released in September, the guidelines include suggestions for the application of the SRMS with the intent of including details of the processes of quantification, categorization, and classification of storable quantities so that the subjective nature of subsurface assessments can be consistent between storage resource assessors. The role of petroleum engineers in achieving technically sound results in energy transition projects of all kinds was highlighted during a presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition by Josh Etkind, global upstream deepwater digital transformation manager for Shell, and Rita Esuru Okoroafor, assistant professor, Texas A&M University, Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering. In their presentation in the SPE Pavilion, “Transferable Skills: Petroleum Engineering and Geoscience Skills Are Shaping the Low-Emission Energy Transition,” they shared a chart showing the core oil and gas-related technical skill sets required for low-emission energy technologies. Etkind and Okoroafor emphasized the opportunities offered by the technologies shown in the chart below for upstream petroleum engineers and young engineers entering the industry. Looking only at CCS, the Global CCS Institute’s call for the growth of global CO2 storage to “billions of tons per year to meet climate targets” from the current 40 mtpa also points to a growing need for the relevant skills and technical knowledge.

There is a very high demand for the American Petroleum Institute (API) grade baryte in Nigeria due to the continuous massive drilling in oil and gas fields. Considering the presumption that local baryte is of low quality, processed baryte is imported, leading to great national revenue losses. Some baryte deposits in the Northern Cross River, Nigeria were sampled and studied in field and laboratories, based on API standard requirements (2004 and 2010), to ascertain their suitability for use as weighting additive in drilling fluids. Furthermore, flame testing of the samples yielded yellowish-green flame indicating barium presence; X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses confirmed the mineralogy and chemical composition of the samples, respectively. The results revealed the Specific Gravity, SG range of 4.37 to 4.52; concentration of alkali earth metals as calcium 8.40mg/kg to 62.10mg/Kg; the residue >75micron and particle sizes <6microns processed had normal range, respectively below 3% and 30%; and the samples’ BaSO4 %weightcomposition was over 90%. The chemical analysis indicated no significant undesired minerals. Galena gangue with baryte was observed in three locations though these could be easily beneficiated through physical separation. The tests and analyses result qualified the Northern Cross River baryte samples as high-grade API standard baryte, suitable for oilfield drilling fluid. Further estimation of the baryte reserves in this region was highly recommended, as this might proffer a substantial solution to the sustainable supply of excellent local quality drilling baryte in Nigerian oilfields.

CNOOC Turns On the Taps at Two Bohai Sea Fields Production has begun at CNOOC Limited’s Luda 6-2 and Bozhong 26-3 oil field expansion in the Bohai Sea. Luda 6-2 is flowing ahead of schedule, utilizing existing processing facilities of the Suizhong 36-1 oil field. The project has built a new central platform. A total of 38 development wells are planned, including 29 production wells, eight water-injection wells, and one development-and-appraisal well. The project is expected to reach peak production of around 10,000 B/D in 2022. The Bozhong 26-3 oilfield expansion project has also come online. In addition to fully utilizing existing processing facilities, new unmanned wellhead and power platforms were built for the project. A total of eight development wells are planned, including five production wells, two water-injection wells, and one development-and-appraisal well. The project is expected to reach peak production of 2,670 B/D in 2021. CNOOC Limited holds 100% interest in both projects. PPL Awarded Abu Dhabi Offshore Exploration Block A consortium of four Pakistani companies led by Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) was awarded the exploration rights for Offshore Block 5 in Abu Dhabi’s second competitive block bid round. The award marks the first Pakistani company investment in and planned exploration for oil and gas in an Abu Dhabi concession as well as the first partnership between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Pakistani energy companies. Other companies in the consortium include Mari Petroleum Company Limited, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, and Government Holdings (Private) Limited. Under the terms of the agreement, the consortium will hold a 100% stake in the exploration phase, investing up to $304.7 million toward exploration and appraisal drilling, including a participation fee, to explore for and appraise oil and gas opportunities in the block that covers an offshore area of 6223 km2 and is located 100 km northeast of Abu Dhabi. “The PPL-led consortium is delighted to be selected for the concession award of Abu Dhabi’s Offshore Block 5,” said Moin Raza Khan, managing director and chief executive of PPL. “This award is not only a watershed moment for Pakistan and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi towards bilateral energy cooperation and economic links, but also offers an opportunity to strengthen strategic cooperation with ADNOC to share technical know-how and expertise.” Following a successful commercial discovery during the exploration phase, the consortium will have a production concession to develop and produce the discoveries. ADNOC has the option to hold a 60% stake in the production phase, which is 35 years from the commencement of the exploration phase. The block offers the potential to create significant in-country value for the UAE over the lifetime of the concession. In addition to drilling exploration and appraisal wells, the exploration phase will see the consortium leverage and contribute financially and technically to ADNOC’s mega seismic survey, which is acquiring 3D seismic data within the block area. The data already acquired over a large part of the block, combined with its proximity to existing oil and gas fields, suggest the concession area has promising potential. Hess Exits Denmark Upstream Hess Corporation has completed the previously announced sale of its subsidiary Hess Denmark ApS, which holds a 61.5% interest in the South Arne Field, to Ineos E&P AS for a total consideration of $150 million. “The sale of our Denmark asset enables us to further focus our portfolio and strengthen our cash and liquidity position,” said John Hess, chief executive of Hess. “Proceeds will be used to fund our world-class investment opportunity in Guyana.” The transaction was effective 1 January 2021. Beacon Offshore Secures Drillship for Shenandoah Work Beacon Offshore awarded Transocean a $252-million contract for use of its newbuild ultradeepwater drillship Deepwater Atlas to work in the Shenandoah field in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The deal also includes a $30-million mobilization fee from Southeast Asia to the GOM. The Shenandoah program comprises two phases. Once delivered from the shipyard, the Deepwater Atlas is expected to begin operations in Q3 2022, initially using dual blowout preventers (BOP) rated to 15,000 psi. The duration of the drilling program is approximately 255 days and should result in $80 million in contract drilling revenue. Upon completion of initial drilling, a 20,000-psi BOP will be installed on the rig, making it Transocean’s second asset with a 20,000-psi-rated well-control system. The BOP installation and commissioning is expected to last 45 to 60 days, contributing $17 million in revenue. Following the 20,000-psi BOP installation, the Deepwater Atlas will begin the well completion program. The approximate duration of this phase is 275 days and should contribute $125 million in contract drilling revenue. Gambia Block Back on the Market The A1 block offshore Gambia is available for licensing again following a $29.3-million settlement with BP for failing to meet its drilling obligations there, according to the Gambian government. The oil major failed to drill a well before the initial exploration period expired on 29 July. “The A1 Block will revert to the government, free of all encumbrances,” the government statement said. “With BP’s exit, the A1 Block will now be on the market for licensing.” BP was awarded the block’s exploration rights in 2019. Brazil’s 3R Petroleum Negotiating Potiguar Purchase Petrobras is in talks with 3R Petroleum to sell a group of assets in the Potiguar basin for more than $1 billion. In a recent securities filing, Petrobras revealed that 3R presented the best offer in public bidding for the assets in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, known collectively as Polo Potiguar. The assets include 23,000 B/D of onshore and shallow-water oil production, according to 2020 bidding documents. It also includes the Potiguar Clara Camarao Refinery, which has installed capacity of 39,600 B/D. For 3R, the acquisition would more than double the company’s oil production and launch it into the top tier of Brazil’s independent producers, along with Enauta Participacoes and PetroRio. A successful sale would eliminate a noncore asset for Petrobras in a bid to reduce debt and focus on deepwater oil production. Petrobras Spuds Aram Block Wildcat Petrobras has started drilling a wildcat well in the Aram block of the pre-salt of the Santos Basin using Constellation drillship Brava Star, according to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP). The Aram block is operated by Petrobras (80%) in partnership with CNODC, a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. (20%). The two com­panies purchased the area in the only bid of the 6th Pre-­Salt Round in 2019. They paid $1.24 billion in signature bonuses and the minimum allowed profit oil of 29.96%. Drilling at Aram began on 24 August. With the new Petrobras well, Brazil returned to record levels in exploratory activity seen only in the pre­-pandemic period. In all, five wells were drilled in the country during August—the highest number in a single month since May 2019. DNO Begins Drilling at Gomez DNO has kicked off an exploration well at its Gomez prospect on PL006C license offshore Norway. The probe will be drilled to a depth of around 3300 m below sea level, targeting Paleocene-­age formations. DNO Norge AS holds a 65% operated interest in the license; Aker BP holds the balance. Aker BP originally had a 15% interest but recently acquired another 20% interest in PL006C from DNO under a swap agreement in which DNO picked up a 25% participating interest in PL1085 (Tanumåsen) and increased its share from 20 to 30% in PL906 (Mugnetind). The swap, pending government approval, will diversify Aker’s position in the southern North Sea. The Gomez well is being drilled using the Borgland Dolphin. The well is expected to take 45 days. Pre­drill reserve estimates range from 26 to 80 million BOE. The well is close to existing infrastructure, including the Tor and Ekofisk complexes. The Gomez well is one of three exploration wells scheduled this year. The first, Røver Nord (DNO 20%), resulted in what is likely a commercial discovery. Following Gomez, Mugnetind is expected to spud in Q4 2021. Petrobras Starts Production of FPSO Carioca in Sépia Field Petrobras began producing oil and natural gas from FPSO Carioca, the first platform in Sépia field, in the Santos Basin pre­salt. The FPSO is located approximately 200 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in water depths of 2200 m. The FPSO, chartered from Modec, has the capacity to process up to 180,000 B/D and to compress up to 6 million m3 of natural gas. Seven producing wells and four injection wells will be hooked into the FPSO. The oil production will be transported by offloading vessels, while the gas production will be moved through the pre­salt gas pipeline routes. The project also has a system to remove CO2 from the gas produced and reinject it into the reservoir, reducing the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and improving oil recovery. The Sépia shared reservoir comprises the Sépia and Sépia Leste fields, located in the Transfer of Rights and Concession (BM­S­24) areas, respectively, and operated by Petrobras (97.6%) in partnership with Petrogal Brasil (2.4%).

Learning outcomes This case study focuses on the problems that a company have in segmenting a local market of a gas distribution company and some strategies that they can use for developing a viable market segmentation to target the right segment that will provide a good economics, revenue base customers who also have the mindset to change to a new product. At the end of this exercise, students should have a clear understanding of the following: the essentials concepts of market segmentation, targeting and positioning and how they can be leveraged so that businesses increase their returns; the main elements/steps that drive market segmentation and business positioning; the appropriate methods for market segmentation when targeting local markets for a city gas project; and the challenges companies might face when changing a product. Case overview/synopsis In 2018, commercial customers began asking Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Distribution to provide a sustainable solution to ensure a continuous supply of safe gas and avoid the interruptions and hazards associated with the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to their premises. The request was discussed with the ADNOC marketing, supply and trading (MST) Division to investigate the possibility of growing the natural gas business in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, thus contributing to the Emirate’s security, economy, environment and community, and ultimately to ADNOC Strategy 2030. Khaled Salmeen, Director of the ADNOC MST Division, believed that industrial customers accounted for higher business volume and profitability. Nevertheless, he advised Shuhab Al Shehhi, the City Gas Project Manager, to study the potential benefits in targeting both residential and commercial customers as part of ADNOC’s responsibility towards community engagement and investments. Al Shehhi had to address several questions: How could the City Gas Project be strategized and positioned so as to target all market segments? What were the potential outcomes? Would targeting all market segments strengthen ADNOC’s brand position? Complexity academic level This case study was written for Marketing and Strategic Management courses in Bachelor of Business Administration programs. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS: 8 Marketing

Oil and gas resources present enormous opportunities for the economic development of low income economies, but poor management of these resources can result in dire consequences for the foundations of the resource-endowed nation. The discovery of oil and gas in Ghana is as significant as the policies and measures to ensure optimum benefits to the nation. This paper evaluates the sustainability of petroleum production in the light of the medium term policy structure, the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA). In particular, the economic contribution of oil and gas to Ghana’s GDP and sustainable investment options for petroleum revenues were examined using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The evidence suggests that at current production levels, petroleum is not a significant contributor to Ghana’s GDP after adjusting for the contribution from other sectors of the economy. The consistent appreciation of Ghana’s real effective exchange rate between 2010 and 2013 led to a deterioration of the competitiveness of the non-oil sector and declining contribution of the agricultural sector to GDP; and further eroded the net impact of petroleum production. Investing petroleum proceeds in the non-oil sector and expansion of the export base are a viable option for utilising petroleum revenues.

While natural gas will remain an indispensable source of energy for several decades, public opinion seems to be looking forward to its demise, prompted by valid concerns regarding global warming. Case in point: The Dutch government has decided to abandon the 98-Tcf Groningen gas field as soon as practical, foregoing domestic production of some 21 Tcf and the $100 billion–$200 billion in associated revenue. Decarbonization has become a key part of the energy future, in part using technology developed during the past 50 years of significant gas production. In the meantime, in response to sustained global demand, the development of gas production technology continues unabated. The chain starts with enabling production from an ever-wider range of resources, including source rock (shale), coal-seam gas, deep offshore gas, contaminated gas, and methane-hydrate sediment or by maximizing recovery from existing reservoirs by enhanced-gas-recovery schemes based on injection of nitrogen or carbon dioxide. Recovering these resources requires novel drilling, completion, and process techniques to ensure that sufficient gas volume is connected and gas capacity is realized economically. Next, proper measurement and surveillance is needed to characterize, analyze, and optimize asset performance. With the advent of the digital age, data has become abundant, and machine learning and artificial intelligence are being deployed to distill its value. While progress is made characterizing the microscopic behavior of reservoir rock and computing power is ever-expanding, predicting the macroscopic production forecast of gas wells and reservoirs remains a challenge, given their unseen and fickle nature. Hence, a continuous need exists for interventions that mitigate deferment and sustain production. Water in particular tends to be an eternal companion and frequent enemy of gas production. Remedial techniques are indispensable and continue to evolve, again aided by digitization. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 205119 - The Key Factors of Low-Frequency Electric-Heating-Assisted Depressurization Method in the Exploiting of Methane-Hydrate Sediments by Ermeng Zhao, China University of Petroleum, et al. SPE 209531 - Dvalin Gas Field Developments and Optimization by Using Inflow Tracer Technology Information by Alireza Roostaei, Resman, et al. SPE 206195 - Data-Driven Optimization of Intermittent Gas Production in Mature Fields Assisted by Deep Learning and a Population-Based Global Optimizer by Javier Fatou Gómez, TNO, et al.

Purpose Over the decade the trend of Global Fortune 500 firms has shown significant changes – Japanese and Chinese firms in particular. The purpose of this paper is to present trend analysis of Global Fortune 500 – Japanese and Chinese firms. Key research questions are: what are the relevant macro-level changes that have affected the growth and decline of Japanese and Chinese firms? What are the industry-level changes that have occurred in Japanese and Chinese firms in terms of firm characteristics and financial performances? What are the lessons and implications from the firms added to or removed from Global Fortune 500? Data analysis is conducted based on Fortune database from 1995 to 2013. Design/methodology/approach The study employs descriptive analysis to examine the trend of Japanese and Chinese firms listed in Global Fortune 500 including: based on revenue and profit figures from 1995 to 2013; the authors perform trend analysis for each of those five types from 1995 to 2013; the authors replicate the analyses for different industry types in terms of the above five types; the authors compare the performances of Japanese and Chinese firms; based on 2011-2013 data, the authors conduct more in-depth analysis for selected firms. Findings The findings suggest five distinct types of firms including “Sustainables,” “New Comers,” “Move Ups,” “Decliners,” and “Drop Outs”; it is interesting to note that the changes in Global Fortune 500 firms suggest how these two countries show their relative competitive advantage. Chinese firms show steady flows of new firms that join in the rank of Global Fortune 500 whereas Japanese firms suggest continuous drop of firms that move out of Global Fortune 500 firms. As China increases its size of economy, state-owned financial institutions, resource-focus firms (e.g. mining and petroleum) firms also rapidly increased its overall size. Although the number is still small, privately owned Chinese global firms (e.g. Lenovo, Huawei, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Ping An Insurance) also are now listed as Global Fortune 500 firms. In contrast, Japanese firms that lost their global market positions steadily disappeared from Global Fortune 500 firms. Representative firms include Daiei, Mitsubishi Motor Company, and NEC. Research limitations/implications One limitation of the analysis on financial indicators is that the authors select only a few firms and focus only on two time points. Nevertheless, it provides the authors information about the financial factors that characterize the two types of Global Fortune 500 firms. Moreover, it opens up new opportunities for future research. Practical implications Factors that influence the behaviors of Global Fortune 500 firms suggest both external environmental and internal managerial factors. Although serious external factors (e.g. Global Financial Crisis) affect the outcomes of these competitive positioning, it is still the managerial leadership that makes differences in cases of many Japanese firms. To Japanese firms maintaining domestic advantage is not enough to sustain their position in Global Fortune 500. Global competitiveness matters. On the other hand, it is unclear whether changes occurring in Chinese firms are more managerial than externally dictated. In case of many Chinese financial firms and resource rich firms, the huge domestic advantage has much to do with their position in Global Fortune 500. Originality/value This is the first trend analysis that examines the Global Fortune 500 firms from Japan and China. The authors identify five types of firms that would be an important basis for the further benchmarking studies of Global Fortune 500 firms in other counties (e.g. the USA, Germany, Korea, and other Emerging Economies – Russia, India, Brazil).

ABSTRACT This work conducts a comparative analysis on how diamonds and petroleum produce differing types of economic inequality in resource curse states, contributing to institutional entropy. By arguing for the causal primacy of resources in types of eventuated curses, this approach posits the concept of a “resource class” in diamond- and petroleum-producing resource curse states. Strength tests of resource classes against a variety of independent variables finds that petroleum-based resource classes funnel revenues to fewer, more powerful individuals than diamond-based classes, at the expense of currency stability, equal opportunity for women and minorities, and competing interest groups. Conversely, diamond resource classes tend to be more egalitarian, yet a negative correlation is observed between the market economy and diamond production among cursed states.

This article addresses the perspectives of Public Service Management in Ecuador, a Latin American country which saw various social changes and political paradigms. The new Constitution of Ecuador was launched in 2008 in a scenario where nationalism replaced the liberal paradigm in Ecuador. Its main features were the defence of postliberal values and sovereignty as a superior principle. On the other hand, the role of the public sector in the economy of Ecuador grew after 1972 when petroleum revenues increased remarkably. Nowadays, the public sector reduction was entered into force after the collapse in the price of crude oil in 2014 and an earthquake of 7.8 Mw that devastated the coast of Manabí in 2016. In this context, during the presidency of the former president Rafael Correa, new principles were instituted, such as decentralisation, the new concept of public servant and new methodologies such as National Management for Results. The methodology used is secondary data sources including various types of books, journal articles, government and non-governmental reports, government implementation plans.

The petroleum (oil, gas and LNG) business environment in 2020 was adverse. Two factors disrupted the foundations of the global oil and gas industry. First, the COVID-19 global pandemic caused an unprecedented reduction of demand that combined with high levels of production resulted in oversupply of oil, gas and LNG. This gap between supply and demand resulted in a collapse in commodity prices, reduced revenues and cancelling or deferral of investment. Second, societal awareness of the impact of climate change on planet Earth increased. Pressure to reduce carbon emissions and a concomitant societal-shift against carbon-emissions intensive petroleum-based forms of energy generation intensified. Many major players in the petroleum industry re-framed their strategies to focus on energy supply in general and in some cases plan to cease their exploration, development and production activities in the coming decades. In Australia, in part global factors manifested in the deferral of investment decisions on three LNG investments. The Australian Government signalled that gas developments would be a critical part of Australia’s post-COVID recovery and that management of abandonment and decommissioning liabilities would be a factor in the approval of transactions leading to a change in ownership. This paper will describe each of the factors faced by the industry in 2020 and frame the issues facing the petroleum industry in 2021 and beyond.

GOM Lease Sale Generates $121 Million in High Bids; Shell Offshore Takes Top Spot Regionwide US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 256 generated $120,868,274 in high bids for 93 tracts in federal waters. The sale on 18 November featured 14,862 unleased blocks covering 121,875 square miles. With $27,877,809 spanning 21 high bids, Shell Offshore Inc. took the top spot among 23 competing companies. A total of $135,558,336 was offered in 105 bids. Among the majors, Shell, Equinor, BP, and Chevron submitted some of the highest bids. Each company claimed high bids of over $17 million, signaling the GOM remains a priority in their portfolios. Last year was a record year for American offshore oil production at 596.9 million bbl, or 15% of domestic oil production, and $5.7 billion in direct revenues to the government. Offshore oil and gas supported 275,000 total domestic jobs and $60 billion total economic contributions in the US. “The sustained presence of large deposits of hydrocarbons in these waters will continue to draw the interest of industry for decades to come,” Deputy Secretary of the Interior Kate MacGregor said. Still, as Mfon Usoro, senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, noted, “Although bidding activity increased by 30% from the March 2020 sale, the high bid amount of $121 million still trends below the average high bid amount seen in previous regionwide lease sales, proving that companies are still being conservative with exploration spend.” Although the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has proposed another regionwide GOM lease sale in March 2021, Usoro predicted that Lease Sale 256 “could potentially be one of the last lease sales.” “With the Biden administration set to inaugurate next year and possibly ban future lease sales, a massive land grab might have ensued,” he continued. “But companies are constrained by tight budgets due to the prevailing low oil price. Additionally, companies in the region have existing drilling inventory to sustain them in the near term. The best blocks with the highest potential reserves are likely already leased. As a result, we do not expect a potential ban on leasing to materially impact production in the region until the end of the decade.” This was the seventh offshore sale held under the 2017–2022 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program; two sales a year for 10 total regionwide lease sales are scheduled for the gulf. Nine Areas on Norwegian Continental Shelf Open for Bids The 25th licensing round on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, comprising eight areas in the Barents Sea and one in the Norwegian Sea, has been announced by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Known for being a country with some of the greenest credentials and policies in the world, Norway surprised observers in June by announcing plans for a licensing round that signaled further oil exploration in the Norwegian sector of the Arctic Sea. In this round, 136 blocks/parts of blocks will be available: 11 in the Norwegian Sea and 125 in the Barents Sea. The application deadline for companies is 23 February 2021. New production licenses will be awarded in Q2 2021. Johan Sverdrup Capacity Increased to Half Million B/D Following positive results in a November capacity test, the Johan Sverdrup field is set to increase daily production capacity. Capacity will rise from today’s 470,000 to around 500,000 B/D in the second increase since the field came on stream just over a year ago. The move will increase the field’s total production capacity by around 60,000 bbl more than the original basis when the field came on line. Overall, the field is estimated to have resources of 2.7 billion BOE. “The field has low operating costs, providing revenue for the companies and Norwegian society, even in periods with low prices,” said Jez Averty, Equinor’s senior vice president for operations south in development and production, Norway. The Johan Sverdrup field uses water injection to secure high recovery of reserves and maintain production at a high level. An increase in the water-injection capacity should further increase production capacity by mid-2021, according to Rune Nedregaard, vice president for Johan Sverdrup operations. Phase 2 production starting in Q4 2022 will raise the Johan Sverdrup full-field plateau production capacity from 690,000 to around 720,000 B/D. Equinor operates the field with 42.6% stake; other partners include Lundin Norway (20%), Petoro (17.36%), Aker BP (11.57%), and Total (8.44%). ConocoPhillips Makes Significant Gas Discovery Offshore Norway ConocoPhillips announced a new natural-gas condensate discovery in production license 1009, located 22 miles northwest of the Heidrun oil and gas field and 150 miles offshore Norway in the Norwegian Sea. The wildcat well 6507/4-1 (Warka) was drilled in 1,312 ft of water to a total depth of 16,355 ft. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 50 and 190 million BOE. Further appraisals will determine potential flow rates, the reservoir’s ultimate resource recovery, and plans for development. “The Warka discovery and potential future opportunities represent very low cost-of-supply resource additions that can extend our multi-decade success on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” said Matt Fox, executive vice president and chief operating officer. The drilling operation, which was permitted to ConocoPhillips in August 2020, was performed by the Transocean-managed Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible rig. ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS is the main operator of the license with a 65% working interest; PGNiG Upstream Norway AS holds the remaining stake. Lundin Energy Completes Barents Sea Exploration Well, Comes Up Dry Lundin Energy has completed exploration well 7221/4-1, targeting the Polmak prospect in licenses PL609 and PL1027, in the southern Barents Sea. The well was meant to prove hydrocarbons in Triassic-aged sandstones within the Kobbe formation of the Polmak prospect. After finding indications of hydrocarbons in a 9-m interval in poor-quality reservoir in the targeted formation, the well was classified as dry. The well was drilled 30 km east of the Johan Castberg discovery, by the Seadrill-operated West Bollsta semisubmersible rig. Lundin Energy, operator of Polmak, holds a 47.51% working interest. Partners are Wintershall DEA Norge AS (25%), Inpex Norge AS (10%), DNO Norge AS (10%), and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS (7.5%). Polmak is the first of Lundin’s three high-impact exploration prospects drilled this quarter in the Barents Sea; the wells target gross unrisked prospective resources of over 800 million bbl of oil. The West Bollsta rig will now proceed to drill the Lundin Energy-operated Bask prospect in PL533B. Well 7219/11-1 will target Paleocene-aged sandstones, estimated to hold gross unrisked prospective resources of 250 million bbl of oil. Tullow Sells Remaining Stake in Ugandan Oil Field Tullow Oil has completed the 10 November sale of its assets in Uganda to French giant Total for $500 million. Tullow will also receive $75 million when a final investment decision is taken on the development project, calculated to hold 1.7 billion bbl of crude oil. Contingent payments are payable after production begins if Brent crude prices rise above $62/bbl. The completion of this transaction marks Tullow’s exit from its licenses in Uganda after 16 years of operations in the Lake Albert basin. The deal is designed to strengthen Tullow’s balance sheet, as tumbling crude prices combined with exploration setbacks have created problems for the company. In September, the company reported that it had lost $1.3 billion in the first 6 months of 2020 as falling oil prices forced it to write down the value of its assets. The deal cut Tullow’s net debt to $2.4 billion; it has $1 billion in cash.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease has gravely shaken the world economy. The economies of many countries have come under severe strain; Nigeria’s petroleum industry has been particularly affected. This has threatened the countries’ budgets and other essential needs involved in citizens’ welfare. The government is taking drastic measures to combat this scourge, with few results. This study adopts a doctrinal legal research approach and considers both the primary and secondary sources of law, such as judicial precedents, international conventions, and peer-reviewed journals. Legal theories were also applied as an academic lens for modelling the research. The justification for using the method was to establish the trustworthiness of the findings on the impacts of crude oil price shock on Nigeria’s economy, its legal and policy options. This study investigates the influences of oil price shock on the country’s economy and the legal remedies required to build economic resilience to mitigate future contingencies. The study argues that the provisions of the extant laws can be utilised as a preventive mechanism for tackling the impacts of oil price shock on Nigeria’s economy. The study recommends other remedial measures, such as diversification from oil and gas to non-oil sectors. The study designed a hybrid model for mitigating the influences of crude oil prices on the country’s extractive wealth. The study advocates for the need for an effective legal regime to shield the domestic economy from international oil price instability. The implications of the main results are that crude oil production and prices play a significant role in real growth enhancement. However, they exert a negative but unsustainable standard innovation on growth, which could be mitigated through appropriate legal and policy options. Nigeria needs stringent, transparent, and the best petroleum management practice laws to manage its petroleum sector’s revenues for sustainability.

Abstract Ghana is often cited as one of Africa’s most stable democracies. Since 2004, the country has awarded 18 petroleum agreements to various international oil companies (IOCs) and their local partners to explore for hydrocarbons in its offshore basins. In 2010, Ghana became an oil-producing country following earlier commercial discoveries in 2007. Nevertheless, the likelihood of the Ghanaian State getting its fair share of petrodollar revenues primarily depends on its ability to negotiate good petroleum contracts and effectively regulate the industry. This article examines the legal and political economy factors that influence contract outcomes in Ghana’s oil and gas industry. It sheds light on how the inner workings of the political economy, especially in a competitive clientelist setup involving intense electoral competition between two dominant parties in an emerging oil-producing country, influence contractual outcomes—an area less explored in the literature. We find that the country's emerging oil and gas industry has become deeply intertwined with the pervasive, entrenched and clientelist multi-party politics of the day. As such, entrenched rentier social groups—business and political elites—have sometimes sabotaged institutional reform to create conditions that favour rent capture. This is evident, for example, in the award of oil and gas licensing and other supply chain contracts. Ghana’s post-1992 ‘winner takes all’ political mindset and the perceived big financial bonanzas the oil industry offers, resulted in suspicions of impropriety regarding the award of some oil acreages. We argue that if the laws were allowed to work, as they should in practice, Ghana’s oil and gas industry would be better regulated, and better outcomes would arise from the contracting process. Discretionary power should be limited as much as possible and, where granted, subject to a high level of scrutiny.

Sonadrill Lands Contract for Drillship Seadrill confirmed a new contract has been secured by Sonadrill Holding, Seadrill’s 50:50 joint venture with an affiliate of Sonangol for the drillship West Gemini. Sonadrill has secured a 10‑well contract with options for up to eight additional wells in Angola for an unknown operator. Total contract value for the firm portion of the deal is expected to be around $161 million, with further revenue potential from a performance bonus. The rig is expected to begin the work in the fourth quarter of this year with a firm term of about 18 months, in direct continuation of the West Gemini’s existing contract. The West Gemini is the third drillship to be bareboat chartered into Sonadrill, along with two Sonangol‑owned units, the Sonangol Quenguela and Sonangol Libongos. Seadrill will manage and operate the units on behalf of Sonadrill. Together, the three units position the Seadrill joint venture as an active rig operator in Angola, furthering the goal of building an ultradeepwater franchise in the Golden Triangle and driving efficiencies from rig clustering in the region. Petrobras Receives TotalEnergies, Shell Payments for Atapu TotalEnergies and Shell have formalized payments to Petrobras for separate, minority stakes in the pre‑salt Atapu field in the Santos Basin. TotalEnergies paid $4.7 billion reais ($940 million) while Shell paid closer to $1.1 billion. The Atapu block was acquired by the consortium comprising Petrobras (52.5%), Shell (25%), and TotalEnergies (22.5%) in the Second Bidding Round for the Transfer of Rights auction held 17 December 2021. The payments are compensation for monies spent thus far by Petrobras, which was granted contractual rights to produce 550 million BOE from Atapu in 2010. The partners will now work together to produce additional volumes from the field. Production at Atapu started in June 2020 via the P-70 FPSO. The unit is in about 2000 m of water and has the capacity to produce 150,000 BOED. CNOOC Brings New Bohai Sea Discoveries On Stream CNOOC Limited has kicked off production from its Luda 5‑2 oil field North Phase I project and Kenli 6‑1 oil field 4‑1 Block development project. Luda 5‑2 is in the Liaodong Bay of Bohai Sea, with average water depth of about 32 m and utilizes a thermal recovery wellhead platform and production platform tied into the Suizhong 36‑1 oil field. A total of 28 development wells are planned, including 26 production wells and two water‑source wells. The project is expected to reach its peak production of 8,200 B/D of oil in 2024. Kenli 6‑1 is in the south of Bohai Sea, with average water depth of about 17 m. The resource is being developed by a wellhead platform in addition to fully utilizing the existing processing facilities of the Bozhong 34‑9 oil field. A total of 12 development wells are planned, including seven production wells and five water‑injection wells. The field is expected to reach its peak production of 4,000 B/D of oil later this year. CNOOC Limited is operator and sole owner of the Luda 5‑2 oil field North and the Kenli 6‑1 oil field 4‑1 Block. Stabroek Block Bounty Off Guyana Gets Bigger The partners in the prolific Stabroek Block have again increased the gross discovered recoverable resource estimate for the area offshore Guyana. The owners now believe they have discovered reserves of at least 11 billion BOE, up from the previous estimate of more than 10 billion BOE. The updated resource estimate includes three new discoveries on the block at Barreleye, Lukanani, and Patwa in addition to the Fangtooth and Lau Lau discoveries announced earlier this year. The Barreleye‑1 well encountered approximately 70 m of hydrocarbon‑bearing sandstone reservoirs of which 16 m is high‑quality oil‑bearing. The well was drilled in 1170 m of water and is located 32 km southeast of the Liza field. The Lukanani‑1 well encountered 35 m of hydrocarbon‑bearing sandstone reservoirs of which approximately 23 m is high‑quality oil‑ bearing. The well was drilled in water depth of 1240 m and is in the southeastern part of the block, approximately 3 km west of the Pluma discovery. The Patwa‑1 well encountered 33 m of hydrocarbon‑bearing sandstone reservoirs. The well was drilled in 1925 m of water and is located approximately 5 km northwest of the Cataback‑1 discovery. “These new discoveries further demonstrate the extraordinary resource density of the Stabroek Block and will underpin our queue of future development opportunities,” said John Hess, chief executive of Hess and a partner in Stabroek. The co‑venturers have sanctioned four developments to date on Stabroek with both Liza and Liza Phase 2 on stream. The third planned development at Payara is ahead of schedule and is now expected to come on line in late 2023; it will utilize the Prosperity FPSO with a production capacity of 220,000 BOPD. The fourth development, Yellowtail, is expected to come on line in 2025, utilizing the ONE GUYANA FPSO with a production capacity of 250,000 BOPD of oil. At least six FPSOs with a production capacity of more than 1 million gross BOPD are expected to be on line on the Stabroek Block in 2027, with the potential for up to ten FPSOs to develop gross discovered recoverable resources. The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres. ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is operator and holds 45% interest; Hess Guyana Exploration holds 30% interest; and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited holds 25%. ConocoPhillips Gets Ekofisk License Extension Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) has extended production licenses in the Greater Ekofisk Area from 2028 to 2048 with ConocoPhillips as operator. The company said the license extension provides long‑term operations and resource management aligned with the company’s long‑term perspective on the Norwegian continental shelf. Fields on the shelf are required to operate with a valid production license where the operator and licensees enter into an agreement with the authorities, including relevant field activities. The authorities may require commitments, leading to increased oil recovery. The existing production licenses 018, 018 B, and 275 in the Greater Ekofisk Area were set to expire on 31 December 2028; however, the MPE approved an extension through 2048. The new terms provide a potential for extending Ekofisk’s lifetime to nearly 80 years. The license partners are ConocoPhillips (operator, 35.11%), TotalEnergies EP Norge (39.896%), Vår Energi (12.388%), Equinor (7.604%), and Petoro (5%). BHP’s Wasabi Disappoints in US GOM Australian operator BHP encountered noncommercial hydrocarbons with its Wasabi‑2 well in the US Gulf of Mexico. BHP said the well in Green Canyon Block 124 was plugged and abandoned following the disappointing results. “This completes the Wasabi exploration program, with results under evaluation to determine next steps,” the company said. The well was targeting oil in an early Miocene reservoir. Transocean drillship Deepwater Invictus spudded the well in 764 m of water in November 2021. The previous Wasabi‑1 well had a mechanical problem and was plugged and abandoned 4 days earlier, prior to reaching its prospective targets. BHP operates Wasabi with a 75% interest. Lukoil Says Titonskaya Holds 150 Million BOE Russia’s Lukoil believes it has discovered around 150 million BOE following analysis of the two wells it drilled at the Titonskaya structure on the Caspian Sea shelf. Work is now underway to refine the seismic models of productive deposits and study deep samples of formation fluids. The results of the assessment will be submitted to the State Reserves Commission of the Russian Federation. The structure is in the central part of the Caspian Sea, not far from the Khazri field. Lukoil drilled the first well at the Titonskaya structure in 2020 and announced the new discovery in April 2021. According to that assessment, the probable geological resources of the Titonskaya are 130.4 million tons. In 2021, drilling of the second prospecting and appraisal well began to identify oil and gas deposits in the terrigenous‑carbonate deposits of the Jurassic‑ Cretaceous age. The well was drilled using the Neptune jackup drilling rig. The new find at Titonskaya will likely be tied into Khazri infrastructure. Petrobras’ Roncador IOR Project Comes On Line Petrobras has successfully started production from the first two wells of the improved oil recovery (IOR) project at the Roncador field in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. The two wells are the first of a series of IOR wells to reach production. Startup is almost 5 months ahead of schedule and at half of the planned cost, according to partner Equinor. The wells will add a combined 20,000 BOED to Roncador, bringing daily production to around 150,000 bbl and reducing the carbon intensity (emissions per barrel produced) of the field. Through this first IOR project, the partnership will drill 18 wells that are expected to provide additional recoverable resources of 160 million bbl. Improvements in well design and the partners’ combined technological experience are the main drivers behind the 50% cost reduction across the first six wells, including the two in production. Roncador is Brazil’s fifth‑largest producing asset and has been in production since 1999. Petrobras operates the field and holds a 75% stake. In 2018, Equinor entered the project as a strategic partner with the remaining 25% interest. In addition to the planned 18 IOR wells, the partnership believes it can further improve recovery and aims to increase recoverable resources by a total of 1 billion BOE. The field has more than 10 billion BOE in place under a license lasting until 2052. The strategic alliance agreement also includes an energy‑efficiency and CO2‑emissions‑reduction program for Roncador. Gazania-1 To Spud Off South Africa Africa Energy will move ahead with its planned Gazania‑1 wildcat well offshore South Africa after securing partner Eco Atlantic’s $20 million in capital requirements for its portion of the probe. The well will be drilled in Block 2B. Island Drilling semisubmersible Island Innovator has been contracted for the work and is expected to mobilize from its current location in the North Sea for the 45‑day trip to South Africa. The Block 2B joint venture plans to spud the well by October with drilling expected to last 30 days, including a full set of logs if the well is successful. The block has significant contingent and prospective resources in relatively shallow water and contains the A‑J1 discovery that flowed light sweet crude oil to surface. Gazania‑1 will target two large prospects 7 km updip from A‑J1 in the same region as the recent Venus and Graff discoveries. Block 2B is located offshore South Africa in the Orange Basin where both TotalEnergies and Shell recently announced significant oil and gas discoveries offshore Namibia. The block covers 3062 km2 approximately 25 km off the west coast of South Africa near the border with Namibia in water depths ranging from 50 m to 200 m. The Southern Oil Exploration Corp. (Soekor) discovered and tested oil on Block 2B in 1988 with the A‑J1 borehole, which intersected thick reservoir sandstones between 2985 m and 3350 m. The well flowed 191 B/D of 36 °API oil from a 10‑m sandstone interval at around 3250 m. Africa Energy has a 27.5% interest in Block 2B offshore South Africa. The block is operated by a subsidiary of Eco Atlantic which holds a 50% interest. A subsidiary of Panoro Energy holds a 12.5% stake, and Crown Energy AB indirectly holds the remaining 10%. Brazil Grants New Exploration Blocks Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP) has granted 59 exploratory blocks of oil and natural gas to 13 companies, including Shell, TotalEnergies, and 3R Petroleum. The awards were part of a permanent bid offer round held in Rio de Janiero in April. The auction totaled 422.4 million reais in signature bonuses with leases granted in six Brazilian states: Rio Grande do Norte, Alagoas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Santa Catarina, and Paraná. The awards will result in investments of 406.3 million reais in the exploratory phase of the contracts. Shell Brazil (70%) was granted six blocks in the Santos Basin in a consortium with the Colombian Ecopetrol (30%). The blocks leases were SM‑1599, SM‑1601, SM‑1713, SM‑1817, SM‑1908, and SM‑1910. TotalEnergies won two areas in the same basin while Brazilian company 3R Petroleum received six areas in the Potiguar Basin. Petro‑Victory was also awarded 19 new blocks in Potiguar, increasing its holdings in Brazil to 38 blocks (37 in Potiguar). The new blocks are nearby Petro‑Victory infrastructure at the Andorinha, Alto Alegre, and Trapia oil fields. Eni Finds More Oil in Egypt’s Western Desert Eni struck new oil and gas reserves with a trio of discoveries in the Meleiha concessions of Egypt’s Western Desert. The finds have already been tied into existing infrastructure in the region and have added around 8,500 BOED to overall production from the area. The operator drilled the Nada E Deep 1X well, which encountered 60 m of net hydrocarbon pay in the Cretaceous‑Jurassic Alam El Bueib and Khatatba formations Meleiha SE Deep 1X well, which found 30 m of net hydrocarbon pay in the Cretaceous‑Jurassic sands of the Matruh Khatatba formations, and the Emry Deep 21 well, which encountered 35 m of net hydrocarbon pay in the massive cretaceous sandstones of Alam El Bueib. The results, added to the discoveries of 2021 for a total of eight exploration wells, give Eni a 75% success rate in the region. The company added that additional exploration activities in the concession are ongoing with “promising indications.” With these discoveries, Eni, through AGIBA, a joint venture between Eni and EGPC, continues to pursue its near‑field strategy in the mature basin of the Western Desert, aimed at maximizing production by containing development costs and minimizing time to market. Eni is planning a new high‑resolution 3D seismic survey in the Meleiha concession this year to investigate the gas potential of the area. Eni is currently the leading producer in Egypt with an equity production of around 360,000 BOED.

Ecology is often discussed as a matter of balance, in which environmental protection must be affordable and not interfere with jobs or the economy. At the same time, the economy is based on wastefulness. It has been estimated that the embodied energy in wasted food in the United States is greater than the energy available from the production of ethanol and from the annual yield from petroleum drilling in the outer continental shelf (Cuéllar & Webber, 2010). In addition, rising demand for fossil fuels is being met by sources that bring increasing environmental risk. This paper summarizes the industrial ecology aspects of a 2010 study completed by a cross-functional team of specialists in ecology, engineering, economics, and governance in Vancouver, Canada. The Integrated Resource Recovery Study, Metro Vancouver North Shore Communities (the North Shore Study) modeled the value of producing reclaimed water, electricity, and heat from wastewater, clean organic wood waste, and waste heat from industry simultaneously. The results suggest that this integrated approach could yield significant ecological benefits, and reduce the community’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. In addition, revenues from sales of recovered heat, water, greenhouse gas credits, and fertilizer could significantly reduce the cost of municipal waste management to taxpayers.

Abstract In Nigeria, the decline in the efficiency of the cocoa industry in particular and of agricultural production in general began after the country gained independence. At that time, oil was discovered, and that stole the attention of the government in terms of financing. Over time, the country’s budget has become highly dependent on fluctuations in prices for petroleum products, and there emerged a critical need to diversify state revenues. Nigeria’s successive governments over the past 60 years have made repeated attempts to revive agriculture as an alternative to the oil sector, but all of them have proven unsuccessful. The author believes that the recovery of the cocoa sector can become the most important vector for strengthening the country’s food security. Increased foreign exchange earnings from the export of cocoa products will enable Nigeria to purchase more food to meet the needs of the population. The author considers the lack of qualified management and competent agricultural policy in the country as the reason for the degradation of the cocoa industry and puts forward a roadmap for the development of the sector in Nigeria, which takes into account its current problems and may return the industry to the path of sustainable growth.