Strategic and Tactical Crude Oil Supply Chain: Mathematical Programming Models

Crude oil industry very fast became a strategic industry. Then, optimization of the Crude Oil Supply Chain (COSC) models has created new challenges. This fact motivated me to study the COSC mathematical programming models. We start with a systematic literature review to identify promising avenues. Afterwards, we elaborate three concert models to fill identified gaps in the COSC context, which are (i) joint venture formation, (ii) integrated upstream, and (iii) environmentally conscious design

Building a Biorefinery Business - If it does not fit, make it fit - strategies for successful commercialization

Due to a combination of economic challenges as well as uncertain policy conditions in the United States and the European Union, the development of (advanced) biorefineries has been slower than anticipated. This has hampered the transition to a more sustainable and less carbon-intensive economy, namely the bioeconomy. In this thesis, the technological innovation system (TIS) approach is combined with the business model (BM) framework to analyze how biorefineries have addressed commercialization challenges and system weaknesses in practice. Hereby, a business-centered perspective is taken, using case study analysis and expert interviews as major means of empirical data collection. The analysis highlights a number of key strategies that have been applied: (1) cooperation, partnerships and networks play a major role for e.g. the mobilization of resources, market formation and knowledge development and diffusion; (2) a high degree of vertical integration, especially upstream, is found to overcome feedstock related challenges (3) product and market diversification into higher values is perceived as key to overcome dependence on oil prices and policy frameworks. Furthermore, prospects for lignocellulosic biorefineries are considered low due to unfavorable economics and lack of policy incentives. In addition to the empirical contribution, the study contributes with novel insights into the role of agency and individual actors as system builders within the TIS framework. The thesis thus suggests that both actor specific activities as well as policy measures are needed to overcome system weaknesses to achieve successful commercialization of biorefineries

Roles of Information Technology in Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Information Technology (SCIT) is a key enabler of effective supply chain management (SCM) activities. In 2013, $300 billion was spent on SCIT by firms globally, an increase by 1.8% and 3.8% compared to 2012 and 2011, respectively. With such significant investments, firms face risks of eroded financial performance if SCIT does not perform as expected. In fact, there is a mix of evidence with some firms benefiting from SCIT while others failing to benefit from investing in SCIT. Despite substantial research relating to utilizing information technology in a SCM context, the impact of SCIT on firm performance remains unclear. In particular, the extant literature has reported contradictive results regarding relationships between SCIT and firm performance. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to conduct a systematic investigation of roles of information technology in SCM and shed light on this extremely important research area. In chapter 2, we investigate the direct impact of SCIT on firm performance by conducting a meta-analysis study. Specifically, we look at four types of SCIT characteristics (e.g. application integration, data compatibility, analytic ability, and evaluation and alertness ability) within three loci of utilization: upstream, downstream, and both upstream-downstream. We find that SCIT is not universally associated with improved firm performance. In particular, SCIT has multiple characteristics, and each characteristic is linked to different performance indicators. In chapter 3, we investigate how SCIT can conditionally change the relationship between supply base complexity (SBC) or customer base complexity (CBC) and performance. Extant literature suggests that a complex supply or customer base can lead to suboptimal organizational performance. Using secondary data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Annual Survey of Manufacturers, we are able to examine the impact of SBC and CBC on performance at the industry level of analysis. Further, we find that SCIT helps eliminate the negative impact of SBC and CBC on performance. By systematically investigating the direct and indirect impacts of SCIT on performance, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the roles of information technology in supply chain management

Conceptual design of deoiling processes : business process reengineering (BPR) and computer support tools

Deoiling of petroleum wastewater is a major concern in petroleum process engineering. The conventional design procedure for deoiling systems consists of nine consecutive stages involving different people or groups. This thesis considers reengineering the conventional procedure, with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the process and productivity of people involved. The thesis then investigates the development of the appropriate computer support tools for the new procedure. The reengineering of the procedure is based on concepts proposed by Hammer (1990). The resulting procedure consists of four stages, where parallelism of the different tasks in the conventional procedure is explicitly considered. A model of the new procedure is described in UML (Unified Modelling Language). The advantage of using UML instead of using just natural language description is that UML uses graphical representation that is easy to use and less prone to ambiguity. Based on the new procedure, a decision support system called CODES (Conceptual DEsign of deoiling Systems) was designed and implemented. CODES supports the stages of wastewater assessment, equipment options at different locations, treatment disposal options and recommendations for final process configuration. Two Case Studies using operating field data are reported. The Case Studies using CODES proved to be straightforward to use and produced appropriate comments on the performance of the existing designs and proposed alternatives to satisfy the design requirements. CODES results agreed with knowledge from previous plant trials. The contribution of this thesis to the deoiling design process is twofold. Firstly, a critical review of the conventional procedure has resulted in a new one, which has potential benefits of improving a company's efficiency by reducing the number of people and activities involved, and shortening the design time. Secondly, the feasibility of applying the new procedure and CODES is successfully demonstrated through the case studies. Limitations and areas of extensions are also identified

Integrative Trust-Based Functional Contracting: A Complementary Contractual Approach to BIM-Enabled Oil And Gas EPC Project Delivery

The research has successfully bridged the gap between contractual and technological practices for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contracts in oil and gas projects. It has identified the related Building Information Modelling (BIM) uses and developed an integrative trust-based functional contracting that complement to EPC contracts. The research contributes to new functional perspectives of contracting and also provides significant insights into the proper use contract functions for improving BIM-enabled projects’ performance

Streamlining Digital Modeling and Building Information Modelling (BIM) Uses for the Oil and Gas Projects

The oil and gas industry is a technology-driven industry. Over the last two decades, it has heavily made use of digital modeling and associated technologies (DMAT) to enhance its commercial capability. Meanwhile, the Building Information Modelling (BIM) has grown at an exponential rate in the built environment sector. It is not only a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility, but it has also made an impact on the management processes of building project lifecycle. It is apparent that there are many similarities between BIM and DMAT usability in the aspect of physical modeling and functionality. The aim of this study is to streamline the usage of both DMAT and BIM whilst discovering valuable practices for performance improvement in the oil and gas projects. To achieve this, 28 BIM guidelines, 83 DMAT academic publications and 101 DMAT vendor case studies were selected for review. The findings uncover (a) 38 BIM uses; (b) 32 DMAT uses and; (c) 36 both DMAT and BIM uses. The synergy between DMAT and BIM uses would render insightful references into managing efficient oil and gas’s projects. It also helps project stakeholders to recognise future investment or potential development areas of BIM and DMAT uses in their projects

How to decarbonise energy-intensive processing industries? : Survey and conceptualisation of their specific innovation systems

Energy-intensive processing industries (EPIs) such as iron and steel, aluminum, chemicals, cement, glass, and paper and pulp are responsible for a large share of global greenhouse gas emissions. To meet 2050 emission targets, a transition to low carbon, often radical innovations is required, but this process is going slow. Insights from sociotechnical and innovation systems perspectives are therefore needed to facilitate and steer this transition process. The transitions literature has so far however, neglected EPIs.This paper characterises the sociotechnical and innovation systems of EPIs in terms of stylized facts, identifying similarities and differences between the individual industries. These stylized facts are recognized through aniterative process that builds on the authors’ expertise on EPIs and a review of available literature and documentation. Building on the limited body of available literature, it subsequently explores how these stylized facts may influence low carbon transition processes and identifies literature gaps from which a first agenda to further transitions research on EPIs is sketched. Insights obtained through such research would not only benefit policy recommendations, but may also lead to theoretical enrichment, as the unique EPI characteristics are likelyto result in for example new transition dynamics or lock-in mechanisms. The paper is concluded with some implications for policy

Dynamic supply chain capabilities : a case of oil and gas industry in Malaysia

Supply chain (SC) is a dynamic process that entails continuous flow of information, materials and funds across multiple functional areas, within and between chain members to meet customer’s requirements and to maximize profit. However, organizations may encounter problems related to the dynamic process in SC. Oil and gas (O&G) industry is one of the SC entities which require dynamic processes of capabilities due to high degree of uncertainties. Motivated by the complexity and uncertainty of SC, this study intends to understand the concept of dynamic supply chain capabilities in the organizations specifically in Malaysia environment. The study focuses on the firm’s capabilities dimensions as well as the influence of the environmental uncertainties on dynamic supply chain capabilities dimensions of the O&G industry. Previous literatures related to supply chain management, and dynamic capabilities were reviewed to support the study. The researcher analyzed multiple cases from the perspectives of the O&G players in Malaysia via qualitative research methodology. Nine managers of services contractors and one manager of production sharing contractor were selected for interviews to share experiences on the needs for dynamic supply chain capabilities. Results showed that value chain coordination, client, supplier and operations are important in the SC orientation; knowledge accessing and coevolving are vital to the dynamic supply chain capabilities; finally, ethics and professional values, and technology driven are important in the environmental uncertainties. Such findings are necessary for emergent framework of dynamic supply chain capabilities on how O&G industry can benefit. Hence, the main contributions of the research findings are: (i) contribution to the body of knowledge in developing better understanding on the dimensions of dynamic supply chain capabilities towards strategies; and (ii) contribution to the managerial in understanding and capturing emergent dimensions of dynamic supply chain capabilities by providing a basis for future analysis

Constraints and Opportunities for SMEs Investment in Uganda's Oil and Gas Sector

Uganda's Oil Industry has attracted huge foreign investment, but participation by SMEs has remained poor despite their importance in income generation, employment and poverty eradication. Although the Oil industry is highly specialised, it provides indirect investment opportunities for SMEs who make up 80 percent of Uganda's private sector. The opportunities available however have not been sufficiently usurped by SMEs due to the information gap on how to create business partnerships, requirements of the industry and actors in the industry

Commodities and Linkages: Industrialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa

In a complementary Discussion Paper (MMCP DP 12 2011) we set out the reasons why we believe that there is extensive scope for linkage development into and out of SSA’s commodities sectors. In this Discussion Paper, we present the findings of our detailed empirical enquiry into the determinants of the breadth and depth of linkages in eight SSA countries (Angola, Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa Tanzania, and Zambia) and six sectors (copper, diamonds, gold, oil and gas, mining services and timber). We conclude from this detailed research that the extent of linkages varies as a consequence of four factors which intrinsically affect their progress – the passage of time, the complexity of the sector and the level of capabilities in the domestic economy. However, beyond this we identify three sets of related factors which determined the nature and pace of linkage development. The first is the structure of ownership, both in lead commodity producing firms and in their suppliers and domestic customers. The second is the nature and quality of both hard infrastructure (for example, roads and ports) and soft infrastructure (for example, the efficiency of customs clearance). The third is the availability of skills and the structure and orientation of the National System of Innovation in the domestic economy. The fourth, and overwhelmingly important contextual factor is policy. This reflects policy towards the commodity sector itself, and policy which affects the three contextual drivers, namely ownership, infrastructure and capabilities. As a result of this comparative analysis we provided an explanation of why linkage development was progressive in some economies (such as Botswana) and regressive in others (such as Tanzania). This cluster of factors also explains why the breadth and depth of linkages is relative advanced in some countries (such as South Africa), and at a very nascent stage in other countries (such as Angola)