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International Oil Companies (international + oil_company)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting75%

Selected Abstracts

Russia flexes muscles over oil and gas

OIL AND ENERGY TRENDS, Issue 10 2006
Article first published online: 13 OCT 200
A new militancy is emerging from Moscow in dealings with foreign companies operating in Russia. The government has severely criticized a number of international oil companies engaged in major oil and gas developments, including Shell, ExxonMobil, BP and Total. In several cases, the companies have been told that their environmental plans covering the development of new fields are unsatisfactory. The latest arguments concern two large oil and gas developments on the Pacific island of Sakhalin. The environmental criticisms, however, are simply the outward sign of a growing sentiment inside Russia that foreign companies have been granted lucrative upstream opportunities on terms that are much too favourable to them. [source]

Violence threatens future levels of output in Iraq

OIL AND ENERGY TRENDS, Issue 12 2005
Article first published online: 13 DEC 200
The inability of the US and its allies to impose any kind of civil order on Iraq is threatening the country's future as a major oil producer. Not only is Iraq 's present level of oil production well below the level targeted for this year: the continuing chaos is also discouraging international oil companies from contributing to plans to raise production capacity to much higher levels. Further uncertainty over future levels of production has now come in the shape of rising opposition inside Iraq to foreign participation in the upstream sector. In the meantime, continuing attacks on oil installations across Iraq are depressing production and exports alike. [source]

A review of upstream development policies in Kuwait

OPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 4 2004
Abdulaziz E. Al-Attar
Since 1993, Kuwait's legislative bodies have been looking closely at the prospect of opening-up the country's upstream oil sector for development and production to international oil companies (IOCs). The country has proposed doing this by means of a mechanism called an "operating service agreement" (OSA). This has generated controversy. One side argues that opening-up the oil sector embodies a pattern of denationalisation and is reminiscent of the country's former concession agreement of 1934. And the other side maintains that the proposed OSA is unquestionably different to the concession agreement, in terms of legal framework, fiscal system and the role of the state. This paper reviews and compares the two types of agreement. It then discusses the impact of improved oil recovery factors on increasing oil reserves and production in the northern and western Kuwaiti oil fields, by transferring technology from industrialised countries. [source]

The ,greening' of global project financing: the case of the Sakhalin-II offshore oil and gas project

THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 3 2007
MIKE BRADSHAW
This article responds to a plea for economic geographers to play greater attention to the world's resource peripheries. The article presents a detailed case study of oil and gas development offshore of Sakhalin in the Russian Far East. The study serves to illustrate the complexity of resource peripheries and to demonstrate how a critical approach to resource geographies aids economic geographic theorization of globalization. The case study focuses on how the ,greening' of global project financing has created a means by which environmental non-governmental organizations hold the international oil companies to account. The article describes the transnational advocacy network that has developed to protest against the Sakhalin-II project. The key issues are identified and the response of the operator, Sakhalin Energy, is considered. Finally, the recent actions of the Russian Government in relation to the environmental impacts of the Sakhalin-II project are examined. The article concludes by assessing the ways in which the Sakhalin case demonstrates the complex processes that construct resource peripheries and how such analyses contribute to the development of a truly global economic geography. Le ,verdissement' du financement de projets à l'échelle mondiale: Le cas du projet pétrolier et gazier en mer Sakhaline-2 Cet article plaide pour l'engagement des géographes économiques dans l'étude des régions ressources périphériques. L'article présente une étude de cas détaillée de l'exploitation des réserves de pétrole et de gaz au large de l'île russe de Sakhaline à l'extrémité Est de la Russie. L'étude a pour but d'illustrer la complexité des régions ressources périphériques et de démontrer comment une démarche critique dans le champ de la géographie des ressources contribue à la théorisation de la mondialisation en géographie économique. L'étude de cas porte sur la façon dont le , verdissement , du financement de projets à l'échelle mondiale a permis aux organismes environnementaux non gouvernementaux de demander des comptes aux sociétés pétrolières internationales. L'article présente un portrait du réseau transnational de défense mis sur pied dans le but de protester contre le projet énergétique Sakhaline-2. Les principaux enjeux sont abordés ainsi que la réponse apportée par l'opérateur du projet Sakhalin Energy. On termine par un examen des actions récentes menées par le gouvernement russe dans le dossier des impacts environnementaux du projet Sakhaline-2. Un bilan du cas de Sakhaline, présenté en conclusion, démontre les processus complexes par lesquels les régions ressources périphériques sont créées et comment de telles analyses sont une contribution au développement d'une géographie économique rayonnante à l'échelle mondiale. [source]