Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 DIGEST: Top Ten Articles of the Year

These are the top read articles for 2011; let us celebrate them...!!!! We hope to get yours up on this list this time next year. Thank you for your contributions and for every click; nice to see write-ups from Abimbola Shode, Tolulope Togun, Amaka Ararume and Ahmed Adamu featuring as their articles got published in the later stages of 2011. These professionals and many more have a lot of knowledge stored "upstairs" and have so much more to exchange. This Community of Practice is here to stay. Read | Learn | Discuss | Share !!!

By Feso Bright

First of a 3-part series on BP: I wrote this in 2010 in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster

British Petroleum (BP) is one of the world’s biggest corporate entities in the oil and gas industry; the business prides itself as having gone beyond petroleum in its quest to fulfil world energy needs. In 2005 BP suffered an explosion at its Texas City refinery (ICIS Chemical Business, 2007) and faced a series of inquests into its risk management practices. The business claimed to have learned from that experience yet more accidents happened. Furthermore, in May 2007, the erstwhile chief executive officer (CEO) Lord Browne had to resign abruptly due to allegations of improper conduct from his former partner Jeff Chevalier (British Petroleum, 2007)- thereby raising suspicion of lax corporate governance controls.


By Feso Bright

2nd article in a 3-part series on BP. 

Competitive outcomes and processes
Businesses exist for a variety of reasons; some exist as profit-making concerns while some are non-profit making or not-for-profit concerns (Needle, 2009, p. 2). The corporate culture, corporate governance, risk management practices and stakeholder relationships of BP will be driven by its corporate strategy, which in turn is influenced by the outcomes and processes desired by the management of the company.


By Feso Bright

European Gas in the World Energy Mix
Europe has an increasingly diverse energy mix but records a significant dependence on natural gas to meet its energy requirement with a minimum of approximately 25% of its energy supply as at 2008- shown in table 1.
Table 1: Total Europe Primary Energy Supply (KTOE): 2006 to 2008

Source: (International Energy Administration, Cited in Bright, 2009, p. 6)


















It is now certain that there would be no oil block licensing round until the third quarter of this year. By implication it means the much awaited bid round for Nigerian marginal fields would also have to wait till then.


By Abimbola Shode

Hydrogen is an energy carrier which just like electricity is useful for moving in other forms to power homes or equipments. Hydrogen is derived from sources such as fossil fuels, water and biomass[1]. Although, the hydrogen gas is very plenteous in the universe, it never exists alone but is usually mixed up with other gases and it occurs in compound forms. For instance there is hydrogen in water, oil, coal, methane and all living things. In terms of energy content, hydrogen has the highest energy content by weight but the lowest by volume, this quality does not therefore make hydrogen as potent as other fossil fuels due to the need to burn more hydrogen to produce the same amount of energy.

By Tolulope Togun

Gas utilization is a primary goal of Nigeria's petroleum and energy policies. This is because, with a proven reserve of about 182 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Nigeria's gas reserve is triple the nation's crude oil resources. Gas discoveries have been largely the result of an influx of foreign exploration capital from international oil companies. Natural gas, a clean burning fuel, is recognized as a key component of meeting sustainable development goals. Private sector investment in natural gas is allowed to varying degrees and has problems that lack of capital has on resource development. Lack of capital remains an issue where private investment is required.


By Feso Bright

This article is based on a presentation I made at the CWC Practical Nigerian Content forum as a member of The Lagos Oil Club. The practical Nigerian content forum assembled a broad international spectrum of stakeholders in the Oil and Gas industry to learn and share ideas on the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICDA 2010). In order to give a sense of the participation at the event I will give some names of the speakers and their themes at the forum.


By Feso Bright
According to David Needle (2009, pp 5), “an organization refers to the way in which people are grouped and the way in which they operate to carry out the activities of the business”. The ways in which people are grouped require directional success and effectiveness in order to deliver value to the stakeholders in their businesses. As such strategy is required to actualize the success requirements of business operations. To David Needle (2009, pp 4), “a strategy comprises a set of objectives and methods of achieving those objectives. A strategy is usually formulated by top management and is based on a mixture of careful analysis of the environment and the organization, the personal preferences of the managers involved, and a process of negotiation with various other stakeholders”.


By Amaka Araraume

Transport sector energy consumption accounts for about 28% of total final energy consumption in France and is the leading source of CO2 emissions from energy use. The purpose of this analysis is twofold. The first purpose is to analyze the potential factors influencing the changes in transport sector CO2 emissions in France over a period of 27 years (1980-2007) by decomposing the emissions growth into components associated with changes in fuel mix (FM), modal mix (MM), emission coefficient (EC), transportation energy intensity (EI) and economic growth. The second purpose is to forecast the transport energy demand and CO2 emissions for the period of 2006-2030.


By Ahmed Adamu
As the sixth largest oil exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria is endowed with abundant quantities of oil, subsequently the country has generated billions of dollars as revenues from oil since the last four decades when oil was first found in the country. Despite the enormous revenues Nigeria gets, the benefit has not reflected into the lives of ordinary citizens in the country and the Nigerian Economy is continuously confronting challenges, this may have resulted from inefficiencies, corruption, abuse of Natural Monopoly Powers, mismanagement, smuggling, bureaucratic bottlenecks and excessive subsidy.

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