Oil And Gas Case Study

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The role and impact of project management in oil and gas can never be overemphasized. Over the years, the oil and gas industry has become one of the prominent industries in the world, mainly because it provides the world with 60 percent of daily energy needs. The production process of oil and gas has also changed over the years due to project management, and it is imperative that this change in project management practices will bring about a safer working environment in the production of oil and gas.

The consumption and use of oil and gas has a lengthy and intriguing history, going back thousands of years, as early as the 6th Century BC when the army of Kir II, first Shah of Achaemenid Empire, which is

In 1859, Titsuville, Pennsylvania, United States, Colonel Drake successfully drilled the first well to sixty-nine feet (Aliyeva, 2006). In 1870, John Davidson Rockefeller established the first major oil company, known as Standard Oil. Standard Oil went on to build its first refinery in Pennsylvania, and later expanded its broad operations round the country. After Ten years of stark rivalry, Standard Oil became the industry’s leading Oil Company controlling 80 percent of the distribution of all principal oil products, in particular kerosene. In 1909 due to antitrust laws, the Federal courts ordered the break-up of Standard Oil Company by dividing it into Thirty-four separate companies. Standard Oil went on to dominate the first Twenty years of the oil and gas industry, and the U.S. accounted for more than half of the world 's production until around 1950. As the industry grew and became more global in nature, other world markets in Europe, Russia and Asia, began to play a much greater role. New industry giants arose such as the likes of, Shell, Royal Dutch, and Anglo-Persian, which is now today’s British Petroleum, also known as BP (The Library of Congress, 2011).

As the oil and gas industry unfolded over some years, Standard Oil of New Jersey went on to become Esso, and later Exxon, Standard Oil of New York became Mobil, and Standard Oil of California is now Chevron. Along with Royal

The main purpose of the research design is to serve as a guideline for the entire research.

Figure 1 Research Onion Source: Saunders and Lewis 2012

1.4.2 Research Philosophy

This research will focus its philosophy on interpretivism, which is “the study of social phenomena in their natural environment”. Interpretivism is simply trying to under stand what goes on in a company or an organization or in a business sector, in the case the oil and gas sector (Saunders and Lewis, 2012:106). In order ways, can be used to understand the role of project management best practices been applied by oil companies and how it affects their, outcome, performance and the industry in general. It helps to “understand and study the social phenomenon in the environment” (Saunders and Lewis, 2012:106) taking on the viewpoints, perceptions and assessment of the oil and gas