License To Drill

Natural resources have the transformational potential to support economic and political stability as well as contribute to national prosperity and economic development. However, in countries dependent upon natural resource sectors, poor management of these sectors often contributes to corruption, illicit financial flows (IFFs) and thus, poverty. Adequate transparency and accountability in regulatory management of these sectors is a challenge for resource rich countries. Poor licensing decisions in natural resource management can open a pandora’s box of corruption risks. This manual provides methods and options based on good practices to improve transparency, accountability, and integrity in the regulatory licensing process and integrity due diligence. The manual borrows models from the Basel Core Principle ‘fit and proper’ concept, and provides options for conducting effective (a) beneficial ownership; (b) criminal/legal; and (c) conflicts of interest checks, with a goal of integrating these into the regulatory licensing process. The manual also identifies common legal framework defects that can facilitate corruption risks, and offers options based on principles of regulatory integrity to reduce these risks. The good practices identified can help countries allocate limited financial resources in conducting thorough background checks in a cost-effective manner, as well as meet EITI’s requirements for public disclosure of beneficial owners and politically exposed persons. These strategies for reducing opportunities for corruption in extractive sectors can help reduce IFFs that can sap resources from the economy and inhibit a country’s ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

This book provides comprehensive information about the water resources of the Arabian Gulf region, an area that is symbolic as an arid to extremely arid belt. Filling an information gap it provides in-depth analyses of both natural and human-related constraints on water resources, and presents a new vision on efficient management of available water resources. It contains an overview of the physical geography and climatic constraints on water resources, systematic inventory of available traditional and non-traditional water resources, water-related problems, water conservation and legislations, comprehensive water laws applicable to the region, and modern techniques of water resources investigation. This work meets the needs of scientists, environmentalists, engineers, planners and decision makers. Senior undergraduate, graduate students and researchers of the Gulf area, and more generally of arid regions, will also find this volume valuable.

This book examines the internal and external implications of Israel’s natural gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean. The nation’s changed status from being an importer of coal and oil to that of an exporter of natural gas has consequences not only for the energy sector but also for the fragile geopolitics of the region. The book: Explores the challenges and issues of energy economics and governance; Analyses Israel’s gas diplomacy with its neighbours in the Middle East and North Africa and its potential positive impact on the amelioration of the Arab-Israeli conflict; Studies how Israel can avoid the deleterious impact of the Dutch disease once the government’s share of the export revenues start flowing. The author traces a consummate picture of history, politics, and conflicts that shape the economics of energy in Israel and its future trajectories. A major intervention in Middle East studies, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of energy studies, development studies, strategic studies, politics, diplomacy, and international relations. It will also be of interest to government agencies, think-tanks, and risk management firms.

This text discusses factors such as mast overload, capacity of drawworks, and deviation in the hole to be drilled and the strata to be drilled. An omnibus approach to drilling techniques and problems is adopted.

Engineers seek solutions to problems, and the economic viability of each potential solution is normally considered along with the technical merits. This is typically true for the petroleum sector, which includes the global processes of exploration, production, refining, and transportation. Decisions on an investment in any oil or gas field development are made on the basis of its value, which is judged by a combination of a number of economic indicators. Economic Analysis of Oil and Gas Engineering Operations focuses on economic treatment of petroleum engineering operations and serves as a helpful resource for making practical and profitable decisions in oil and gas field development. Reflects major changes over the past decade or so in the oil and gas industry Provides thorough coverage of the use of economic analysis techniques in decision-making in petroleum-related projects Features real-world cases and applications of economic analysis of various engineering problems encountered in petroleum operations Includes principles applicable to other engineering disciplines This work will be of value to practicing engineers and industry professionals, managers, and executives working in the petroleum industry who have the responsibility of planning and decision-making, as well as advanced students in petroleum and chemical engineering studying engineering economics, petroleum economics and policy, project evaluation, and plant design.

The Enigma of Soviet Petroleum (1980) provides an analysis of the relevance of the Soviet planning system to oil production levels: why it is that planning has been the source of so many petroleum industry problems, and the nature of the measures that are being taken to overcome them. It looks at the demand for petroleum in the USSR, and the discovery of new Soviet oil fields to furnish this demand.