The Changing Structure Of The World Oil Industry

Originally published in 1985 by a group of international experts and oil industry officials, this book surveys the dramatic changes which took place in the oil industry in the second half of the twentieth century. It discusses the role of OPEC and the long term impact its decisions had for both producers and oil consumers and examines possible future trends in the oil industry structure and stability, together with the possible consequences for North Sea oil and gas development.

This volume presents papers drawn from ECSSR's Second Annual Energy Conference entitled, "Strategic Positioning in the Oil Industry: Trends and Options," held in Abu Dhabi, October 26-27, 1996. The work highlights and investigates the changes which are occurring in the demand structure for oil, changes that will have far-reaching consequences for oil producers, refiners and distributors who wish to perform in an ever-competitive market. Written principally by leading practitioners, the essays represent the most current thinking on how and in which direction the oil industry, particularly in the Gulf region, is developing. Readers will find trenchant analyses of vertical integration as a strategy for oil security, refining and petroleum product specifications in Asia, privatization initiatives in the Gulf's energy sectors, downstream integration of national oil companies, and options and opportunities for Gulf oil companies in the Asian market. Strategic Positioning in the Oil Industry: Trends and Options is not only a valuable collection of information and argument but it also offers a rare insight into the beliefs and perceptions of those participating in today's international oil industry.

This book examines broad questions of industrial change in order to explain developments in the oil industry. In contrast to most other work on this industry, firms are considered to be the dependent variables rather than the future production and demand for oil and gas. An analysis of the industry is made by examining how corporations change their operating environments and are themselves changed by their environments. Particular attention is paid to 'mega-mergers' and to industrial downsizing and outsourcing. The significance of such restructuring for the societies the companies serve is also considered and comprehensive use is made of recent theories of the firm. It shows how such theories can be used to analyze a key world-wide industry. The distinctive approach of this book will help extend readers' understanding of the oil industry beyond the more conventional studies.

First published in 1983, this book provides a detailed look at the OPEC nations’ changing roles in the world oil market as they expanded their participation in "downstream" activities such as the hydrocarbon industries formerly controlled by the major oil companies. The authors begin with a detailed survey of world oil resources and an overview of the production capabilities and polices of major oil exporters. They then examine the contemporary refinery overcapacity crisis in the developed world, outline the refinery construction plans of the OPEC nations and the refinery scrapping problems in the industrialised world, and employ simulation tools to estimate the future output mix of refineries in key OPEC nations. A discussion of the comparative economics of refineries in the Gulf and in Europe in also included. Turning to the tanker industry, the authors project future oil export patterns and tanker demand in light of changing import/export need and OPEC’s participation in oil and refined products transport. Subsequent chapters describe OPEC’s ventures into petrochemical manufacturing and natural gas processing. The book concludes with a chapter on the future of OPEC, examining its changing power structure, the influence of non-OPEC oil production, possible future oil-pricing policies, and the opportunities and constraints that OPEC nations will meet as they expand their operations in the downstream oil industry. This book will be of interest to students of economics and Middle East and international politics.

The origin of this significant and timely book was a lecture on the structural changes in the international oll industry prepared by Dr. AI-Chalabi for the OAPEC annual course on the Fundamentals o[ Oil and Gas. It was given in Arabic in February 1978 when the author was Assistant Secretary General of OAPEC. The author has succeeded in ex panding and updating the basic aspects of the subject. He has managed, in this relatively short book, to survey and analyse the main structural changes in the inter national oll industry during the last 35 years, with special emphasis on the revolutionary changes of the 1970s. The book clearly demonstrates the significance of these changes in terms of their impact on the power of control and decisions concerning the ownership of oil resources, their marketing outlets and price policy. It explains how the concession system and the various consortia arrangements among the transnational oil companies gave them max imum freedom and flexibility in the control and manage ment of emde oil production and pricing. Their vertical and horizontal integration enabled them to control and manage upstream and downstream operations on a global basis and with the effectiveness of a powerful international Cartel.

This paper presents a simple macroeconomic model of the oil market. The model incorporates features of oil supply such as depletion, endogenous oil exploration and extraction, as well as features of oil demand such as the secular increase in demand from emerging-market economies, usage efficiency, and endogenous demand responses. The model provides, inter alia, a useful analytical framework to explore the effects of: a change in world GDP growth; a change in the efficiency of oil usage; and a change in the supply of oil. Notwithstanding that shale oil production today is more responsive to prices than conventional oil, our analysis suggests that an era of prolonged low oil prices is likely to be followed by a period where oil prices overshoot their long-term upward trend.