Browsing by Subject "Supply and demand"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Analysis of the evolving relationship between NOCs and IOCs : the Venezuelan case
(2005-12) Briceno, Romulo P.; Van Rensburg, W. C. J.
Close to ninety percent of the world's oil reserves are owned by governments and partially privatized National Oil Companies (NOCs), and any investment by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) is bound to involve a close interaction between them. Nowadays, with higher demand for oil, particularly in the United States and China, international oil investment has grown progressively because of the need to balance supply and demand. Therefore, it appears reasonable to expect more balanced agreements in which the contractual conditions are fair to all sides, allowing an increase in petroleum exploration activity. The objective of this thesis is to understand and analyze the evolving relationships between the International Oil Companies and the National Oil companies with a special focus on The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its National Oil Company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).
Economics, risks, contracts, safety and security of LNG projects
(2004-12) Ogoke, Ngozi Joyce; Van Rensburg, W. C. J.
As a result of global warming and oil depletion, natural gas is an attractive energy resource in the 21st century. The world trade in LNG is an important part of the growing international gas business and it is forecast to double in size in the next ten years. The growing liberalization in existing markets is leading to uncertainty as well as opportunity for new entrants into this market. The demand for natural gas in the U.S. was boosted in 1975, in part by the desire to diversify energy resources in the wake of global oil shocks. This demand has continued due to the clear environmental advantages of natural gas over other fossil fuels and its superior thermal efficiency when used in power generation. According to the U.S. EIA, U.S. demand for natural gas is expected to rise from 28.8 Tcf in 2000 to 33.8Tcf by 2020. Consequently, increased imports of natural gas will be required to meet future shortfalls. This thesis, therefore, investigates the economics, risks mitigation, new trends in contracts, safety and security of LNG projects.
Exploration of role of market in perishable goods
(2007) Lin, Dan, 1975-; Whinston, Andrew B.
Firms face a big challenge in matching the supply of perishable goods with uncertain demand in real time. In practice, the traditional supply chain models are proved not efficiently enough to lower firms' risk exposure. The purpose of the dissertation is to provide the theoretical framework of roles of several stylized markets in firms' risk management. In particular, we explore the influence of the spot business-to-business exchange market, forward contract market and credit-default swap market respectively. The dissertation is divided into the following three chapters. In chapter 1, we show that when the exchange market lacks perfect liquidity, a firm's capital structure has a greater influence on its output-level decisions, then the market is perfectly liquid. The impact may be even greater than that without an exchange market. This is primarily because the introduction of the exchange market causes firms to act strategically in absence of perfect liquidity. In chapter 2, we study the essential relationship between producers' forward contracts and their supply strategies in business-to-business exchange market. Specifically, we focus on the application of the electricity power exchange market in the US. Our model reveals that the strategic incentive makes producers to join in forward contract market voluntarily and increases social welfare. We show in chapter 1 that even when firms' risks are independent of each other, there is a chance that the realization of market uncertainty turns out to be the same. As a result, there is no exchange market as a platform to help firms hedge their risks. Therefore, we need other instruments in firms' risk management portfolio. In chapter 3, we propose a financial market, credit-default swap market, in which firm s can temporarily transfer default risks to outside investors. However, the "lemon" problem may cause social cost.