Decision Making in the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry

Day One: Overview and Context to Decision Making in the Upstream Sector

• The industry context to decision making.  The upstream oil and gas industry from various key ‘perspectives’, such as the oil and gas asset lifecycle, the value chain, the industry players, and the place in society.
• The professional context to decision making.  Overview of the fundamental geoscience and engineering disciplines, which form the basis upon which decisions are made, including geophysics, petrophysics, reservoir engineering, well engineering and facilities engineering.
• Decision making in the upstream oil and gas industry. Overview of the science, culture, practice and challenges of decision making in the upstream oil and gas sector, including dealing with incomplete information and uncertainty.

Day Two: Decision Making, Field Development Planning and Economics

• Multi-scenario field development planning as basis for decision making. How the integrated, team, drawn from all disciplines (commercial, scientific and engineering) collaborate to identify the candidate development scenarios, which become the input to the decision making process.
• Petroleum economics for decision making. The role of petroleum economics in the analysis of oil and gas development scenarios, in order to identify the most profitable, and the one with the best fit to the company business, including the use of cash flow analysis, time value of money and investment indicators.
• Decision making workshop.  Participants work individually, or in teams, on realistic field development planning, economics and decision making exercises.

Day Three: Decision Analysis and Portfolio Management

• Decision Analysis. How the integrated field development team make complex decisions, involving many different types of input parameters, in order to ensure that very large investments are made rationally and efficiently, using tools such as expected value, sensitivity analysis, decision trees and Monte Carlo simulation.
• Portfolio Management. Advanced economics and decision making methodologies, originating in the financial (stocks and shares) industry, increasingly finding application for the strategic management of portfolios of oil and gas assets, including: Portfolio Theory; Options Theory and Preference (Utility) Theory.
• Decision Making Workshop.  Participants work individually, or in teams, on realistic field development planning, economics and decision making exercises.

Day Four: Types of Production Contract and their Relevance to Decision Making

• Production contracts & licences.  The legal, fiscal and contractual conditions under which an oil company acquires the right to produce oil or gas, and the way that the revenue and wealth is shared with the host country.
• Petroleum resources management. How quantities of oil and gas in the reservoir (reserves and resources) are calculated, classified and reported in a consistent manner for management, regulatory and investment and purposes.
• Decision making workshop.  Participants work individually, or in teams, on realistic field development planning, economics and decision-making exercises.

Day Five: How Safety and Environmental issues impact Decision Making

• Corporate responsibility.  How oil and gas projects are executed in a safe and sustainable manner, with due respect for the environment, and it a way that benefits the local communities in which activities take place, covering topics such as: safety, environmental impact and social licence to operate.
• Decision making workshop.  Participants work individually, or in teams, on realistic field development planning, economics and decision-making exercises.