Oil and gas exploration and production activities are carried out in hazardous environments in many parts of the world. Recent events in the Gulf of Mexico highlight those risks and underline the importance of considering human factors during facility design. Ergonomic factors such as machinery design, facility and accommodation layout and the organization of work activities have been systemati...

Oman is currently a particular “hot spot” for investment in a range of EOR techniques to produce heavy oil, but is much less visible in industry statistics than countries such as Canada and Venezuela. Other countries in the Middle East are encouraged by Oman’s success and, with the additional impetus of increasing oil prices, are becoming more active in heavy oil production. For example, Iran a...

vital importance of the energy in national and international economic development has made oil as a crucial and attractive factor for great powers. these powers have had permanent competition for establishing an oil system for securing their national interests. the persian gulf has been focal point of these competitions. after september 11, 2001, the role of oil has considered as one of the mos...

Petroleum companies have great interest in developing their countries through improving their resources to be more competitive. They are also trying to maintain a high level of responsiveness to achieve agility and to remain competitive in the global marketplace especially after instability of oil prices and global financial crisis. Agile systems (AS) is considered as the next industrial revolu...

Parajulee and Wania (1) make an important contribution to understanding the origin and magnitude of pollution caused by the massive oil sands industry in northeastern Alberta. Until recently, the oil sands industry and government officials have claimed that all pollutants carried by the lower Athabasca River system were the result of soil erosion, forest fires, and other natural phenomena. This...

Following the Exxon-Valdez incident the Oil Pollution Act was enacted by the U.S. government in 1990. It mandates new construction requirements, operational changes, response planning, licensing and manning specifications, and increased liability limits. The most important feature for the issue at hand is the requirement for new tankers to be of double hull construction. Additionally, this prov...