Oil & Gas Management

Assignment: SWOT Analysis of Oil Companies

Your Assignment

You are a researcher for an industry journal, which is planning to run a feature on the different management styles and cultures between International Oil Companies [IOCs] and National Oil Companies [NOCs], and whether these can be linked to the company’s past success and thus possibly be a guide to their future potential.

You have been asked to prepare a professional report on one IOC and one NOC as to their present status and future potential; the potential readership are would-be investors, and thus your report should guide this audience to decide to heavily invest or not in the companies.

Your work should provide a balanced, analytical view of whether the two companies would make suitable investment vehicles, based on their management style and culture and their organisational structure – there should be no attempt to recommend one company over the other. This is NOT a selling exercise.

The Report should be much more than a simple description of their structure and operations. You must provide a critical evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, together with the opportunities and threats that exist in their markets. Therefore a good starting point for your Report will be a SWOT analysis of each of your chosen companies.

Having read the above background, and conducted some preliminary research and reading, your Assignment Brief is to write a 2,300-word report on one IOC and one NOC, chosen from the table below. To complete an effective and detailed Report, you will need to research the chosen companies in considerable depth. Coherent analysis supported with reasoned evidence will be required.

Internet research and background reading will inform a large part of your writing, but what is required, and thus will form the basis of assessment and marking, is your own views, conclusions and analysis by interpreting the data against textbook theory, together with your own ideas, thoughts and personal research on the Internet.

Choices: Choose ONE company from each category only
International Oil Company National Oil Company
ExxonMobil Saudi Aramco
BP CNPC
Shell PDVSA
Chevron NNPC
Total Petronas

My Rules:

• The Assignment should be written in the third person, in the style of a Report.

• The Assignment should not contain an Abstract, or an Executive Summary, or a restatement of this Assignment Brief. There is no need for a Table of Contents in a short Report.

Learning outcomes to be examined in this assessment • Demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationship of the factors affecting management performance in different sectors of the worldwide oil and gas industry
• Discuss the financial, commercial and contractual activities used in the management of the worldwide oil and gas industry
Note: do not focus to much on the financial activities of the company, but focus more on management style and management culture.
• Critically analyse the historical and current policies and options related to the global oil and gas industry
Assessment Criteria Explanatory comments on the assessment criteria Maximum marks for each section
Content, style, relevance, originality Structure, objectives, meeting the deliverables, time and resource constraints 50%
Format, referencing, bibliography Rigorously, using the Harvard method 10%
Constructive critical analysis, introduction, conclusion Accuracy, full articulation of ideas developed. Offering well-argued solutions and/or alternatives 40%