Academic Papers on the Oil and Gas Industry: Used Literature & Methodologies Report

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to provide a critical review of literature and methodologies used in six academic papers related to the oil and gas industry. The choice of the articles is determined by the major educational field pursued by the author. The research papers were primarily chosen to explore current industry issues while bearing in mind the importance of diversifying various research approaches studied in the research methods course.

Overall, there are six articles, with an equal distribution by two per chosen qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research domains. For the qualitative research, the first article authored by Bento, Garotti, and Mecado (2021) provides a methodology for analyzing how organizational resilience could be achieved in oil and gas industry supply chains through a systematic literature review. The second article authored by Naghavi-Konjin et al. (2020) focuses on using qualitative methods for exploring safety considerations that would alter the risks of occupational accidents in the petroleum industry through the analysis of semi-structured interviews. In a quantitative domain, the first article is based on the geophysical exploration of the shale gas reservoir operations in China (Huang et al., 2015), while the second article proposes a quantitative risk analysis model for assessing the operations of oil and gas pipelines (Zhang, Qin, and Wang, 2019). Finally, for the mixed-method research, the report explores the impact of supply chain management practices on the Zimbabwean petroleum industry to assess industry performance indicators in the first article (Bimha, Hoque, and Munapo, 2020), also evaluating the aspect of the job role localization in the second article (Pegram, Falcone, and Kolios, 2019).

Critical Review of the Literature

Qualitative

The first qualitative article relates to organizational resilience in the oil and gas industry researched through a scoping review. As specified by Bento, Garotti, and Mercado (2021), scoping reviews “produce an overview of a body of knowledge covering broad questions”, and therefore should be differentiated from the narrowly defined questions commonly investigated through systematic reviews. Hence, in terms of the literature approach, authors fairly analyze both conceptual and empirical evidence to cover the five categories of conceptualization, the unit of analysis, and relationships between resilience and safety on the industrial level. However, it is worth admitting that process-dependent identities mentioned in their review might require better support from the recent research since some literature sources dated later than a decade might be irrelevant to explaining current industry complexities and market stance.

The second qualitative article by Naghavi-Konjin et al. (2020) explores factors that influence occupational incidents in the petroleum industry. It uses a fair amount of literature reviews to determine the scope of research, which is “an empirical exploration of individuals’ experiences across the petroleum industry at different levels of the organizational structure for factors that influence occupational accidents” (Naghavi-Konjin et al., 2020). Given the qualitative nature of the study, the number of the chosen past studies perfectly meets the research aims and objectives, since the authors consult a wide range of topics such as organizational factors, inappropriate contract management, competency management, and technical issues related to incident cause analysis. Meanwhile, it seems to be a lack of transparent idea flow for a qualitative study, which might eventually be simplified.

Quantitative

The first quantitative article by Huang et al. (2015) is technical in nature and presents a petrophysics model for deploying a shale gas reservoir based on the research of a Chinese facility operating in the petroleum production industry. In terms of the literature, it is poorly researched, since it has less than 20 academic sources, while those that users are primarily related to the theoretical provisions and provide more opportunities for evaluation purely in a technical context. Hence, a better focus on the analysis of technical literature findings could be advantageous for improving the study.

The second quantitative article by Zhang, Qin, and Wang (2019) refers to project management technology and risk assessment as one of its foundational pillars for optimizing organizational performance. The related literature used in the article primarily refers to the analysis of previous pipeline operations but is not extensive, which seems to be natural for the quantitative research papers relevant to the oil and gas industry. The chosen risk assessment frameworks are well related to the previous studies and provide a clear appraisal picture of the past effort in development, while could also benefit from the application of those in recent studies. However, there is a need for more detailed explorations of methodologies related to fuzzy math logic and fault tree analysis root causes.

Mixed-Method

The first mixed-method article explores the impact of supply chain practices on the oil and gas industry competitiveness based on the case of Zimbabwe and its petroleum operations. In terms of the literature research, Bimha, Hoque, and Munapo (2020) made a perfect effort in researching and finding the relevant sources that explore oil and gas supply chain issues in general, the issues pertinent to the country’s analysis and operational activities on the local level, and petroleum aspects in particular. However, there is a bottleneck in choosing sources that majorly relate to the supply chain topic in general rather than to the problems experienced by the oil and gas industry in Africa, while it could be fairly explained by a lack of academic research proliferation locally.

The second mixed-method article by Pegram, Falcone, and Kolios (2019) explores a human resource aspect in the oil and gas industry. It provides a fair literature assessment of how the industry approach towards employment against the revenue-focused approach has progressed in Ghana, suggesting relevant citations on the legislation aspects. Specifically, the authors clearly investigated the problem of job creation in an oil and gas industry, suggesting the importance of attracting an external workforce to improve the industry performance. Overall, the literature used for the analysis is relevant and is tightly connected to the economic development of the Ghanaian population, while more comparative effort could be done with a non-African environment.

Critical Review of the Research Methodology and Data Collection

Qualitative

The methodological research approach used in the qualitative study by Bento, Garotti, and Mercado (2021) follows the principles of thematic coding and therefore could be justified as qualitative research. Specifically, the authors emphasize the need for scoping conceptualization through the steps of identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion to appropriately analyze the individual pieces of the literature. Meanwhile, less evidence was observed in terms of identifying the pool of articles, which might be considered as a somewhat biased opinion in their choice and therefore could be challenged as a scoping approach propagated by the authors against the commonly acknowledged systematic approach.

Semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis were chosen for the second qualitative study. The purpose was to investigate the accident history, interviewing individuals engaged in the fatal activities. Consequently, a three-layer model that is based on the organizational, supervisory, and operation level influencing was developed by the authors. The advantage of such an approach is the ability to determine the influence factors that affect organizational safety, where authors benefitted from the use of 16 distinct factors that are appropriately categorized and tested (Naghavi-Konjin et al., 2020). Overall, it is a fair methodological attempt, while its choice is less clearly underpinned by the scope of chosen literature and the logical flow of ideas.

Quantitative

The approaches used in the second quantitative study by Huang et al. (2015) are proficient and have outstanding contributions to problem perception. First, the authors clearly provide quantitative methods for calculating critical parameters for the shale gas reservoir performance based on individual inquiries and experimental results. Second, the authors emphasize the geophysical calculation methods for the shale gas reservoir, supporting their findings with images and holograms (Huang et al., 2015). Unlike the literature review efforts, this part is stronger in expressing ideas to the reader.

In a second quantitative study, Zhang, Qin, and Wang (2019) proposed a bow-tied method well defined for a multi-tier assessment in the oil and gas industry. It is realized in a diagraming form similar to the fishbone analysis, while the left side explores the event causes and preventive control action and the right side stands for the event consequences and mitigation controls. Overall, the method is fair to be applied to the oil and engineering industry as a regurgitation of the past knowledge on risk assessment and project management techniques.

Mixed-Method

In the first mixed-method article by Bimha, Hoque, and Munapo (2019), the lack of secondary research was effectively substituted with primary efforts. As admitted by the authors, the in-depth interviews with six industry executives on the qualitative front, as well as a survey of 57 managers through the survey distribution were conducted, which allows better data triangulation and therefore could be justified as an action research effort. Nevertheless, on the quantitative aspect, 57 respondents might still provide a biased picture on the business case given that, statistically, it is required to have at least 100 respondents for meeting the reliability threshold.

For the second study, the methodological approach is noteworthy as the one was designed using a reasonable methodology of comparing economic opportunities to the overall local development. Specifically, in the first stage, the authors explored the global survey issues to understand the general industry dynamics (Pegram, Falcone, and Kolios, 2019). Further, the national level issues were explored through the interviews, allowing us to investigate how specific factors affect the job role localization in Ghana as one of Africa’s oil and gas suppliers on the continent (Pegram, Falcone, and Kolios, 2019). Hence, it is a fair demonstration of applying a stepwise mixed-method research approach.

Critical Review of Data Analysis and Interpretation

Qualitative

The explanation of results obtained by Bento et al. (2021) is rather weak since it is based on 12 articles and well acknowledged by the authors as the one that requires methodological improvement through adaptive analysis. Specifically, it was stated that further resilience is needed to percept a different understanding of emerging interaction patterns among agents at various levels, while such a conclusion is somewhat obvious for the oil and gas industry development. However, the learning adaptation perception is reasonable and is relevant to the remark on organizational response effectiveness during coronavirus pandemics.

For the second article by Naghavi-Konjin et al. (2020), it might be beneficial to include the qualitative aspect related to interviewing victimized department leaders, where the accident occurred. The content analysis appeared to be the most relevant technique; however, the study shows that the latent aspects of safety precautions are best investigated using personal interviews and therefore could improve the overall aspect of managing organizational issues in the oil and gas industry. Hence, more consistency in results reporting would improve the overall paper.

Quantitative

For the first article, Huang et al. (2015) provide a clear list of findings and suggestions that could be applied in practice, such as the analysis of critical parameters for the reservoir capacity, the environmental impact, and fracturing construction requirements. Overall, it suggests that this is a technical paper that is primarily based on the exploratory analysis methodology and therefore benefits from the oil and gas industry-related technological specifications’ analysis rather than a complex review of the previous studies that are either not available or poorly discussed for the chosen research subject.

For the second article, Zhang et al. (2019) specified that pipeline system risk control could be eventually laid into one ditch, where identification, analysis, and assessment are integrated and provide great significance to ensure pipeline safety. However, the paper lacks practical evidence on how such configurations could be implemented in a real-life scenario, where the fuzzy logic coexists with requirements management and customer demands, since risk aversion is a subject of different research and so far, is not conclusive.

Mixed-Method

For the first article, Bimha et al. (2020) reported the main problems of “resultant high cost of products, expensive and bureaucratic logistics, lack of investments in fuel distribution technology, and poor customer service” (p. 97) as their interpretive efforts. However, these statements are primarily based on the comparison with non-African oil and gas industry evidence, since the obvious aspect of corruption and changing economic environment in the automotive industry was omitted. Hence, the study might benefit from further investigation.

For the second article, the overall findings of the study by Pegram et al. (2019) suggest that economic development in the country appears to be attractive for the role of localization. However, there is little comparative evidence from the other countries to conclude that Ghana is a preferable destination for developing careers in the oil and gas industry. It means that further studies could be relevant to position Gahan or another country for the role localization purposes.

Conclusions

The analysis of the three methodological approaches applied to the gas and oil industry research suggests that acolytes differentiate research approaches based on the following contexts. For quantitative studies, the use of calculation methods and mathematical models is more important to ensure that the approach toward deriving reasonable, fact-based research conclusions is achieved. It also imposes the use of customized models and frameworks that support the initial authorship thinking. Alternatively, qualitative studies are used to explain organizational aspects practiced in the industry, such s workforce planning, safety optimization, and performance improvement. Finally, the mixed-method research studies are more complex in terms of investigating the overall industry stance, since they are multi-staged and require continuous investigation of organizational changes. In the oil and gas industry, it is particularly complex while demanded, since the overall organizational perspective is blurred and requires more scientific evaluation in terms of productivity and potential development.

Additional commentaries could be best summarized as follows to explain the contribution of research articles for personal development. First, the focus on quantitative methods is narrowed to the particular technical field of study and therefore requires consistent efforts in investigating technical improvements. Second, qualitative methods are most feasible to be implemented on the managerial level to best fit the organizational needs and develop a clear image of how the oil and gas industry performs. Finally, the mixed-method approach is most helpful in forecasting, where the future needs of the industry or particular organization are analyzed and estimated based on specific models and collected evidence.

Reference List

Bento, F., Garotti, L. and Mecado, M.P. (2021) ‘Organizational resilience in the oil and gas industry: a scoping review’, Safety Science, 133, 105036, unpublished.

Bimha, H., Hoque, M. and Munapo, E. (2020) ‘The impact of supply chain management practices on industry competitiveness: a mixed-methods study on the Zimbabwean petroleum industry’, African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 12(1), pp. 97-109.

Huang, T. et al. (2015) ‘Geophysical evaluation technology for shale gas reservoir: a case study in Silurian of Changning area in Sichuan basin’, Energy Exploration & Exploitation, 33(3), pp. 419-438.

Naghavi-Konjin, Z. et al. (2020) ‘Identification of factors that influence occupational incidents in the petroleum industry: a qualitative approach’, Work, 67(2), pp. 419-430. .

Pegram, J., Falcone, G. and Kolios, A. (2019) ‘Quantitative and qualitative assessment of job role localization in the oil and gas industry: global experiences and national differences’, Energies 12, 1154, pp. 1-22.

Zhang, P., Qin, G. and Wang, Y. (2019) ‘Risk assessment system for oil and gas pipelines laid in one ditch based on the quantitative risk analysis’, Energies 12, 981, pp. 1-21.