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“Oil and Gas” Thought Paper

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In coming years, oil and gas firms ("oil companies") will need to cope strategically with increasing demand (with a limited or shrinking supply), threats from substitute products, and global competition. In order to deal with these issues, oil companies must engage in smart reservoir management, intelligently plan for market trends, and adjust to better compete with rivals that may be operating under a different economic model.
The supply of oil and gas is finite, yet demand is expected to increase. Supply issues are exacerbated by the fact that the exact quantity of untapped oil and gas reserves is unknown. Oil companies need to engage in smart reservoir management in order to better manage downward supply shocks and ensure that additional exploration and development resources are expended if current resources begin to dry up become otherwise unavailable. This way, they will make expensive capital investments based more on science as opposed to their "best guess". Reservoir management can likely be improved through the use of technology such as computer modeling and satellite reconnaissance. In conjunction with the operational management described above, oil companies should also keep an eye on the economic value of their reserves. For example, It might be more profitable at times to sell a reserve rather than continuing to run it as a producing asset.

Issues of sustainability and substitute products need to be addressed in order for oil companies to avoid unexpected market shifts. High fuel prices have driven development of alternative fuels. Many alternative fuel initiatives are aided by government subsidies. Also, the world is becoming more and more concerned how the byproducts of oil and gas consumption is effecting the environment. If these issues are not addressed by the oil companies, they will likely find themselves with shrinking market share. For

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