Suchergebnisse

This is the first academic study of well costs and drilling times for Australia s petroleum producing basins, both onshore and offshore. I analyse a substantial database of well times and costs sourced from government databases, industry and over 400 recent well completion reports. Three well phases are studied - Pre-Spud, Drilling and Completion. Relationships between well cost factors are considered, including phase time, phase cost, daily cost, rig day rate, well depth, basin, rig type, water depth, well direction, well objective (e.g. exploration), and type of completion (P&A or producer). Times and costs are analysed using scatter plots, frequency distributions, correlation and regression analyses. Drilling times are analysed for the period 1980 to 2004. Well time and variability in well time tend to increase exponentially with well depth. Technical Limits are defined for both onshore and offshore drilling times to indicate best performance. Well costs are analysed for the period 1996 to 2004. Well costs were relatively stable for this period. Long term increases in daily costs were offset to some extent by reductions in drilling times. Onshore regions studied include the Cooper/Eromanga, Surat/Bowen, Otway and Perth Basins. Offshore regions studied include the Carnarvon Basin shallow and deepwater, the Timor Sea and Victorian Basins. Correlations between regional well cost and well depth are usually high. Well costs are estimated based on well location, well depth, daily costs and type of completion. In 2003, the cost of exploration wells in Australia ranged from A$100,000 for shallow coal seam gas wells in the Surat/Bowen Basins to over A$50 million for the deepwater well Gnarlyknots-1 in the Great Australian Bight. Future well costs are expected to be substantially higher for some regions. This study proposes methods to index historical daily costs to future rig day rates as a means for estimating future well costs. Regional well cost models are particularly useful for the economic evaluation of CO2 ...

"Accountability and Responsibility" published on by Oxford University Press.

In January 2003 the New Zealand government announced that it intended to redress the fragmentation of the state sector that was brought about by the radical state sector reforms of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Eschewing any "big bang" restructuring, over the next five years it proposes to enhance "coordination" among government agencies -- by means that may include the establishment of "circuit-breaker teams" and up to ten "super networks" to manage the proliferation of central government organizations. It proposes to reverse in some instances the policy/operational split that was imposed by the reforms, and seeks to achieve better integration between operational "outputs" and policy "outcomes." This article discusses the suitability of these suggestions, in the light of a recent report by a government advisory group. This report examines what are, in fact, major flaws in the original reforms yet suggests remedies on the assumption that they are not. The case raises more general questions about the relationship between the theoretical bases of public sector reform, on the one hand, and practical experience on the other.

Intervention logic (IVL) is an analytical technique being developed and used in New Zealand and elsewhere in an attempt to improve government.s ability to produce desired policy outcomes. This article raises questions about the political viability of this latest tool of mainstream policy analysis, and argues that improved public policymaking depends less on the use of techniques drawn from a long linear-rational tradition, which are taught because they can be taught, and more on the development of individual capacities and institutional processes that are in keeping with democratic norms and values.

New Zealand has long enjoyed a reputation as a country with a corruption-free state sector. However, there is prima facie evidence to suggest that this situation may be changing significantly. (Asia J Polit Sci/NIAS-Han)