LSBF
Module
Contemporary Issues in Oil, Gas and Energy
Assignment
Title The oil and gas industry: business or politics?
Assignment Type Academic Essay
Word Limit 3,500 – 4,000
Weighting 100%
Plagiarism When submitting work for assessment, students should be aware of the LSBF guidance and regulations concerning plagiarism. All submissions should be your own original work.
You must submit an electronic copy of your work. Your submission will be electronically checked.
Harvard
Referencing &
Special
Instructions The Harvard Referencing System must be used. The Wikipedia website must not be referenced in your work.
You are allowed to upload only ONE attachment (e.g. an Excel sheet) in addition to your original assignment, unless there is a requirement for more than one document in the assignment brief.
You must upload your assignment in PDF or Word document format. Your paper will not be graded if it is submitted in any other format.
If you submit your assignment as a PDF version, please include the exact word count of the assignment on the title page.
Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this assignment you will be able to:
1. Critically appreciate the origins of oil and gas and the main exploration and exploitation techniques.
2. Critically evaluate the relative value of the oil and gas business.
3. Critically analyse how oil and gas are delivered to their destinations and the relative costs.
4. Critically evaluate global energy policies, trends and alternative energy sources.
5. Have a thorough understanding of the significance and business and politics of various global regions in the global energy industry.
Grading Criteria Postgraduate Grading Criteria for this assignment is available at the end of this document.
Your Task
According to Ustima (2015), energy is a business. Yet it is so heavily politicised, so transnational and globalised, and so necessary for countries’
economic wellbeing and security that it cannot simply be viewed as a clearcut business, although for the most part that’s how it runs.
You are required to critically evaluate and examine the relevant literature to explore the above statement with a special focus on the following factors:
1. The main theories on the origins of oil and gas (20%) (LO1)
2. The role of International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the global oil and gas industry (20%) (LO2)
3. The concept of energy security (20%) (LO4)
4. The importance of large volume tanker trade in LNG for the global energy market (20%) (LO3, LO5)
5. The importance of unconventional sources of oil and gas and its effect on the global energy market (20%) (LO4, LO5)
Guidelines Please read all questions and information provided carefully. Answers should be an appropriate length, keeping in mind the question requirements and total word count allowance.
In addition, your assignment should demonstrate the following qualities:
A critical appreciation of relevant literature and its use to support your argument, substantiate calculations, and address other aspects of the assignment.
Taking ownership of the content, being prepared to debate and argue a personal position, and providing evidence of evaluative skills. A submission made up of extracts from published sources which is descriptive or simply theoretical regurgitation is not acceptable. Your submission must have interpretation and consideration of the challenges and issues of applying theory to practice.
Logical flow of ideas and treatment; appropriate selection of real-world factors related to the companies under scrutiny.
Evidence of additional personal research, and the ability to analyse material from a variety of appropriate, relevant perspectives.
Presentation, structure, appropriateness of methodology, breaking into section headings/subheadings, tidiness.
Marks will be awarded for proper referencing and originality of work. Also note that plagiarism is a serious offence and your submission will be electronically checked.
Your report must be handed in electronically no later than the given date of submission.
Grading Criteria
Grading
Criteria 70%+ (Distinction) 60-69% (Merit) 50-59% (Pass) 0-49% (Fail)
Generic skills: communication and presentation. Comprehensive and correctly structured assessment. Style of
writing is very fluent and develops a coherent and logical argument. Excellent referencing. Well structured report which follows appropriate format but some aspects of layout and referencing could be improved.
Style of writing is fairly
fluent. Good referencing. Good report in most aspects but suffers from variations in quality and the layout contains some inadequacies. Style of writing is satisfactory. Referencing needs improving. Very poor report which is incorrectly structured and contains major errors and omissions. Style of writing is descriptive, lacks coherence and fluency.
Poor referencing.
Knowledge &
Understanding Demonstrates excellent knowledge of theory and provides critical theoretical underpinning. Very good interpretations and summarising of main themes. Wide range of knowledge demonstrated and evidence of good understanding of the topic.
Ability to interpret and summarise succinctly. Good range of knowledge
demonstrated but with some room for improvement. Some understanding displayed of the topic.
Summary and
interpretation are satisfactory. Very poor range of knowledge, research and interpretation of information that is subjective and lacks conceptual coherence. There is no
clear identification, understanding or interpretation of main themes.
Analysis Excellent use of theoretical and conceptual models to guide analysis linked with a critical discussion of main themes.
Has demonstrated an ability to discriminate in the use of more abstract concepts and techniques. Very good use of the theoretical and conceptual models with good critical discussion. Has applied a range of
analytical skills with greater independence and understanding of more abstract data or concepts.
Use of theory and concepts limited in scope and depth but relevant. Application could be improved and there is a tendency towards description rather than application of concepts.
Very poor use of theory
and very little application of core concepts.
Very little or limited analysis and Assessment in relation to fundamental principles and concepts.
Synthesis/ Creativity/ Application Logical presentation of themes with appropriate examples being demonstrated. Very good demonstration of synthesis. Models have been clearly applied to the argument. Very good account of main themes with sound application. Good attempt at applying models to the argument. Fairly good attempt at synthesising the salient points. Good account of main themes with some attempt at application. Limited evidence of synthesis. Very poor account of main themes with little or no application. No links between models and argument.
Assessment Shows clear evidence of in-depth critical reflection and Assessment of the argument by providing a robust defence of the opinions presented in the assessment. Shows evidence of
critical reflection and Assessment and a fairly cohesive defence of the argument Shows some evidence
of critical reflection but could have been developed. Shows little or no evidence of critical reflection and needs to be much more developed. There is no defence of the opinions presented.

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