Strategic Planning for the Oil and Gas Industry Examination

Report
June 2021

Course Leader’s Report

Overall performance in this examination was strong, with all students showing an appropriate grasp
of strategic and industry-specific issues. Some notes on each question follow.

Question 1

This case asked students to review the financial and operational information for a fictional oil and
gas company. All students provided a good analysis of the case both in terms of strategic and
financial issues and all were able to address the fundamental issues in the case. Those with lower
scores tended to emphasise either just the financial or just the strategic aspects. Better answers
tended to link the two clearly and draw integrated conclusions and were systematic in their use of
strategic models. Most answers used SWOT to summarise their analysis – the better answers took
time to reflect on the balance of aspects in the SWOT and integrate them into an overall conclusion.

Question 2

This was about the Premier Oil, which provided useful information on recent industry issues and an
opportunity to examine the impact of the oil price on the organisation’s operations. Students were
asked to provide a process analysis of the organisation’s strategy in the first part and a consideration
oil price issues in the second. In general the first part of the question was much better answered
than the second part and all students were able to highlight some of the relevant issues in different
aspects of the strategy. Better answers here tended to draw careful conclusions at each level and tie
them together into an overall argument. The second part of the question was less well-answered –
this required students to explore relevant theory surrounding the volatility of oil prices and some
students had a relatively limited grasp of the oil price dynamics discussions from the course, which
limited the marks awarded.

Question 3

This question was about the strategic differences between upstream and downstream sectors and
their relationship to general strategy issues. It is worth noting that this is a common theme for the
third question and we tend to explore these topics in a number of different ways. Stronger answers
integrated supply chain and operational issues with a more general strategic analysis of the industry
itself. Very strong answers related their answers to current events and provided examples
underpinned by relevant theory. Poorer answers tended to focus on operational issues at the
expense of strategic issues and/or use general industry terminology, e.g. midstream when a more
careful and specific approach is a key aspect of the course.