011-0138 ALLIANCES AND LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF THE UK UPSTREAM OIL AND GAS LOGISTICS OPERATIONS.

The upstream oil and gas industry operation is mainly concerned with oil extraction. However within this industrial sector there exists a diverse and complex network of organizations, representing a wide range of industrial cultures and expertise. Although the industry is often seen as a single industry, this is far from the reality as it is serviced by firms from diverse industrial backgrounds. Furthermore, most of the activities which take place in this environment are project driven and involve diverse complex product systems which are highly customized, large scale and engineering intensive products which tend to be produced as one-offs or in small tailored batches. A further complicating factor is the high number of suppliers – several thousand firms subcontract and supply the offshore industry – each of which may be highly specialised and involved in complex networks. The main players in the oil and gas industry are broadly classified into Oil operators, contractors and major oil service companies. These players undertake tasks in diverse areas such as: oil and gas exploration, development and construction and supply of industrial goods and catering services. Within the UK North Sea oil and gas region there is a constellation of firms that has grown around the exploitation of the oil reservoirs of the North Sea. Indeed this cluster of small technology based oil-related industry has been recognised as one of the existing clusters and industrial districts as attested to by Scottish Enterprise - the regional development authority. This paper reports a case study of oil and gas operating company alliances to maximise logistics

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