Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction to oil and natural gas. 2. Global Energy scene and contribution of oil and natural gas. 3. Oil and natural gas exploration, drilling and production (Upstream sector). 4. Management and evaluation of upstream assets. 5. Mid-stream sector: pipelines. 6. Transportation of oil and natural gas. 7. Economics of crude oil. 8. Refinery economics. 9. Strategy for petroleum and natural gas trading. 10. Petro-retailing. 11. Financial and accounting systems for oil and natural gas (Petro-accounting). 12. International hydrocarbon economic environment. 13. Geo-politics of oil trading: scanning the global business scene. 14. E-Commerce applications in oil and natural gas industries (Petro-Informatics). Index.

"A sound knowledge of different facets of petro-economics is a sine quo non particularly for the petro-chemical sectors dealing with exploration, development, production, refining, transportation, storage and marketing of oil, natural gas and a wide range of petro-products. Evolution and application of the concept of petro-economics, following the first ever major 'oil shock' in the early 1970s has gained strategic significance and tremendous momentum from the first decade of the 21 century on the following grounds: (i) Emerging need for integration of national energy security with global energy security environment; (ii) Growing concern for safeguarding dwindling strategic oil and natural gas reserves to cater to the growing economy in the developing world (Particularly the BRIC Nations) with much greater projected future demand for oil and natural gas; (iii) Segmentation of the global oil and natural gas market on a geo-political basis, compounded by the overwhelming ramifications of regional economic unions; (iv) price structuring, rationalization/parity, and attendant accounting problems of oil and natural gas in terms of upstream, midstream, downstream, marketing/retailing activities associated with crudes, refined oil and natural gas (including LNG, CNG) Products; (v) Benchmarking the quality standards of petro-products with branding and customization for reaching out to the global market; and (vi). Need for activating reforms process to allow free flow of petro-products and services in the hyper-competitive global market. Against this backdrop and thematic approaches in mind, this book on petro-economics focuses on the following cardinal aspects to suit all categories of readers:

• To develop a broad understanding about the genesis, exploration, production, refining, transportation, and marketing of petroleum and natural gas--both from the technological and management angles.
• Familiarity in broad terms with general economic principles and accounting procedure for efficiently run and managed petro-businesses, covering major upstream midstream and downstream activities.
• Familiarity with national and global issues concerning energy security and exposure to national policies conducive to oil and natural gas trading under deregulated market environment.
• Implications of geopolitics and allied issues in global petro-businesses; and
• Role of E-Commerce and petro-informatics in oil-trading/petro-retailing." (jacket)