This thesis marks the end of a great chapter of my life and the beginning of several stellar possibilities. My two years at Stanford have changed my life and the knowledge I have gained will certainly brighten my future paths like never before. My thanks to Energy Resources Engineering, Reservoir Simulation Industrial Affiliates (SUPRI-B) program and ENI for funding my MS and Stanford Summer Tutorial program which gave me one of the best experiences of lecturing Stanford students in my final quarter of MS. I would like to thank Dr. Khalid Aziz who accepted me as his student and guided me throughout this research. To have worked with him was such a great privilege. When I had come to Stanford, I may not have been the best student in our batch, but towards the beginning of my second year, I was well determined to produce one of the best MS theses submitted in our year. I would like to thank Denis Voskov, who is extremely knowledgeable and his suggested directions were very important to my research. My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Huanquan for his great tips and advices, which made me redo my results over and over again. I am very grateful to Sergey Klevtsov, who was the one you actually got be started with AD-GPRS. My initial progress with AD-GPRS would not have been so rapid had it not been for him. Finally I would like to thank Sergey Chaynikov for the many hours he spent listening to my issues and advising me about the possible strategies to ponder over. He has always been available on just an email of mine. I would also love to mention some of the awesome people I met at Stanford-my office mates and other friends which include

ABSTRCTThe explosive growth of shale gas production in the US has sparked a global race to determine which other regions from around the world have the potential to replicate this success. One of the main areas of focus is the Asia Pacific region, specifically Pakistan.In this paper, real results from seven different US shale basins-Marcellus, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Barnett, Woodford (West-Central Oklahoma), Fayetteville and Bakken-have been used to develop a comprehensive sequence of shale exploitation strategy for emerging shale plays.The study involves integration of shale gas exploitation knowledge reinforced by a decade of experience across most of the North American shale gas basins, with published data. Different reservoir properties have been compared to develop a comprehensive logic of the effective techniques to produce from shale-gas reservoirs. We have validated the sequence with real results from US shale production ventures, published case histories, and by global experts who have been directly involved in shale reserves evaluation and production. Subsequently, several different reservoir attributes of Pakistan shale plays have been compared with US basins, in an attempt to identify analogues.It is the intent of this paper to diminish the difficult and often expensive learning cycle time associated with a commercially successful shale project, as well as to attempt to illustrate the most influential factors that determine optimum production. A very few papers in the petroleum literature that provide an extensive and systematic approach towards shale exploitation strategy for given shale-reservoir conditions

The world is becoming flatter through global integration and ‘smarter’ through interconnected communication and com-merce. For oil and gas organizations this means finding ways to launch business ventures in new regions. While Afghanistan is a high risk zone with negative trade balance, weak currency & infrastructure, extreme security conditions and cultural di-versity, it is estimated to possess substantial reserves of oil and gas that may shake up Central Asia’s increasingly competitive energy contest. The proposed framework is a step by step model which by using core competency check, decision metrics, balance scorecard models, cost equations, intelligent forecasting tools and several critical domains of knowledge management, makes sure that the organization takes right decisions regarding the manner of activities strategizing and execution, in mesh of diversified challenges. The SCOR model is integrated with processes that identify potential risk elements throughout the supply chain in Afghanistan, taken as base cases, and defines metrics to assess the potential impact of these risk elements. The framework thus developed has been used to build powerful simulation models that integrate discrete event simulation and spreadsheets. The simulation models are hierarchical and use sub models that capture activities specific to supply chains and breaks it down into further sub levels to evaluate the supply chain performance. The model enables full leverage of capital investment, creation of a supply chain road map, alignment of business functions, reducing complexities in distribution network, and an average of two to six times return on investment. By maximizing predictability and controlling risk through excellence and efficiency in the upstream supply chain for Oil & Gas, this model provides an excellent tool for intelligent integrated management for any region that has similar mesh of chal-lenges as faced in Afghanistan.

A Young Professional’s Guide Welcome to the Kingdom In March of 1938, on the heels of six commercial failures, wildcatters drilled a new well that heralded the arrival of the most prolific oil field yet discovered. The fabled Dammam No.7 well established the existence of the supergiant Ghawar field in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia and ushered in a new age of petroleum wealth and power for a land that had comprised mostly nomadic tribes. With 71 billion barrels of estimated oil in place, Ghawar takes the prize as the largest conventional oil field ever discovered. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists has identified more than 500 oil fields as world-class “giants” - those with proven oil reserves of 500 million barrels of oil or natural gas reserves exceeding 3 Tcf. A supergiant field is one containing more than 5 billion BOE in reserves. More than 200 of these giant oil and gas fields are concentrated in the Persian Gulf region - meaning that Saudi Arabia drew a lucky hand, indeed. Less than 10 miles south of the prolific Dammam Dome sits Dhahran, a city closely linked to the Saudi oil industry. Initially established as a camp for wildcatters, and then permanently settled after the delivery of commercial oil production, Dhahran has been Saudi Aramco’s headquarters for nearly 80 years. Weaving Together the Threads of Saudi Aramco Synonymous with the Saudi Arabian oil industry, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (colloquially, Saudi Aramco or just Aramco) has emerged as a key player in the global petroleum scene. Saudi Aramco has exerted its hefty influence on the global crude supply several times in its long history. In the 1990s, the company quickly scaled up production to meet supply shortages caused by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. More recently, Saudi Aramco solicited support from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain production in an effort to reduce global oil prices, the reasons of which could be attributed to geopolitics and other strategic supply and demand initiatives, and is a topic for another article. Much of the history of Saudi Aramco can be found in Daniel Yergin’s award-winning book The Prize. The company originated in 1929 as the Bahrain Petroleum Company, a project backed by Chevron (then Standard Oil of California or Socal) to extend its reach outside of America. Socal was granted a 440,000-sq-mile oil concession in eastern Saudi Arabia, but after several years without a commercially viable well, half of the concession was given to Texaco in exchange for marketing infrastructure. Success came in 1938, when the company drilled the 1,500-B/D No. 7 well on the Dammam Dome. Six years later, the company’s name was changed to the Arabian-American Oil Company - Aramco, and oil production had risen to 20,000 B/D.

A Young Professional’s Guide When the prices of oil and gas spiral upward or downward, the effects are felt around the world. Economies of some countries are affected more than the others, especially, if they are large oil-exporting and -importing countries. Four of the five largest oil-importing nations, China, Japan, India, and South Korea, are in Asia and collectively import more than 15 million B/D of oil, according to the CIA World Factbook 2013–14. Any shift in oil price results in huge adjustments to these countries’ national budgets. The world’s largest oil-exporting nations include Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Iran, and Nigeria. Collectively, these nations have the capacity to dominate the global oil economy. Let us take a closer look at the impact of changing oil and gas prices on Russia, one of the largest oil- and gas-exporting nations, and China, one of the largest oil- and gas-importing nations in the world. Russia: Oil and Gas Exporter Russia tops the chart as the largest country in the world by area, encompassing 6.6 million sq miles. It leads the political scene as one of the most powerful and developed countries in the world and maintains its innovative edge as a leader in nuclear power and space research. For a country with so much independent power, Russia’s economy remains hugely dependent upon the energy and mineral resources that it holds. Blessed with abundant resources, Russia exerts huge geopolitical influence on its European neighbors. Of paramount importance to countries such as Ukraine, Russia supplies 25%–30% of natural gas needs in Europe, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Oil and gas fund about half of the Russian budget, reports CNN. So what happens when commodities prices fluctuate—either up or down?