Болсуновская Л.М., Абрамова Р.Н., Матвеенко И.А. (ред.) Petroleum engineering. Teachers book. Нефтегазовое дело. Книга для учителя
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
201
Amount traded daily: (9)…………
Trading hours: (10)…………
Main traders: (11)………… (12)………… (13)…………
(14)………...
Tapescript
The foreign exchange market, which is also called the Forex or FX
market, is where the world's currencies – dollars, yen, euros and so many
others – are bought and sold.
Of course, there isn't only one place where this happens. Currencies are
exchanged over the counter in thousands of banks and exchange centres
all over the world. However, there are three very important places where
the big money moves: New York, London and Tokyo. And it's no surprise
that amongst the world's most traded currencies are the dollar, the pound
and the yen. The Forex market is the biggest market in the world. And it
really is huge. The amounts of money that are traded every day are simply
impossible to understand. Daily, some 2.9 trillion dollars worth of
currencies are traded around the world. And the buying and selling never
stops. When trading finishes in Tokyo, it's just beginning in London. This
means that trading goes on 24 hours a day. But who is doing all the
dealing? There are four main traders. The first and most important are
central banks. Then come the commercial banks – these are the high street
banks that we use to save our money. Large companies also buy foreign
currencies to help them make investments or large purchases. Finally,
there are speculators. These are companies which simply make money by
selling money.
Answers:
(1) Forex, (2) FX market, (3) New York, (4) London, (5) Tokyo, (6)
dollar, (7) pound (sterling), (8) yen, (9) 2.9 trillion, (10) 24 hours a day,
(11)
central banks, (12) commercial banks, (13) large companies, (14)
speculators
202
Exercise 16. Study the fig.1 and make a report about Stock Market and
Over-the-Counter Quotations.
This task is recommended to be given as a home task. Ask Ss to make a
kind of presentation report about Stock Market and Over-the-Counter
Quotations.
Exercise 17. Read the text.
Before reading the text, study Words and expressions below.
Exercise 18. Answer the following questions.
1. What reason do investors buy stock for? – Investors buy stock for
one simple reason: to make money.
2. What is the surest way to make money in the stock market? – The
surest way to earn money from investing is to create as diverse a
portfolio as possible and hang on to it for a long time.
3. What do investors need in order to succeed at making money? – To
succeed at making money investors need good sources of infor-
mation.
4. Who supplies information about the market? – Much information is
supplied by stockbrokers.
5. Where do the stockbrokers obtain information from? – They study
market reports and get information on the forecasted financial
performance of companies.
6. What do stockbrokers charge for information? – Brokers usually
recommend opportunities or provide special services such as
newsletters. For this brokers charge additional fees.
7. What do investors do if they want to avoid brokerage fees? –
Sometimes investors prefer to avoid high brokerage fees. They
implement their own investment strategy.
8. What is the serious investors' approach to studying the market? –
Serious investors subscribe to investment newsletters and carefully
study the stock market.
9. What is the simplest investment strategy? – A simpler investment
strategy is to choose some reliable blue chip stocks and stick to them.
10. What are common mistakes usually made by investors? – Investors
should avoid making common mistakes which are: 1) failure to
diversify, 2) paying too much for a stock which would not go up,
203
3) not knowing when to sell a stock going down, 4) paying too much
attention to rumors and tips.
11. What is the fundamental market analysis? – Most investors begin
with fundamental analysis, which is the process of comparing a
company's current financial position and future prospects with those
of other firms in the same or different industries.
12. How do the "chartists" predict stock's behavior? – Some investors
usually called "chartists" try to identify a specific stock's behavior
charting it over time and then predicting its future price movement.
13. What is a "random walk theory"? – The random walk theory is based
on the assumption that future stock prices are independent of past
stock prices.
14. What is contrarianism based upon theoretically? – A group of
investors has adopted an unusual approach, contrarianism, which
holds that the market will move in the direction opposite to that
predicted by the general public. In other words, these investors do the
opposite of what the general public does.
Exercise 19. Read the dialogue.
Lorna McCourt, a stockbroker, is consulting with Brian Lowman, an
investor in IBM
Before reading the dialogue, study Words and expressions. Read the
dialogue in pairs.
Exercise 20. Make up dialogues of your own.
Work in group and make up dialogues according to the following topics:
You consult a broker about possible mistakes in the investment policy in
order to avoid them. Choose between major techniques of predicting stock
market activity
Exercise 21. Translate into English.
1. The surest way to earn money at the stock market is to create as diverse
a portfolio. 2. To succeed at making money investors need good sources
of information. 3. Stockbrokers study market reports and get information
on the forecasted financial performance of companies. 4. Brokers charge
additional fees for newsletters. 5. If investors prefer to avoid high
204
brokerage fees, they implement their own investment strategy. 6. Most of
investors become an expert in a particular industry. 7. A simpler
investment strategy is to choose some reliable “blue chip”. 8. Major
mistakes of investors are: failure to diversify, paying too much attention to
rumors and tips, not knowing when to sell a stock going down. 9. Serious
investors begin with fundamental market analysis. 10. They compare
different company's current financial position in different industries.
11. "Chartists" try to identify a specific stock's behavior. 12. Other
investors choose stocks randomly.
205
UNIT 4
THE ECONOMY OF PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
Lead-in. T. elicits the ideas from the students as they suggest things
connected with the Petroleum Industry and make collective mind map
(spidergram) on the board as the ideas are suggested, so that they can see
how T. draws out the aspects of the topic. The reasoning behind mind map is
that Ss do not think in an ordered or linear way, but rather explore a topic by
moving between its various aspects.
The next stage in this procedure is discussing the questions connected with
Russian petroleum industry.
This activity will prepare Ss to work with the topic of the Unit 4.
Exercise 1. Read and learn the pronunciation.
Exercise 2. Pay attention to the stress in the following words.
T. comments on pronunciation of the words. Pay special attention to the
word stresses and elicit all the mistakes connected with mispronunciation
of the sounds by reading the words aloud.
Exercise 4. Answer the following questions.
1. How does Russia carry out a policy of search and exploration of oil
and gas fields? – Russia has been carrying out a persistent policy of
search and exploration of oil and gas fields in accordance with the
long-term interests of the national economy.
2. How much liquid hydrocarbons and gas have been extracted so far? –
Already 15 bln MT of liquid hydrocarbons and 12 trln m
3
of gas have
been extracted from the depths.
3. How many oil and gas deposits are found in Russia? – At the moment
about 3000 oil and gas deposits are to be found in Russia.
4. What are the main centres of oil and gas industry? – Western Siberia
and the Urals-Volga region are the main centres of oil and gas
industry.
5. How is oil and gas extraction regulated? – The rules of depths usage
were stipulated by federal laws "On depths", "On production division
agreements", "On continental shelf of the Russian Federation",
Regulation on the procedure of issuing licenses for depths use and
several other federal, territorial and ministerial regulations.
206
6. How long can the license for geological research be valid? – The right
to use the depths can be rendered on the base of a license for
geological research of the depths for 5 years.
7. In what way can economical difficulties be solved in oil and gas
industry? – It can be generally stated that despite prolonged activity of
the oil and gas production industries and economical difficulties in the
last years there are large reserves of hydrocarbon raw materials. The
raw materials are of different qualities and unevenly distributed,
unevenly worked out and still there are considerable geological and
technological possibilities to improve production of oil and gas.
8. What are the main components of a long-term strategy of oil and gas
complex development? – Objective evaluation of presence in the
depths of Russia of large profitable oil and gas resources as well as
economical, technical, social, political and ecological factors form the
bases of a long-term strategy of development of the Russian oil and gas
complex.
9. What makes Russia attractive for foreign investments? – Russia has a
large potential of unexplored oil, gas and condensate resources.
10. Is Russia open for international cooperation? Prove it using
information from the text and your general knowledge. – Russian
economic importance is extremely high and will increase considerably
in the future along with increases of energy consumption in Russia and
in the world. This opens the way for different forms of large
international projects in the sphere of geological exploration of oil and
gas fields in Russia. The projects may be of different term and
investment share of foreign companies. Russia is interested to make
this co-operation stable and long-term.
Exercise 5. Agree or disagree with the following statements.
1. F – Russian oil and gas resources are almost exhausted.
2. T
3. F – There is only one federal law regulating the rules of depths usage.
4. F – The raw materials are very similar all over the country.
5. T
Exercise 6. Complete the sentences.
1. The gas-production industry has more resources than that of oil-
production.
2. The amount of investments can be as great as 60 bln USD.
207
3. Most oil resources are to be found in Russia.
4. 74 % of gas is located in the Yamalo-Nenetskii autonomous region.
5. Exploration and production of hydrocarbons are carried out on the
basis of long-term interests.
6. With technical and technological modernization of oil and gas deposits
it is possible to improve production of oil and gas.
7. A long-term strategy of oil and gas complex development is based on
objective evaluation of large profitable oil and gas resources as well as
economical, technical, social, political and ecological factors.
8. Worldwide increase of energy consumption opens the ways of oil, gas
and condensate resources exploration in Russia.
Exercise 7. Talking Point.
a) Think and say. Do you find the speech of the Minister optimistic? Pick
out some facts and prove that the future of oil and gas industry is
favourable.
If you don’t share the optimism of B.A. Yaskevich, explain why. What
are the negative effects of oil and gas production?
b) Pair work.
You are a foreign journalist of “The Economist”, Mr. Yaskevich is
giving a press conference. Ask him questions about oil and gas
development prospects in Russia.
Exercise 8. Discuss the following questions before reading the text.
Before discussion and text reading it is recommended to look through the
Words and expressions.
1. Are the USA rich in oil and gas? Where are oil and gas extracted?
(name some regions) What American oil and gas companies have you
heard of?
2. What kinds of oil and gas companies do you know? (according to their
main activities)
Special terms:
flooding – заводнение (пласта)
mature – зрелый
mature production – поздняя стадия разработки месторождений
overhead – накладные (общие) расходы производства
208
to exploit – эксплуатировать, разрабатывать месторождения
to deplete – истощать, исчерпывать (запасы), хищнически
эксплуатировать
Now try to guess the meaning of the terms “the exploitationist” and “the
depletionist” in reference to oil companies.
“the exploitationist” – companies which have the prime aim to explore the
field and to get much profit by applying modern and expensive
technologies in order to aviod risk connected with oil field development.
“the depletionist” – has virtually no technical staff. He is able to operate
wells much cheaper than either the major oil companies or the
exploitationist. The depletionist is risk-averse.
Exercise 9. Comprehension check.
– Did you find the explanation of the terms “the exploitationist”, “the
depletionist” in the text? What were you right/wrong in?
– Can you state the difference between these companies now? Give a
detailed answer. – The exploitationist has a full staff of engineers,
geologists, landmen, and accountants. He is familiar with and has
participated in most of the new technology: 3D seismic, horizontal
drilling, CO
2
flooding, and so forth. In addition, he is capable of drilling
wells very cheaply and has very low overhead. I like to think that my
company, Henry Petroleum Corp., is an exploitationist. The
exploitationist is willing to take some risks but does very little pure
exploration.
The second type of company, the depletionist, is much different from the
exploitationist. A depletionist has virtually no technical staff. With his
low overhead he is able to operate wells much cheaper than either the
major oil companies or the exploitationist. He will nurse wells along and
pay close attention to them but does not have the technical staff to
operate waterfloods and CO
2
floods or to conduct 3D seismic. The
depletionist is risk-averse. Independent operators must decide whether
they will be exploitationists or depletionists. There is little room for
compromise between the types. You can be either an exploitationist with
a large technical staff or a depletionist with very little, if any, technical
staff; you can’t be both.
209
Exercise 10. Answer the following questions.
1. What stage in the production life of its petroleum resource has the U.S.
reached? – The trends reflect the advanced stage that the U.S. has
reached in the production cycle of its petroleum resource.
2. Why have major oil companies sold off their properties? – Major oil
companies have sold off many of their low-return properties and
shifted their financial resources and human resources to core
properties.
3. How do independent companies appear? – The operating divisions of
major oil companies in the U.S. are becoming more like independents.
Independents are filling the void left by major oil companies.
4. What kind of independents are they? – These independents are either
exploitationists or depletionists.
5. What are the three ages in the life of U.S. oil industry? – The first,
exploration. The stage coinciding with the middle age is exploitation.
The depletion stage.
6. What kind of companies prefer to work during the first exploration
stage? Why? – This stage favors the major oil companies, with their
vast financial and human resources. The main players are geologists
and geophysicists. During this stage, large risks are taken.
7. What specialists do the companies mainly need during the second
exploitation stage? Why? – Again, it favors the major oil companies
because they own the large fields and have the financial and human
resources to install and operate large waterfloods. The principal players
in this stage are engineers.
8. Why does the author call the third depletion stage a stage of
innovation? – Depletion is a stage of innovation, where many ways are
found to do things cheaper and more efficiently. During this stage we
see the widespread application of new technology such as 3D seismic,
horizontal drilling, and СО2 flooding.
9. What companies operate during depletion stage? – Depletion favors
independents, with their much lower overhead. And it favors two types
of independents: the exploitationist and the depletionist.
10. In your opinion, what companies get the greatest profit? – The
exploitationist has a full staff of engineers, geologists, landmen, and
accountants. He is familiar with and has participated in most of the
new technology: 3D seismic, horizontal drilling, CO
2
flooding, and so
forth. In addition, he is capable of drilling wells very cheaply and has
very low overhead.
210
Exercise 11. Translate into English.
1. The production life of the field has three stages.
2. Major oil companies have vast resources.
3. Major oil companies take large risk at the stage of field discovering.
4. Economic risk at the exploitation stage is not as large as at the stage of
exploration.
5. Independent companies are looking for much cheaper and more
effective ways of field exploitations.
6. Independent companies have lower production costs than major oil
companies do.
Exercise 12. Give English equivalents to the following words and phrases
from the text.
Пользоваться преимуществом чего-то – to take advantage of,
переводить активы – to shift assets, нефтедобывающие страны – oil
producing country, деловая практика – business practice,
производственный цикл – production cycle, широкое применение
новых технологий – vast application of new technologies, трехмерные
сейсмические исследования – 3D seismic research, горизонтальное
бурение – horizontal drilling, технический персонал – technical staff.
Exercise 13. Think of the nouns from the text which can be used with these
verbs. Make up some sentences.
ex: to change – to change trends.
Major trends of business in oil and gas industry are changing.
To take advantage of, to reach, to sell, to shift, to divide, to favor, to take,
to waterflood, to find, to apply, to participate in, to conduct, to pay
attention to.