In April 2007, the senior vice-president and chief financial officer (CEO) of Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan (CIC) was faced with a challenging decision. CIC was contemplating the sale of 50 per cent interest in a heavy oil upgrader and wanted an assessment of the worth of the company. To obtain a reasonable estimate, the CEO had instructed an independent advisor with industry experience to provide input. In addition to receiving .....more

Ward Carter, general manager-operations of Wilson Fuels, St. Catharines, a division of the Toronto-based Mather Corporation, had just returned to his office after investigating the spillage of 400,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer on Friday, February 17, 1984 at the Port Dalhousie storage terminal located 18 miles from St. Catharines. Ward knew there would be an investigation of the incident and he was now ready to write to Gerald Hudson, president .....more

The vice-president of finance & administration and the manager of finance are reviewing the expenses of a proposed joint venture. The process had been time consuming and expensive; they began to doubt whether the joint venture was even possible. What could they do to increase the probability of success? Should they be considering an additional partner or even a merger with other competitors?

Indian Oil Corporation, a public sector undertaking of the Government of India, is faced with the prospect of the deregulation of the oil industry in India and the need to compete with nimble new market entrants. A major initiative toward this end is the enterprise resource planning system that the company has commissioned. Now, several years into the implementation, several snags arise; the implementation is clearly not going as planned. The company .....more

In March 2002, the general manager of Mathura Refinery had to respond to new national legislation that mandated the production of new cleaner-burning fuels. While these fuels would reduce vehicular emissions in the country, there was the possibility of increased local emissions from the refinery from the new processes used to produce these fuels. Effluent and oily sludge emissions also demanded management attention. The general manager recognized .....more

Sinopec Corporation is one of the largest integrated petroleum and petrochemical companies in China. The director of finance of the Pingyuan Oilfield Company of Sinopec must discuss with head office the division's production budget. He must do a breakeven analysis and consider the tradeoff for different accounting alternatives to determine how he will meet head office's proposed profit target and what strategy should be used for developme .....more

Pembina Pipeline Corporation transports light crude oil and natural gas liquids in western Canada. The president of the company is abruptly awakened one night by a phone call from his operations manager. He is informed that one of Pembina's pipelines has burst and is spilling thousands of barrels of crude oil into a nearby river. Emergency crews have responded to the disaster but more help is needed. The president has to decide how the best way .....more

Calgas is one of Canada's top 25 oil and gas producers, with multinational principal shareholders and a multinational board of directors. A board member has been shopping the company without the board's knowledge or approval, and has been unsuccessful. His actions have caused employee anger and a loss of industry credibility. The board of directors must decide how to deal with the board member and determine a strategy for both damage control .....more

Trinidad has sought to diversify its economy by creating a cluster of petrochemical businesses in Point Lisas Industrial Estate (PLIE). The case is written from the perspective of a potential entrant trying to evaluate the opportunities and challenges that may confront a business that decides to locate in Trinidad. Challenges include the uncertainty about government policies, particularly future pricing policies for oil and natural gas, and the possibility .....more

A management scientist was asked by the president of a gas production company to develop a model for allocating the gas supplied to the Petro Pipe Lines Corporation gas plant among the various suppliers, according to the terms of the gas supply contracts. The intent of the model was to minimize the penalties imposed at the end of each month on the gas suppliers as a result of daily differences between production (supply) and nomination (demand) for .....more