Анализ эффективности нефтегазовых компаний: примеры из России

Efficient performance and performance measurement remain a widely discussed issues in academic literature. Neely and Andy (2007) argue that performance is the ability of a firm to achieve its goals effectively by efficiently using its resources. Indeed, how a firm uses its resources has an ultimate impact on its profitability, competitive position and even potential for survival (Barney 1991). While measuring performance by using financial ratios remain one of the popular techniques, while ratios may point on major performance gaps, they seldom answer the question why this underperformance has occurred (Brealey and Myers 2000). Eccles (1991) claimed that financial perspective should not be perceived as a foundation of performance rather it should be one of the components of a broader set of perspectives and measures.
First the notion of efficiency was described in the article of Farrell (1957): in order to be efficient, largest possible result or output should be produced from the given set of production factors or inputs. Currently modern studies also consider the firm efficient if optimal amount of resources is used to achieve target production (Kumbhakar et al. 2005; Hawdon 2003). By minimizing resources involved in production and using them efficiently, lean manufacturing and cost optimization can be achieved, for illustration, as in the case of Toyota production system.
The researchers emphasize that the main factor that affects efficiency in oil and gas industry is the share of state ownership (Wolf 2009; Eller et al. 2013). Previous studies claim that national oil companies, which control about 80 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, are less efficient in comparison to their private competitors, while the results of previous studies for Russian companies contradict this conclusion. Thus, it appears to be a research gap regarding this issue. Furthermore, in the era of sanctions and low oil prices it is important to find out key factors affecting the efficiency of Russian companies in order to provide potential of reducing the quantities of certain production factors, which, in its turn will lead to cost optimization. Moreover, these new metrics may be used in taking investment decisions regarding new projects or projects expansion, since, according to EY, oil and gas projects carry a high risk involved and not comprehensive assessment of investment decision usually leads to large overspending, the delay of deadlines or even the project abandonment.
The most common measures of efficiency are Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), based on econometric modelling, and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on linear programming. These methods are widely applied to measure efficiency in oil and gas industry (Eller et al. 2007; Kapustina and Krylov 2008; Basil and Lee 2014); therefore, were chosen to be used in this paper. Previous studies examined the relationship between the level of production and quantities of such production factors as labor and capital, commonly represented
5
by reserves, involved with the sole focus to maximize production. The relationship between oil and gas production and amount of reserves and number of labor force involved is studied in this paper. No studies previously were concentrated on minimizing the production factors involved which presents a great potential for a company to optimize its costs. Furthermore, the paper also examines the link between the share of state ownership and company’s depletion policy on production efficiency. The depletion policy mentioned as one of the key factors by previous studies was also never examined before.
The main research goal of this paper is to identify the factors that affect production efficiency of Russian petroleum companies. Furthermore, the relationship between share of state ownership and efficiency of Russian oil and gas companies will be also examined. The main research question to be addressed is whether the share of state ownership affects the efficiency of Russian oil and gas companies and what the key factors affection production efficiency of Russian petroleum companies are.
The research objectives are as follows:
• To conduct a literature review of research papers on the topic of efficiency and
methods to measure it
• To study the specifics of efficiency measurement in oil and gas industry
• To conduct an empirical study of factors that may have a relationship with the
efficiency of oil and gas company
• To conduct in-depth interviews with industry experts to determine the practices of
efficiency measurement in oil and gas industry
• To discuss the results of empirical study and in-depth interviews and derive
theoretical and management implications.
The methodology of the study is econometric modeling (SFA) and regression models
construction, linear programming modelling (DEA) and in-depth interview. In both SFA and DEA models the dependent variable is oil and gas production, independent variables are labor and oil and gas reserves. Furthermore, a regression model with dependent variable of company’s inefficiency and independent variables of share of government ownership and reserves to production rate, which is a proxy for depletion policy, was constructed.
This thesis has both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretical contributions include the proof that the general conclusion regarding inefficiency of national companies in comparison to private ones does not hold in Russian realities. Thus, the similar studies may be concluded to check this hypothesis on other emerging markets. Secondly, in-depth interviews conducted revealed that there are more possible dimensions to look at when assessing efficiency
6

in oil and gas industry, such as corporate governance, including CEO market orientation, degree of business diversification, research and development activities and many other. As for practical implications, the results of this study may be used by managers to analyze the efficiency of existing projects and take efficiency metric in consideration while making investment decisions regarding project expansion or new project development.
This research paper consists from an introduction, followed by two chapters that include the literature review of research topic, presentation of research methodology, obtained empirical results and discussion, possible theoretical and managerial implications, conclusions, and research limitations.
The first chapter examines the definition of efficiency as a method of performance measurement, identifies types of efficiency. The main methods of efficiency measurement, precisely, the methods of Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) were covered, their advantages and limitations were discussed. Finally, a comprehensive analysis of Russian oil and gas market was conducted with regards to both global and local factors that influence the market.
The second chapter describes methodology of the study and the models used. After the descriptive analysis of variables is provided, followed by empirical results that were obtained. Then the results are discussed, their theoretical and practical implications are stated, limitations are drawn, and the conclusion is made.