bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Probabilistic Assessment of World Petroleum Resources and Reserves at Fourteenth World Petroleum Congress
Authors: Masters Charles D. , Attanasi Emil D. , Root David H. 
Published: July 2017

The occurrence and quantity of world petroleum resources appears to be well understood. The numbers are so great, however, that even minor variants in the total picture can be responsible for enormous localized industrial activity. Specific knowledge of the widespread local occurrences of oil and gas, therefore, is important to economic development and to the free market distribution of energy. It is also clear, however, that a large proportion of the recoverable petroleum resources are found in only a few selected localities. We believe that, worldwide, recoverable conventional oil and gas exist in ultimate quantities approximating 2300 billion barrels (370 Gm3) of oil and 12 000 trillion cubic feet (340 TM3) of gas. These values are limited by our concepts of world petroleum geology and our understanding of specific basins; nonetheless, continued expansion of exploration activity, around the world, has resulted in only minimal adjustments to our quantitative understanding of ultimate resources. Reserves reporting has been one of the greatest hindrances to a thorough understanding of world resources because we are just now gaining an understanding of field growth and what is actually being calculated and reported from various localities. Unconventional resources are present in large quantities, in particular in the Western Hemisphere, and are of a dimension to substantially contribute to world reserves should economic conditions permit.
Use and Implementation of SPE and WPC Petroleum Reserves and Definitions
Authors: Roger Juan V. , Antunez Simon 
Published: July 2017

In February of 1987 the Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE, approved its 'Definitions for Oil and Gas Reserves' and, during the same year, the 'Classification and Nomenclature Systems for Petroleum and Petroleum Reserves' of the World Petroleum Congress (WPC) was approved as the 12th WPC. Both, the SPE and WPC's Reserves Definitions were the result of extensive research throughout all sectors of the Oil Industry in most of the oil producing countries. Even though there was no coordination or discussion between the two groups responsible for these efforts, the concepts and definitions in the two documents are very similar. Since then discussions have continued to be held throughout the world, with the participation of different sectors of the Oil Industry, on some of the concepts included in the SPE Definitions. Venezuela has actively participated in both of these efforts and continues to contribute with permanent representatives in the working groups. Internally these concepts have been used extensively when estimating Venezuelan reserves and in the revisions that took place in 1987, it justified the addition of approximately 25 000 MMB to the country's proved oil reserves. The paper discusses the concepts included in these documents and attempts to evaluate the relative merits of the arguments for and against the Definitions. Also discussed, as an example of the utility of these definitions, is the use that Venezuela has made of these concepts.
An Enhanced Resource Classification – A Tool for Decisive Exploration
Authors: Vollset Jan , Abrahamsen Kjell A. , Lindbo Kjell 
Published: July 2017

The classification of resources, both undiscovered and discovered, is becoming increasingly important in the decision making process of major oil companies. Statoil has developed a new internal resource classification system to support investment decisions and the management of petroleum assets. To achieve this goal, resource definitions have been related to the value chain from early exploration to production, and to economic assessments. Each resource class is associated with a typical business action. Both undiscovered and discovered resources are included, with the discovered, undeveloped petroleum assets given a major focus due to their importance in resource management. The use of the classification system increases the awareness of the quality and consistency of the resource calculations and of the registration of discovered resources. A method of analysing prospects and discoveries according to their different geological segments (fault blocks etc.) has been chosen to achieve a consistent resource assessment. This reduces the possibility of unexpected results, causing significant reductions in the recorded discovered resources. The estimates of resources are made using probability distributions. In this way the summation of resources by the use of Monte Carlo simulation, is a fast operation and the variance can be estimated. The proven reserves, which we define as a 'low' value with a high degree of certainty (90 percentile), are easy to calculate both within individual fields and for aggregated reserves of many fields. Statoils new classification system has the following advantages: – it gives a better description of fields and prospects with uncertain economy. – it is based on the value chain from unmapped prospects to production – the categories are linked to typical business actions – the importance of economy in the system makes it useful for target setting and performance measurements – the probabilistic distribution of resources within a segment, reservoir, prospect or field makes a statistically correct summation possible – the use of segmentation of reservoir zones gives a better separation between areas with tested hydrocarbons and areas carrying a risk of being water-bearing, and is the basis for classifying reserves as proved.
Quality versus Quantity: The Case of Forward-Looking Disclosure
Authors: Beretta Sergio , Bozzolan Saverio 
Published: July 2017

Empirical studies do not make a clear distinction between the quantity and quality of disclosure. As it is generally assumed that the quantity of information has an implication in determining its quality, quantity measures are often used as proxy for disclosure quality. Nonetheless, the measurement of the quality of disclosure is recognized as a relevant question that is still open and the importance of developing measures of disclosure quality is emphasized in literature. This paper disputes the idea that the quantity of disclosure is a sound proxy for the quality of disclosure. The adoption of multidimensional frameworks for the appreciation of disclosure is discussed and an index for quality disclosure is proposed. Moving from the assumption that high-quality information should usefully support external users in the judgment of past and future performance, we hypothesize that high-quality disclosure is positively associated with accuracy and negatively associated with the dispersion of analysts' earnings forecasts. We show analytically that the proposed framework captures dimensions of annual report disclosure that are considered useful by financial analysts in forecasting earnings and that the proposed measure of disclosure quality has a stronger positive statistical association with accuracy and a stronger negative association with the dispersion of financial analysts' earnings forecasts than a simple index of disclosure quantity has.
Discussion of “The ‘Numbers Game’ in the Pre- and Post-Sarbanes-Oxley Eras”
Authors: Roychowdhury Sugata 
Published: July 2017

Eli Bartov and Daniel Cohen (2009) test whether there has been a decline in the extent to which managers engage in opportunistic activities to meet or beat analyst benchmarks after the passage of the Sar-banes-Oxley Act (SOX) in response to the well-publicized corporate scandals of 2001 and 2002. They document a decline in the proportion of firms just meeting or beating analyst expectations (JMB firms) in the Post-SOX period. Focusing on the specific strategic actions taken by JMB firms, they find evidence of a shift away from expectations management and earnings management via accruals, towards earnings management via real activities. The research setting is intuitively appealing, and the results documented in the paper are very interesting. However, there appear to be multiple inferences that can be drawn from these results. In particular, the patterns documented in the paper raise questions about whether the effects of regulation (in this case, SOX) are indeed beneficial for capital markets, an issue that is clearly an interesting topic for further examination.
Determinants of the Timing of Quarterly Earnings Announcements
Authors: Bowen Robert M. , Johnson Marilyn F. , Shevlin Terry , Shores D. 
Published: July 2017

Previous empirical research provides descriptive evidence on the timing pattern of earnings announcements but does not attempt to investigate potential explanations. Because some stakeholders are not likely to find it cost-effective to monitor the firm actively, managers have the opportunity to influence the perceptions of relatively uninformed stakeholders through accounting decisions such as the timing of earnings announcements. We provide evidence on this stakeholder explanation of timing decisions by identifying a setting that has the potential to discriminate between this and a confounding explanation for the normal timing pattern suggested in prior studies. Specifically, if managers rushed to report bad news following the October 1987 stock market crash in the belief that the ongoing market chaos reduced the reactions of stakeholders to the news, “normal” timing patterns would be (at least partially) reversed. Our results are generally consistent with prior research in that we document a (somewhat weak) association between earnings news and timing. However, consistent with the stakeholder explanation, we find that the earliest reporting group exhibited, on average, bad news. Thus, we infer that timing decisions for some firms are motivated by a desire to minimize the adverse reaction of stakeholders to bad news. In addition, we report evidence that suggests managers reduced the magnitude of reported earnings following the crash. This evidence corroborates our conclusion that managers are attempting to influence stakeholder perceptions of the firm's earnings performance.
Why Do Private Companies Demand Auditing? A Case for Organizational Loss of Control
Authors: Abdel-Khalik A. Rashad 
Published: July 2017

The objective of this paper is to explain the motivation for owners of private companies to voluntarily demand audit (positive) assurance. It is hypothesized that the owner/manager seeks audits as compensatory control systems for the organizational loss of control inherent in hierarchical organizations. Thus, the expected value of wealth at risk due to loss of control sets a lower limit on the amount owners would be willing to pay for audits to compensate for that loss. The hypothesized relationship was tested using information for 103 private companies demanding audit (positive) assurance. The obtained relationships were basically unaltered by the introduction of lenders' requirement of audits (n = 40). Furthermore, the hypothesized compensatory aspect of audit assurance was absent for the demand for negative assurance (reviews) in a sample of 31 companies. This is consistent with the fact that negative assurance is not viewed as a way of providing confidence so as to compensate owners for loss of direct supervision and control.
Can Prices Be Trusted? a Test of the Ability of Experts to Outperform or Influence the Market
Authors: Wright David W. 
Published: July 2017

This paper reconsiders the efficiency of the market using the results from a Wall Street Journal contest of the ability of professional investment analysts to outperform the market with their monthly publicly announced stock selections. The monthly returns seem to indicate that the experts outperformed the market by a statistically significant margin, after adjusting for risk. However, analysis of the daily returns demonstrates that virtually all of this abnormal return arises in the first two trading days following the public announcement of their selections. More importantly, virtually all of this initial abnormal return is gradually retracted by the market over the succeeding 39 trading days. The anomalous announcement day return has systematically increased over the duration of the contest. This is inconsistent with a market that, if not efficient from the outset, at least aspires to attain efficient behavior over time by reducing anomalous behavior from a systematically repeated event. Finally, the anomalous announcement day abnormal returns for experts who “won” the contest in the preceding month were twice that of the other contestants, despite evidence that placement in the monthly contest is determined by chance. These results indicate a market inefficiency under which the market can be temporarily overly influenced by the announced opinion of an “expert.” Hence, the results are consistent with recent conjectures that overreaction to information may explain a growing body of literature documenting mean reversion in stock prices. Moreover, these findings suggest that an “expert” who publicly announces a pick that, by chance, produces an abnormal positive return would thereafter be in an enhanced position to influence the market by ever-increasing margins with subsequent recommendations.
Auditor Independence as a Unique Equilibrium Response
Authors: Yost Jeffrey A. 
Published: July 2017

This paper demonstrates how strong auditor independence, as defined by Antle (1984), can be achieved through an indirect reporting mechanism. A stylized principal-agent model based on Antle (1982) is analyzed. In the model, an owner hires a manager and an auditor. In the optimal contracts for the manager and the auditor, an equilibrium is desired where both the manager and the auditor provide high levels of effort and report their findings truthfully. However, two alternative equilibria exist where the auditor and the manager coordinate their strategies and perform tasks undesirable from the owner's perspective. Indirect reporting mechanisms are then constructed and shown to implement the owner's preferred equilibrium. The owner provides both the manager and the auditor an additional reporting signal. Each of the two signals removes one of the two undesirable equilibria. Because, in an equilibrium, neither the manager nor the auditor uses the additional signal or cheats, the additional signals are costless to the owner. The model demonstrates how allowing the manager to impose additional costs onto the auditor effectively increases rather than decreases the auditor's incentives to remain independent.
The Association between Auditor Quality and Auditor Size: An Analysis of Small CPA Firms
Authors: Colbert Gary , Murray Dennis 
Published: July 2017

Prior research has documented a positive association between audit quality and auditor size. While some studies have used audit fee as a surrogate for audit quality, other studies have employed more direct measures, such as the outcomes of quality control reviews. Those latter studies, however, used samples that suffer from severe geographic or client-type restrictions. Moreover, most studies of the quality-size relationship have focused on relatively large CPA firms. The present study extends this literature by using a nationwide sample of 422 small CPA firms selected from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Private Companies Practice Section peer review program, which provides comprehensive measures of CPA firm quality. This study also investigated (1) whether peer review ratings improve with successive reviews and (2) if oversight organization (the AICPA or state societies of CPAs) systematically affects peer review ratings. The results show that for firms that perform audits, reviews, and compilations (but not for firms that perform reviews and compilations, but no audits) auditor quality is positively associated with firm size, the number of previous reviews, and oversight by state societies. These findings suggest that (1) firm size is a useful quality surrogate only for firms that conduct audits, (2) the AICPA's peer review program has been successful in that firms improved their peer review ratings over time, and (3) state-society-sponsored reviews should be examined to assess if they are conducted with the same rigor and intensity as AICPA-sponsored reviews.
Adsorption of Para Substituted Anilines from Cyclohexane Solution on Sepiolite
Authors: Gonzalez-Pradas E. , Valverde-Garcia A. , Villaranca-Sanchez M. , Del F. , Bueno Rey 
Published: July 2017

The adsorption processes of different para-substituted anilines from cyclohexane solution on natural sepiolite have been studied. The adsorption isotherms may be classified as type L-2 of the Giles classification in the p-bromoaniline and p-toluidine cases, and as type H-2 in the p-acetylaniline case. The experimental data points have been fitted to the Langmuir equation and the adsorption capacities, surface areas available to the amine molecules and apparent equilibrium constants have been calculated. The apparent thermodynamic magnitudes corresponding to the adsorption processes have also been determined.
The Adsorption of Cement Superplasticizers on to Mineral Dispersions
Authors: Pierre A. , Mercier R. , Foissy A. , Lamarche J.M. 
Published: July 2017

The adsorption of polymeric sulphonated naphthalene formaldehyde (SNF) and sulphonated melamine formaldehyde (SMF) on to titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate has been measured in aqueous media. The magnitude of these adsorptions is strongly dependent on electrostatic interaction irrespective of the pH value. This result has been established by studying the adsorption of the polyelectrolytes from solutions of different composition. The calcium ion plays a prominent role in the process of adsorption, especially at high pH where electrical interactions do not favour the reaction. The polymeric nature of the fluidizing agents is demonstrated by an increase in adsorption with molecular weight and by adsorption/desorption experiments where the reaction has been shown to be irreversible. The amount adsorbed at maximum coverage does not depend on the nature of the mineral, but mainly on electrical interactions between the monomer units.
Adsorption of Chloropicrin onto Humidified Activated Carbon Surfaces
Authors: Anstice P.J.C. , Halliday N. , Alder J.F. 
Published: July 2017

Humidified activated charcoal samples have been exposed to chloropicrin-charged test atmospheres under controlled conditions of concentration, temperature, relative humidity and flow rate. The molar ratio of displaced water:adsorbed chloropicrin was observed to increase with chloropicrin loading. Estimates were made of the adsorption face areas and molecular volumes of the chloropicrin and water molecules. The ratios of adsorption face areas and molecular volumes were estimated as 3.4:1 and 7.7:1, respectively. Early in the sample challenge molar ratios up to about 3.4:1 were observed; it is proposed that these result from the adsorption of chloropicrin onto vacant sites or onto water monolayers with readsorption of water occurring elsewhere on the surface. As these pores become full, chloropicrin adsorbs in water-filled pores displacing water molecules of approximately the same total volume.
Parameters for the Adsorption of Tungsten from Metatungstate Solution on to Alumina
Authors: Pizzio L.R. , Cáceres C.V. , Blanco M.N. 
Published: July 2017

The adsorption of tungsten from aqueous solutions of ammonium metatungstate on to alumina has been studied, an adsorption isotherm at 20°C being obtained. The isotherm had a sigmoidal shape and reached a flat plateau region at an adsorbed concentration of 100 mg W/g Al2O3 within the range of initial concentrations used (up to 70,000 ppm W). A proposed relationship between the adsorbed concentration and the equilibrium solution concentration has enabled the adsorption equilibrium parameters to be estimated. Impregnation of flat thin layers of alumina with concentrated tungstate solutions (5,100, 31,200 and 72,800 ppm W) has also been studied. Fits between the experimental tungsten concentration profiles and those obtained via a theoretical model of the impregnation phenomena allowed the adsorption kinetic parameters to be obtained. These parameters are useful in predicting the concentration profiles resulting from the pore-filling impregnation of pellets provided a suitable theoretical model is employed.
Investigation of Nickel Ion Removal by Means of Activated Clay
Authors: Hawash S. , Farah J.Y. , El-Geundi M.S. 
Published: July 2017

Natural and activated clays have been investigated as adsorbents for the removal of nickel from wastewater. Analysis of the natural clay under test showed that it was composed, approximately of 51% kaolinite, 46% montmorillonite and 3% illite, having a specific surface area of 65 m2/g. The natural clay was treated with different activators (HCl, NaCl and H2O2) to enhance its adsorption capacity towards nickel. The efficiency of such activation was greater by 16.0% and 23.2% in the case of NaCl and H2O2, respectively, relative to untreated clay. No significant increase in the adsorption capacity was brought about by HCl treatment. A limited comparison has been made between clay and activated carbon by performing isotherm studies under similar conditions. The results indicate that the adsorption capacity of clay activated with H2O2, clay activated with NaCl and natural clay is 216.9%, 204.2% and 176.1% that of activated carbon, respectively. Based solely on the adsorption capacity, an economic analysis demonstrates that natural clay is the cheapest material, followed by clay activated with NaCl and clay activated with H2O2. The relative costs of removing nickel using natural clay, clay activated with NaCl and clay activated with H2O2 were found to be 2.8%, 5.4% and 25.4%, respectively, that of activated carbon.
Removal of Ammonia from Aqueous Solution Using Activated Carbons
Authors: El-Nabarawy Th. , Fagal G.A. , Khalil L. B. 
Published: July 2017

The surface areas of non-activated, activated and modified activated carbons were determined from the adsorption of nitrogen at −196°C and of carbon dioxide at 25°C. The base neutralization capacities were determined from the adsorption of NaOH, Na2CO3, NaHCO3 and NH4OH. The amount of oxygen combined to the carbon surface was estimated by measuring the pressure of CO and CO2 obtained on outgassing the carbon sample in the temperature range 300–1000°C. The surface area of activated carbon is not a determining factor in its ammonia adsorption. The surface acidity of the active carbon is a good measure of its capacity for ammonia removal. Ammonia adsorption increases appreciably upon surface oxidation of carbons with oxidizing gases and solutions. The acidic groups on the surface of carbons differ in their strength. Only a fraction of the surface covered by the carbon–oxygen groups is responsible for the capacity of the carbon towards ammonia. Most of the adsorbed ammonia is recovered upon treatment with dilute hydrochloric acid leaving the surface free for successive ammonia adsorption cycles.