Secondary data collection

To complete the primary data collected, secondary data on cost overrun causes were gathered from literature and financial information on past projects was extrapolated from company’s documents and periodicals. Details of these are explained in sections 6.5.3.1 and 6.5.3.2.

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6.5.3.1 Literature review

Literature is not only a repository of knowledge but a review of it becomes a stimulus for thinking (Creswell et al. 2011). Burns (2000) explained that the essence of conducting a literature review is not only to summarize previous work and narrow the researchers focus but is also to find the data available and specific methodologies that have been used. This makes the literature review the best way to start the data collection exercise for this study because of the difficulty in gathering data in the oil and gas industry. Aside the politics played with data, oil companies are unwilling to give out data because of strategic and most times commercial reasons. Creswell et al. (2011) recommended when there exists difficulty in data gathering, the literature review is a vital sounding board for ideas. Therefore, the historical cost overrun factors were identified through review of past reports as documented in Chapter two of this study. Because data abounds in literature it is important to define what is a “good” and “bad” data and the criteria for acceptance and rejection. A good data in the context of this study is any data that shows consistent accuracy, has a proven record to have achieved a given purpose or solved a given problem, has evidence to have improved an operation, decision making, and planning while bad data lacks them (Hair et al. 2007, Wilson 2008, and Leech & Onwuegbuzie 2009). This can be identified by comparing the findings of published works with their aims to determine if the data used was good enough. Therefore, the elicitation data was checked against the listed criteria and cross examined with data from international independent energy agencies such as the IEA, EIA, IHS, Ernest and Young, KPMG and the others to test the quality, accuracy and consistency of the data. Details of the data used for the model development arising from the use of literature review is well reported in section 7.4.

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6.5.3.2 Empirical data extrapolation from Secondary Data Sources

The nature of this project necessitated relying on official documents and other reports to fact checked data gathered the field. The criteria for selecting the sources was based on oil operators with the highest stake (highest percentage of oil production right) in the various host country for the study. This was appropriate as each of these oil operators owns more than 60% of offshore drilling projects in the various countries which helps in terms of data collection and project comparison between operators. Reported official documents such as administrative records, periodicals, energy outlook reports etc. from international Oil corporations such as the Tullow Oil in Ghana, ExxonMobil in Angola, and Shell in Nigeria were the primary sources of the offshore drilling cost data. Specifically, offshore deepwater drilling cost data for the period 2005 to 2015 were extracted from the reports of the three companies mentioned using the 10-K structured explained below. The reasons for this time period (2005- 2015) were because of the accuracy, validity, reliability, representativeness and for further analysis between the oil operators because commercial drilling started at the Jubilee field in 2003 so it was only fair to start from that year. According to Kleinsasser (2000), Brook et al. (2008), and Piekkari et al. (2010), for the purposes of trend analysis, sound decision, policy direction, and improving operations, choosing a ten- year data are advisable as it enhances the findings of research. The researcher used Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-K filings which are the global standard for reporting and extraction of operation and financial reports to extract the needed information for this study (Leinemann 2000).

Form 10-K is divided into four parts with each part consists of several different sections of the annual report of the company which is organized as numbered items. An overview of form 10-K's structure with special respect to those items containing

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Table 6-10: Overview of form 10-K structure

Part I Items 1 to 4

Part II Items 5 to 9 **item8: operational

cost/project expenditure

Part III Items 10 to 13

Part IV Item 14 **Financial data schedule

The extraction of the data was focused on items 8 and 14, which contain audited balance sheets, operational cost/project expenditure, and other financial information. Again, the data from the three oil operation companies were crossed checked with independent data from other international energy agencies such as the Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Energy Agency (IEA) and other relevant stakeholder published reports to confirm the accuracy and consistency of the data. In addition to the above sources, data was gathered from the central banks and statistical agencies of Ghana, Nigeria, and Angola on the economic indicators between 2005 and 2015 for the purposes of analysis. Finally, other secondary data sources include journals, articles, books, official reports and internet sources. From section 6.2 to 6.5, the summarised research methods adopted and justified through the discussion for this study is highlighted in table 6-11 below.

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Table 6-11: Research methods adopted summary

Item Adopted Method

Research purpose Explanatory and Exploratory adopted Research design Qualitative and quantitative(mixed) Data collection techniques used Interview and questionnaire- (Elicitation

on cost overrun factors)

Literature review and documents- (financial data on project cost)