The changing scenarios of the oil market in the Azerbaijan Republic - Essay Example

I also give thanks to Mr. Aydin M. Gashimov, Stakeholder Investment and Reporting Manager in BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited, who answered all my questions without hesitation. Mr. Iohan Heiberg, Vice-president of Statoil Azerbaijan, and Mr. Redjeb Akhsulu, General Manager of Shell Azerbaijan Exploration and Production B.V. who also contributed with his very useful comments. The recent growing demand for oil around the globe has seen oil prices remain quite unpredictable. Most of the world economies are dependent on oil; hence, any fluctuations in its price have a direct impact on the cost of essential goods and services.

Nevertheless, energy prices have been skyrocketing, presenting fresh day-to-day challenges to organizations and compelling them to adjust their strategies accordingly in order to minimize the adverse consequences. The following chapter reviews past works of research conducted by other researchers in order to support the secondary research methodology used in this dissertation. The literature review is divided into four areas of research. The PESTEL [Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Environmental and Legal (factors)] model of analysis will be employed in order improve the structure of investigation and highlight pertinent issues.

PESTEL is a strategic planning tool that helps a company to view the scope of the market beyond its limits. The analysis is an important reminder to an organization in situations where the organization is focused only on internal matters at the expense of external forces that directly and indirectly affect it and may have profound consequences on it. Managers of organizations have to visualize the factors that have the highest probability of changing and those that affect them most. These factors vary in different environments.

In doing the PESTEL analysis, managers have to decide on the various aspects of the model by considering their relative importance. One