Importance Of Foreign Direct Investment In The Oil And Gas Sector: A Study Of Oman

Statement of the Problem

Since the early 1980s, foreign direct investment has increased considerably as the world market became more competitive. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is recognised as one of the powerful engines that would drive the economic growth of a country. For the developing oil rich countries, investing a good amount of money on the oil extracting and refining process, at times become challenging. This is when the major organisations seek for better investment opportunities and welcomes FDI. In the view point of Shuen et al. (2014), the importance of foreign direct investment in the oil and gas sector is important because the this industry operates into two sectors; the upstream sector when the exploration and the production of the raw or crude oil and gas takes place, and the downstream when the extracted oil is processed in the refineries and other petrochemical plants (Urciuoli et al. 2014). These processes require huge investment with the determination of risks and reward in order to achieve profitable outcome. It automatically attracts the investment-friendly environment to establish a stable environment that would not let the complete operation to get hampered (Yusuf et al. 2014). Keeping this particular approach into consideration, it has been found that many developing countries like Nigeria, Vietnam, Oman and other oil rich countries have been approaching for foreign direct investment in order to get a secure flow of investment for carrying out their operational activities.

In order to attract FDI, major oil and gas industries are found to follow certain business strategies to attract more investments from the foreign parties. The aim of this particular study is to find out how the strategies applied by these major organisations actually work and how it benefits the organisations. This would help to understand the importance of FDI in the oil and gas sector and could provide right evidence for of the benefits gained by these developing countries for carrying out their business activities.

As it has been evident that the developing countries like Nigeria, Oman, Vietnam and others have rich storage of oil and natural gas but due to lack of adequate fund, the companies are not able to utilise the resources to their fullest. Owing to this, the developing countries are not showing any kind of progress in their business activities (Urciuoli et al. 2014). This issue has become more prominent in the age of the globalisation and free trade economy. With the easy availability of skilled labour, transfer of technology and the managerial know-how has increased the chance of including investment from the other countries that would directly help in improving the business activities of the host countries (Wu 2014). Therefore, FDI has direct impact on the economy of the third world countries that has created a bridge between the domestic savings and the investment. This is the reason that major oil and natural gas companies are looking for FDI from other countries for improving their business activities.

Rationale of the Research

The issue that has been identified that compels to attract FDI is the lack of availability of fund among the major oil and gas industries of the developing oil rich countries like Nigeria and Oman. This has lead to the situation where taking help from the richer countries has become mandatory for carrying out the business activities (Comyns and Figge 2015). This is an issue because these countries have huge natural resources in terms of oil and natural gas but they could not utilise the same due to lack of money required for the process of extraction and other activities.

This issue has become more important in the contemporary situation due to the increased impact of globalisation and the easier means of accessing the global resources (Saad et al. 2014). Every developing country is welcoming FDI that would serve them both short term and long term financial interest and would help them to achieve their business target as well. Since last decade, there have been considerable changes in the inflow of FDI and has put emphasis on the private sectors with the liberation of investment regime (Mitchell and Mitchell 2014). In addition to this, FDI has also opened up better scope for better infrastructure, especially in the telecom and the oil sector.

This study will focus on the importance of involving FDI in the business activities of the major industries in the oil and gas sector. The study will also focus on the business strategies that the industries in the oil and gas sector undertakes in order to attract more FDI from different countries. In addition to this, focus will also be made on how these strategies actually work to attract foreign investments.

The research question framed for this study is:

1. How the strategic business models used by the organizations operating in the oil sector of Oman help to attract foreign investments?

The aim of the research is to find out how the strategic business models as used by the companies operating in the oil and natural gas sector help in attracting more foreign investors. The study shall also aims at understanding the various factors that directly or indirectly influence the decision of both inflow and outflow of FDI (Urciuoli et al. 2014). The complete focus of the study will be made on the oil and gas industries of Oman.

The research objectives are as follows:

1. To evaluate the need of foreign direct investment by the industries in the oil and gas sector.
2. To examine the business strategies undertaken by the industries in the oil and gas sector to attract foreign investors
3. To find out how successfully the business strategies undertaken by the major organisations work
4. To recommend a number of better strategies that could be used by the industries in the oil and gas sector to attract foreign investors

The null and alternate hypotheses are:

H₀: The business strategies undertaken by the industries in the oil and gas sector do not help to attract foreign investors

Research Questions

H₁: The business strategies undertaken by the industries in the oil and gas sector help to attract foreign investors

The complete research study shall be based on secondary researches. For the secondary research, the resources obtained from the various existing sources like books, journals, government data and others those were available both online and off line shall be used for the research study (Ablo 2015). The response gained from these experts shall be evaluated by converting the data into themes. There shall be no qualitative analysis as proper response cannot be gained by conducting a survey from a particular group of people. Therefore, the outcome of the research shall be based on the findings gained from the secondary research only.

The importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the growth of a country has been well known among the major business operators in various sectors. FDI is referred to the investment made to acquire a lasting management interest to acquire a particular percentage of equity share in the particular enterprise operating in a country other than the home country of the investor. As stated by Nwapi (2015), the main objective of FDI is to extract the natural resources of a country and sale the same in the international market by exporting them. These activities would definitely affect the foreign exchange and the inflation rate in the domestic market that would stimulate the resource exports. Oman has huge reserves of oil and gas along with other natural resources like mineral deposits, vegetations and others. However, the region is dominated by petroleum products only (Hanna et al. 2014). This is the reason that major investors are focused on the oil and petroleum sector of the country irrespective of the availability of other resources.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is considered as an integral part of an effective means of business activities as it acts as a catalyst of development for the major industrial sectors. The benefits of FDI have always been regarded as the foreign investment that would help to transform the economy of the country by bringing capital, economic growth and jobs (Tordo et al. 2013). As a result of which, it has been observed that major developing countries have been strongly encouraged to privatise their state-owned industries that would eventually promote their domestic private sector. Reading Chiarini (2014), it has been evident that many international financial institutions have been actively promoted towards this approach by undertaking the approach of privatisation and liberal investment. Paz and Ramírez-Cendrero (2016) pointed out that there are definitely certain benefits of the FDI in the private sectors but at the same time, it also brings major costs to it. In the article, Paz and Ramírez-Cendrero (2016) have discussed about the privatisation of the oil and gas sector in Bolivia. It has been found that FDI has provided the major benefits to the oil and gas firms since the time it has been privatised (Urciuoli et al. 2014). Bolivia has been receiving huge benefits from the oil and gas sector considering the poor situation of the country; where 63% of people live in the rural areas and people are living on less than US$2 a day (Agarwal 2016). Therefore, there remains the urgency of increasing the tax level in order to reduce the high level of poverty. The oil and gas sector can help in extracting the highest possible economy in the country and would help in reduction of poverty and would also lead to development programmes.

Research Aims and Objectives

There are certain general features of FDI that increases its importance and subsequently makes it feasible for a country to attract FDI and make use of the same for building up a better infrastructure of the particular industry. As pointed out by Wan et al. (2014), compared to bank loans, FDI is less volatile. It is better to gain monetary benefits in short time. FDI is available in combined form as well as a means of mergers and acquisition that is not possible in case of bank loans. In case of a small firm, a foreigner can easily bought them up at a lower rate than expected. Keeping this fact into consideration, it has been found that many foreign organizations have showed their interest in investing on the small firms because that would bring them greater profitability even with a small investment. In the view point of Paz and Ramírez-Cendrero (2016), FDI is greater in the developing countries from the developed countries; while FDI from the developing countries is comparable very small. There are many developed countries as well that have also emphasized on gaining foreign investment. For example, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea and others have emerged as the major destinations that use FDI.

Abdu (2013) revealed that there are certain factors that determine the investment made by the major investors in the oil and gas sector of a country. The primary determinant is the market size of the country. As pointed out by Bunte et al. (2017), per capita income of a country is the effective indicator to measure the size of the local market. In addition to this, the GDP of the country can also help to measure the size of local market. A large market is an indicator that there would be more demand of the particular product in terms of its population and GDP that would directly measure the inflow of the FDI in the country. The study conducted on the market demand of Kenya by Khatib (2014), showed that FDI has helped to build up a domestic market in Kenya by increasing the purchasing power of the consumers. The availability of natural resources is another important determinant to attract the major investors for FDI. It is when the country is richly endowed with rich natural resources but lacks the proper capital or the technical skills that is important for extracting or selling the resources to the international market, the country looks for FDI. In this respect, Fløysand et al. (2017) commented that in such cases, the FDI might not result in profitability of the foreign firm directly but there are other means by which the companies can derive profitability.

Research Hypothesis

Infrastructure of the country and the labour cost are also the major determinants of FDI. As stated by Asiedu et al. (2015), the global business environment has become very competitive and the lack of proper infrastructure will lead to higher transaction costs that are already in the business or creates barrier for the entry of new firms. FDI is important for building the infrastructure of the nation or the expansion of the particular sector within the domestic sphere. The neo-classical economists have put forwarded the importance of low labour cost in the sphere of foreign investors. As commented by Walter (2016), labour cost has largely affected the investment decision of many investors to invest on a particular country. An investor would always look at the perspective of the availability of human capital in the particular country and the skills and education qualification of the available labour. An investor would invest on such countries where there is availability of skilled and good labour force that would help to carry out the activities of the particular sector. The political stability and the legal and regulatory framework of a country are also the major determinants that decide on the investment of a foreign investor on a particular industrial or business sector. Reading Okafor and Webster  (2016), it has been known that there are very limited countries that have the oil and gas reserves and these countries are the sources of oil and gas for other countries worldwide. Keeping this situation into consideration, there are strict political discourse and regulations that the oil and gas sector has to follow in order to carry out their business activities (Urciuoli et al. 2014). It is when these factors are suitable for the foreign investors, they are found to invest on the particular country.

Investment incentive strategy is a policy instrument that is used by many countries to attract the foreign investors. In this strategy, there are certain tax related factors like tax reduction or tax exemption, special tax allowance and the financial incentives like interest loans or special tax allowance or subsidies that guarantee the transfer of profit or the provision of the foreign currencies as an incentive to attract more FDI (Paz and Ramírez-Cendrero 2016). In this respect, Kuznetsov (2016) argued that in many countries, privatisation of the particular sector has also influenced the role of the investors to a large extent. For example, in Nigeria, the oil and gas sector had implemented two rounds of privatization in 1980s. In fact, Nigeria has been found to undertake certain considerations to attract the foreign investors. According to Asiedu et al. (2015), foreign direct investment is a means of conducting anticipation for the future profit. Investment flows from a low anticipated profit to a higher anticipated one. Corporate management is another aspect of emphasising the foreign direct investment. In the study, Bunte et al. (2017) talked about a number of countries that have included in the global energy power production. China is one of those countries that showed great potential in developing the energy products and services. China has always focused on increasing its global energy power.

Research Methodology

The countries that are low in their income but as huge labour capital often seek for better opportunities where they can carry out their business activities easily. According to the Heckscher-Ohlin trade model, the countries that have intensive labour produces capital intensive products only. In order to accumulate or generate more amount of money for improving the business or the industrial structure, investment from the developed countries can only help in improving the condition of the particular country (Perrons and Jensen 2015). It is when the capital is used for the purpose of the abundant supply of labour there remains the possibility of improving the business operations of the particular country. The technology ladder hypothesis determines the simple ratio between simple capital and labour ratio. As commented by Ngoasong, (2014) that only the availability of huge number of labour will not satisfy the complicated industrial market but the labour needs to be trained and educated as well. It can only be possible if proper attribution is made towards their training and learning skills. This automatically requires huge amount of investment because according to this theory, emphasis shall be made on quality rather than only quantity. Therefore, in order make these things happen it is important to attract huge amount of money as investment. This is when the companies feel free to attract more amount of investment from other organisations and welcomes FDI.

As stated by Shuen et al. (2014), Asian countries are the major countries that attract FDI. The East Asian growth was staggered and it is only with the help of FDI, trade investment and other production networks, these countries have been found to flourish in terms of its business or industrial activities. Shuen et al. (2014) has revealed a linkage between Japan and its neighbouring countries like Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and a few other nations in terms of using FDI as a part of the business strategy that has helped in industrialisation of these particular countries. As commented by Asiedu et al. (2015), the multinational firms are concentrating to improve their human resource along with betterment in the technology. This can only be possible only when the developed nations show economic integration and provide monetary help as well. The multinational firms of Japan, Korea are found to play significant role in bringing up the technological, capital or the economic market of many countries. Thus, it can be easily said that the major East Asian countries are in fact striving heavily on the generation of money gained from the other countries. In this respect, Gajic et al. (2014) commented that industrialization starts from better investment by accumulating huge money in the form of FDI. However, Perrons and Jensen (2015) argued that in the initial stage of industrialization huge amount of money or accumulation of money is not the most important or critical factor but what really matters is the mastery of the labour. This clearly neglects the importance of involving FDI in the major business operations. Perrons and Jensen (2015) came up with a strong point that when the particular country or industry is found to show improvement in its business, it automatically attracts huge investors for making investments. This reduces the dependency on foreign investors for any kind of business activity.

Literature Review

The foreign investors can only invest in a free business market where it is easy to accumulate both the labour and the capital. If cheap labours are available, it becomes easier for the investors to invest in the business activities but if the situation is not suitable, the investors would not try to invest in the particular business (Bunte et al. 2017). In addition to this, the governmental policies also act as the major tool for attracting the foreign investors. Keeping the similar approach into consideration, Agrawal, (2016) pointed out that as the industries grows and the competition with other industries, the need for more investment increases. This similar approach can be easily applied in case of oil and gas sector as well. The countries like Oman and Nigeria requires good amount investment in order to carry out their business activities. Therefore, depending only the labours that are available in the country would not satisfy the need of the particular industry and it required other benefits as well (Abdu 2013). As commented by Agrawal, (2016), that industrialization has become synonymous with inviting the FDI. FDI not only helps in developing the particular industry or company but it also help in shaping the environment of the business as well. The changes that have been noticed in the recent time like the free trade agreement or the commercialization of missions have resulted in attracting more numbers of investors in the multinational corporations (Urciuoli et al. 2014). Thus, the investment that was considered as a commercial mission by many has been rejected and FDI is merely welcomed by all for improving the business activities of the particular organisations.

The uniqueness of the geographical location of Oman has made it an oil and natural gas rich country. When it comes to oil and gas industry of Oman, it can be easily said that oil and gas industry plays the most vital role in the economy of the country. The oil and gas sector is the largest industrial sector in Oman and it is still growing (Agrawal, 2016). The Sultanate of Oman covers the major ports of exports and supplies oil and petroleum resources to many countries. In the recent time, it has been found that Oman has been focusing on the oil and gas industry to enhance the country’s economy. Keeping the importance of the oil and gas sector into consideration, the country has always focused on the foreign investment as well (Tordo et al. 2013). The total expenditure on the oil and natural gas sector for exploration and production is as high as US$ 11.5 billion while the spending on this sector is US$ 8.7 billion. The daily production of oil is almost 943,000 barrels with 24.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (Bunte et al. 2017). The generation of this huge amount of oil and gas is not possible only on the basis of the available labour in the country but it requires the availability of other resources as well. This is when the companies seek investment help from other countries for the purpose of improving their business activities and increasing their capability to run the business (Bunte et al. 2017). The major areas where the Sultanate of Oman requires investment is the Enhance Oil Recovery or the EOR (Khatib 2014). It is the technology that involves injecting a particular fluid that would help in the recovery of the oil easily. This process is comparatively easier than the conventional water flood or the pressure maintenance by the gas injection.

The domestic production of oil and gas is crucial for the Oman’s economy. Oman’s hydrocarbon sector accounts for 78% of the government revenues. This country is the largest oil producer of oil in the Middle East (Fløysand et al. 2017). There are number of domestic petroleum companies in Oman that operates under the governmental supervision. However, private participation in these sectors is largely welcomed by the Omanian government. Petroleum Development Oman is the major oil and gas operator in Oman which is responsible for the oil and gas operations of the country (Asiedu et al. 2015).  This organisation is 60% owned by the government and 40% by the other private companies like Shell, Total and the Portugal Partex. This organization has the highest supply of natural gas in Oman. The refining sector is controlled by the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company. The international oil companies include Occidental Petroleum that is the second largest oil producer in Oman

Oman has succeeded in attracting FDI in past few decades. Trade is of extreme importance to Oman and the imports and exports together contribute 115 percentage of GDP of the country. The foreign investment process does not undergo a general screening process. The economy of Oman is distorted by the state-owned enterprises.  Subsidized loan is used by government to promote investment. Foreign investors can invest in the Muscat Securities Market. The government.60 percentage stake of the Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is owned by the Omani Government, 34 percentage stake of Petroleum Development Oman(PDO) is owned by the Royal Dutch Shell and Compagnie Francaise des Petroles and Partex own remaining stake of PDO. The economic growth of Oman is largely due to the fact that the country produces and export oil.  The revenue of the government has increased and the standards of life of people in the country have improved dramatically. However there are possibilities of depletion of oil reserves in the country, so the country plans for economic diversification .In between 2000 an d 2005, economy of Oman has projected 5.5 percentage growth.The government of Oman has borrowed around 10 billion USD from Chinese bank since there was a budget deficit in the year 2017. The economy of Oman is ranked high among the Gulf Nations and has shown substantial development since the year 1970.In 2014, it was worth 1180 million dollars that represented 2.7% of the Arab total for that year. The FDI was concentrated on the coal, oil and gas sector only that ranges between 30.8% (Asiedu et al. 2015). Other sectors like minerals and the chemical, accounts for 20.3% and 12.7% respectively. The major countries that are found to invest in Oman are India, UK, China, Canada, Kuwait and others. Among these, the share of India, UK and China accounted for 60% of the investment. As commented by Walter (2016), Oman’s investment climate is very conducive to investment because Omanians value technology, skills and the expertise of other developed countries like UK and USA. A number of advantages have been revealed by Walter (2016), when one invests in Oman. Primarily, Oman has a business friendly environment that includes US-Oman Free Trade Agreement. The modern business framework with respect to free market, sanctity and property rights along with a relatively lower taxes have given better opportunities to the major countries to use FDI as a part of their business activities. Apart from this, people of Oman lead a luxurious, safe and excellent quality of life (Okafor and Webster 2016). The steady and ambitious investment by the government of Oman has created better zones for the people in the major industrial sectors. This is the reason that the country has always welcomed foreign investment because it has been a growing opportunity for them and the ability to compete with other developed nations of the world.

Foreign investment has always been considered as a framework that would encourage the major sectors like higher education, manufacturing or healthcare. In addition to this, the investors have also transferred technological expertise from their end to the host countries that have also attracted foreign direct investment to a large extent (Okafor and Webster 2016). The aim of seeking foreign investment is to improve the infrastructure and to make things better than the existing situation. As pointed out by Alonso?Almeida et al. (2014), that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has also come up with the approach of establishing the foreign investment in particular sections only with the approval if the same does not hamper the environmental condition of the country. The establishment of the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement has also welcomed FDI in many industrial sectors without a particular local partner required for the process (Matos and Silvestre 2013). In fact, the Foreign Capital Investment Law has provided a particular legal framework for the foreign investors that have wholly allowed the foreign owned banks to enter the market of Oman (Urciuoli et al. 2014). Therefore, if proper actions are taken ensuring the legal requirements of the country, the investors can easily invest in the major industries of Oman.

The oil rich countries have been found to undertake few strategies that help them to attract foreign investor. For the same reason, these companies have been found to undertake short-term and long term business strategies in order to attract foreign investors. For instance, in Nigeria, the industries in the oil sector have been found to get huge beneficiaries in terms of FDI. As estimated by Gajic et al. (2014), in Africa, Nigeria receives the highest amount of foreign investment. In 2010-13 the investment was the highest. The inflow of cash is recorded as a total of $21.3 billion in 2013 this was a rise of 28.3% compared to the previous years’ investment. In this matter, Perrons and Jensen (2015) commented that the investment is not only in the form of direct cash, but the investment is made in others terms as well. Sometimes, the investors make investment by transferring dividends or the profits derived from the FDI in the event of sales or liquidation. With the increased amount of FDI, the companies have been able to participate in the upstream sectors of the industry. In fact, at times, it has also been observed that the companies have been depended on the FDI for their business activities (Ngoasong 2014). At times, the investment might not directly give in the terms of cash but it is provided in terms of investment bonds as well.

There are a number of elements that actually motivates the foreign investors to invest in the oil and gas sector industries in Oman. Globalisation and the business friendly environment are definitely the important criterions of attracting the global investors in this country. The ability of the government to utilise the foreign money for the purpose of carrying out their business is desirable. Increasing competition has lead to the situation where the need of financial support has increased to a large extent and the industries have to think about better ways to deal with the situation (Asiedu et al. 2015). At times it happen that the government is not able to support the organizations in terms of money and other funds and this is when they have to depend on the other investors. For the same purpose, the industries are found to set certain policies to lower the environmental and the labour standard of the particular industry. As commented by Okafor and Webster (2016) that there are long-term impacts of the financial help gained from the foreign investors. In fact, if the particular industry faced any barrier in its business activity, that can be overcome as well. The governments that become successful in attracting FDI are found to improve their business infrastructure. In order to carry out the business activities in the most efficient manner, it is indeed important to have financial support. If the government is not able to provide the same, the industries have to depend on the foreign investors only (Asiedu et al. 2015)

Research philosophies help in developing a study by the in depth analysis of the theories and models related to the topic of the study. The three research philosophies are positivism, realism and interpretivism (Mackey and Gass, 2015). Positivism research philosophy helps to identify the problem and help to develop an in depth analysis of the study; interpretivism deals with various activities and management of business; on the other hand, realism is a mixed approach of both these philosophies.

For this particular research, positivism research philosophy has been selected because it helps to investigate the topic in a logical and critical manner.  In positivism research philosophy interpretation is derived from sensory experiences. The research is considered purely objective and there is minimal interaction with the participants of the research. The world is considered external and this research which is based on positivism approach is based on facts. Hypothesis is developed by inductive reasoning which is tested during the research process.

Other research philosophies have not been followed because these philosophies are completely based on human perception and thus, the outcome might vary from one person to other.

The two types of research approaches are deductive research approach and inductive research approach. Deductive approach is used evaluate the existing theories and models related to the study, but inductive approach is undertaken to propose new sets of theories and models. Research approach helps to understand the topic of the study and evaluate the same in a logical manner.

The deductive research approach has been selected for this particular study because the research is based on the existing theories and concepts only (Mackey and Gass, 2015). The already existing models and theories of FDI will be used for the purpose of carrying out this research study. As it is not feasible to develop new theories and models, the inductive model shall not be used. In addition to this, developing new theories and models also depends on the perception of an individual that might vary from one person to other. The deductive research approach is adopted for this study because this approach helps in the development of hypothesis based on existing theory of FDI and then the hypothesis can be tested with a research strategy. 

The three types of research designs are analytical or the descriptive, explanatory and the exploratory research designs. The analytical research design is used to get a detailed approach on the particular study in a descriptive manner (Glesne 2015). Exploratory designs helps to evaluate the study in the initial stage of the study. On the other hand, the explanatory research helps in developing a relationship between the two variables in the research study.

For this particular research topic, the analytic or the descriptive research design shall be selected because it would help to gain a detailed analysis of the concepts and theories of the research topic (Flick 2015). In order to understand the concept of FDI and its importance in the contemporary situation, it is indeed important to gain an in depth understanding of the concept. Thus, the analytical or the descriptive research design shall be selected for this study.  The descriptive research design is used in this research to describe the concept of FDI with respect to situational variables in the research. The use of secondary data will help in the analysis of the concept of FDI and study its impact on the contemporary situation.

Two types of research strategies are used for carrying out a research. These are inductive research strategy and deductive research strategy. The deductive strategy is based on the existing theories and models related to the particular study; on the other hand, the inductive approach talks about a new set of theories and models related to the topic (Smith 2015). Research approach is important in order to carry out the research in the right direction.

For this particular research, the deductive research approach shall be selected and the inductive research approach will be avoided. It is easier to carry out the research with the existing theories and model. On the other hand, the inductive approach is completely based on human perception and the outcome might vary from one person to other. This is the reason the deductive research approach shall be undertaken for this particular study. The deductive research strategy used in this research will avoid risk as there is short time available to complete the research, also there is abundance of sources and high wealth of literature which will help in the formulation of deductive research strategy used in the research.

The findings of the research study is based on the secondary sources of data and so the data collected for the purpose of this particular study shall depend on the secondary data only. The information available in the forms of online journals, books, news articles and others shall be used for gaining information on the study (Panneerselvam 2014). Focus shall be made on the recent news on the oil and gas sector of the major oil rich countries. A collation, summary and synthesis of the research from primary sources will be used in the data collection method. The data that is already collected by primary research will be used in this research.

The secondary data collected shall be evaluated by thematic analysis. The data collected from the various sources shall be converted into various themes and then the same shall be evaluated.  The themes will have association with specific research questions. Themes used in this research will help in examining and recording patterns within the data. Each theme will describe a particular phenomenon used in the research.

Validity of the data is how correctly the tests are measured. It is important to check the validity of the research to ensure that there is validity of the collected data. Reliability is the degree to which the assessment tool can produce stable and consistent result of the data (Wiek and Lang 2016). Checking the reliability and validity is important for the research study.

Considering the ethical approach that needs to be undertaken at the time of carrying out the research study, it has to be said that ethics should be followed during research. For the secondary research, it is important to cite the work correctly in order to avoid plagiarism. For example, the theories and concepts related to the study should be rightly cited (Gale et al. 2013). It has to be remembered that the complete research study is for academic purpose only. Therefore, there should not be any kind of advertisement or promotional content in the complete study (VanPatten and Williams 2014). It is expected that the entire study shall be carried on ethically in order to avoid any kind of problematic situation that might happened. It is indeed important to carry out the complete research in order to get the right outcome of the study.

There might also be certain limitations of the study. For instance, it might happen that the theories and the models required for the purpose of the study might not be sufficient enough to carry out a detailed investigation on the study. It might happen that there would be limited access to the books and journals that are important for this particular study. Problems and issues can arise at any stage of the study and in order to deal with the same, certain time is required. However, in order to complete the study within a limited time frame can be really challenging that can add to the limitation of the study. However, focus shall be made on carrying out the research in the most appropriate way that would overcome the limitations of the study. If proper measures are taken and the schedule is followed in the right way, the complete study can be successful.

The complete research paper shall be divided into 5 major chapters. These are as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction:

A detailed description of the aims, objectives and the background of the study shall be narrated in this particular chapter of the study.

Chapter 2: Literature Review:

This chapter shall focus on the existing research works that has been conducted on the related topic. This would be the most important chapter of the study.

Chapter 3: Methodology:

This chapter will provide the detailed methodology used for the particular research.

Chapter 4: Data analysis and interpretation

In this chapter the data collected from the various sources will be interpreted that would lead to the actual findings of the research.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations:

The findings will be evaluated in this chapter. The set objectives will be evaluated on the findings of the data. On the basis of the analysis, certain recommendations will also be made that would be helpful for the industries in the oil and gas sector to attract more FDI.

References: 

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Ablo, A.D., 2015. Local content and participation in Ghana’s oil and gas industry: Can enterprise development make a difference?. The Extractive Industries and Society, 2(2), pp.320-327.

Agrawal, V., 2016. Empirical study on FDI in Indian Petroleum Sector.

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Bunte, J.B., Desai, H., Gbala, K., Parks, B. and Runfola, D.M., 2017. Natural resource sector FDI and growth in post-conflict settings: Subnational evidence from Liberia. Working Paper pp.

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