Abdullah Alajmi

Purpose — Examine the link between boards and audit committees and firm performance in Kuwaiti listed firms in the context of recent and extensive corporate governance regulatory reform. Design/methodology/approach — Panel data regression analysis with fixed effects and clustered standard errors of firm performance for 62–95 listed industrial and services firms in Kuwait over the period 2010–2017. The dependent variables are the returns on assets and equity, the debt to equity ratio and leverage and Tobin’s Q and the independent variables comprise board of directors and audit committee characteristics, including size, the number of meetings, and the numbers of independent and outside board and expert committee members. Firm size, subsidiary status, and cash flow serve as control variables. Findings — Mixed results with respect to the characteristics of the board of directors. Board size and independent and outsider board members positively relate only to Tobin’s Q and insiders only ...

This paper examines the link between ownership structure and firm performance in Kuwaiti firms in the context of recent corporate governance reform. Panel data robust regressions of firm performance against ownership structure specify variously the former using the returns on assets and equity, the debt to equity ratio, leverage, and Tobin’s Q and the latter as family, government and local and foreign institutional ownership. We find family ownership has the most influence on firm performance followed by government ownership, but disproportionately to their actual shares of ownership. Importantly, corporate governance reform appears to have had little effect in moving to a first voluntary then compulsory corporate governance code and guidelines, suggesting many firms had either adopted good governance principles under market pressure or exited the industry in anticipation of the more stringent regulatory controls.

Purpose – To enhance our understanding of the relations between corporate governance reform, management decision-making, and firm accounting performance in Kuwait by focusing on the role of important but difficult to quantitatively measure factors, including culture, religion, tribal, and political circumstances. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis of data collected using semi-structured interviews using coding and quoting approaches. The coding approach categorises the responses into themes and sub-themes and the quoting approach adds depth to this categorisation. We interpret the results in the context of related studies concerning the factors affecting the corporate governance–firm performance relationship. Findings – A range of external cultural factors, including religion, politics, and Kuwait’s tribal system, along with economic and financial circumstances and accounting standards, influence the corporate governance–firm performance relationship in Kuwait. The in-depth semi-structured interviews reveal the incentives for shareholders and managers to achieve high firm performance through good corporate governance, but especially for better-performing firms. Suggestion of broad support by firm managers and directors for recent reforms concerning Kuwait’s corporate governance code and guidelines. Research limitations/implications – Qualitative research provides additional insights into the traditionally quantitative analysis of the corporate governance–firm performance relationship. It is particularly useful into developing market contexts where data is limited and regulatory frameworks are undergoing rapid change. Practical implications – The findings are of value to domestic and international investors gauging investment risk, firm managers operating within a growing and developing but still traditional market, and regulators seeking ongoing improvements in corporate governance, including disclosure, openness, and transparency. Originality/value – This is the first study to apply qualitative methods to the analysis of the corporate governance–firm performance relationship in Kuwait, particularly in light of recent and extensive corporate governance reform.

Purpose — Examine the link between boards and audit committees and firm performance in Kuwaiti listed firms in the context of recent and extensive corporate governance regulatory reform. Design/methodology/approach — Panel data regression analysis with fixed effects and clustered standard errors of firm performance for 62–95 listed industrial and services firms in Kuwait over the period 2010–2017. The dependent variables are the returns on assets and equity, the debt to equity ratio and leverage and Tobin’s Q and the independent variables comprise board of directors and audit committee characteristics, including size, the number of meetings, and the numbers of independent and outside board and expert committee members. Firm size, subsidiary status, and cash flow serve as control variables. Findings — Mixed results with respect to the characteristics of the board of directors. Board size and independent and outsider board members positively relate only to Tobin’s Q and insiders only ...

This paper examines the link between ownership structure and firm performance in Kuwaiti firms in the context of recent corporate governance reform. Panel data robust regressions of firm performance against ownership structure specify variously the former using the returns on assets and equity, the debt to equity ratio, leverage, and Tobin’s Q and the latter as family, government and local and foreign institutional ownership. We find family ownership has the most influence on firm performance followed by government ownership, but disproportionately to their actual shares of ownership. Importantly, corporate governance reform appears to have had little effect in moving to a first voluntary then compulsory corporate governance code and guidelines, suggesting many firms had either adopted good governance principles under market pressure or exited the industry in anticipation of the more stringent regulatory controls.

In the early 1950s, Kuwait underwent rapid urbanization during which first-generation Hadramis were swiftly absorbed into Kuwaiti urban houses assuming domestic service roles. It is argued that the socioeconomic path of house-serving shaped the Hadrami character and experience of the “model immigrant” as we know it today. However, the study also demonstrates how a Hadrami migratory practice of dependency on the local family and sponsor was inspired by a Kuwaiti cultural and official categorization process of different immigrant groups in which the Hadramis were depicted as loyal, easily satisfied, and non-subversive. While dependency was valued by old Hadramis as a resource and as a form of social capital, it also continued to inform the perceptions, expectations, and actions of the second-generation Hadramis. This chapter analyzes the ways in which the whole experience was conceptualized and contested in daily interaction of the two generations. This study reveals that young Hadram...

Purpose – To enhance our understanding of the relations between corporate governance reform, management decision-making, and firm accounting performance in Kuwait by focusing on the role of important but difficult to quantitatively measure factors, including culture, religion, tribal, and political circumstances. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis of data collected using semi-structured interviews using coding and quoting approaches. The coding approach categorises the responses into themes and sub-themes and the quoting approach adds depth to this categorisation. We interpret the results in the context of related studies concerning the factors affecting the corporate governance–firm performance relationship. Findings – A range of external cultural factors, including religion, politics, and Kuwait’s tribal system, along with economic and financial circumstances and accounting standards, influence the corporate governance–firm performance relationship in Kuwait. The in-depth semi-structured interviews reveal the incentives for shareholders and managers to achieve high firm performance through good corporate governance, but especially for better-performing firms. Suggestion of broad support by firm managers and directors for recent reforms concerning Kuwait’s corporate governance code and guidelines. Research limitations/implications – Qualitative research provides additional insights into the traditionally quantitative analysis of the corporate governance–firm performance relationship. It is particularly useful into developing market contexts where data is limited and regulatory frameworks are undergoing rapid change. Practical implications – The findings are of value to domestic and international investors gauging investment risk, firm managers operating within a growing and developing but still traditional market, and regulators seeking ongoing improvements in corporate governance, including disclosure, openness, and transparency. Originality/value – This is the first study to apply qualitative methods to the analysis of the corporate governance–firm performance relationship in Kuwait, particularly in light of recent and extensive corporate governance reform.

With the increasing global demand for energy, great attention has been focused on utilizing heavy oil and bitumen, which cannot be easily recovered. This has been achieved by reservoir heating using conventional methods such as steam. However, these approaches are often accompanied by high energy consumption, large amounts of wastewater generation, and undesirable environmental damage. Recently, nanoparticles have become an attractive agent for enhancing oil recovery (EOR) in the laboratory scale. In addition, nanotechnology was chosen as an alternative method to unlock the remaining oil resources during the last decade. Consequently, this research provides one of the promising techniques for in-situ heavy oil recovery using metal-based nanoparticles to maintain in-situ heat generated by steam. Several core flood experiments were conducted to compare the recovery of Kuwaiti heavy oil using; hot water, superheated steam (SH), nanofluids, and combination of nanofluids and SH team. Ini...

This paper presents drilling and completion fluids design for drilling long lateral / horizontal wells in a North Kuwait field and its field application on well RA-AAA, RA-BBB, RA-CCC and RA-DDD. The offset wells were reviewed to identify the issues from drilling a challenging trajectory through troublesome reactive formations that showed serious wellbore stability issues and stuck pipe incidents. The customized drilling and completions fluids system was designed for different intervals, taking the following objectives in consideration: Improved hole stability through stressed and reactive formationsEnhanced hole-cleaning efficiency at critical anglesMinimized risk of stuck pipe across depleted formations with high porosity and permeabilityMinimized / no induced losses to formation by utilizing unique wellbore-strengthening techniqueMinimal damage to reservoir section during drilling phaseNear-wellbore damage remediation during completion phase This paper describes the customized dr...

The application of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques is encouraged by the growing demand for oil. Optimizing oil production from current resources is becoming the main strategy for many oil producing companies around the world. Among EOR processes, polymer flooding is an attractive option in many reservoirs. The objective of polymer flooding is to control water mobility inside the reservoir to favor higher oil recovery. Several design parameters are critical for the success or failure of polymer flooding applications. The salinity of formation water is one of the parameters which impose a limitation on polymer flood applicability. In Kuwait, most of oil reservoirs are high water salinity reservoirs. Therefore, improving the performance of polymer floods under high water salinity conditions may unlock these resources which can have enormous positive effects on oil reserves. One way for this improvement is to condition the reservoir under polymer flood applications by injecting a...

Most hydrocarbon reservoirs are fractured in nature with various degrees of fracture intensities. With the current oil prices and growing demand for oil, a great interest is built in the petroleum industry to characterize partially fractured reservoirs and to develop an increased understanding of the physics of fluid flow in these types of reservoirs. This is due to the fact

With the increase of oil demand worldwide and current oil price, the recovery of heavy oil deposits became a major issue in the oil industry. Overcoming the challenges and complexity associated with the production of these deposits has been the target and focus in recent years. Large quantity of hydrocarbon deposits remains unrecovered due to the high viscosity of oil. Thermal recovery processes are techniques used to reduce the oil viscosity and enhance the oil recovery by introducing heat to the underlying reservoirs. Hot water injection is a thermal recovery technique in which water is injected into hydrocarbon strata. The hot water injection reduces the viscosity of the heavy oil and provides a driving mechanism to sweep the heavy oil toward production wells. In this work, the application of hot water injection in a Middle Eastern reservoir with large heavy oil deposits was investigated. The reservoir's heavy oil had a viscosity of 500 cp and an initial oil saturation of 75%...

The injection of one fluid to displace another in a porous medium is the basis of many industrial processes such as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). EOR applications are encouraged by high oil prices and growing oil demand. Therefore, performance prediction of EOR processes is of great importance to their success. Core flooding experiments are well known practices in the petroleum

Electrokinetic techniques have proven to be a valuable tool in providing direct information on charge solid/liquid interface. Today, oil industrial companies are looking into electrokinetic techniques with great interest, in order to describe the oil reservoir physics occurring in and near the well bore during production. This paper introduces a new method, which uses streaming potential transient testing to characterize the electrokinetic properties of oil reservoirs. Streaming potential exists in the movement of part of electrical double layers from the charged pore surfaces when fluid flow is induced by an applied pressure gradient. A fully computerized high pressure and high temperature core holder device is utilized to simultaneously measure streaming potential and pressure transient tests. The time behavior of the transient steaming potential is identical to that of fluid pressure when laminar flow is maintained. The transient streaming potential data is a useful quantity for determining the electrokinetic (zeta) potential values produced at the reservoir rock/fluid interface, and is considered an important electrokinetic characteristic that can play a role in reservoir rock properties. In low conductivity liquids, such as petroleum fluids, the surface conduction of reservoir rocks will cause errors in streaming potential measurements and therefore any derived electrokinetic potentials are also affected. The latter is corrected by determining the total electric conductivity of reservoir rocks, including the surface conductivity. The compressibility of reservoir fluid has been shown to affect streaming potential measurements and the results of electrokinetic potentials. We believe that this work is an important addition to the hydraulic and electrokinetic characterizations of oil reservoirs. Introduction The transport properties of fluids in porous media are of broad interest in science and technology. In the oil industry, the transport in porous media is central to understanding the producibility of petroleum reservoirs. The hydrologic parameters that characterize fluid flow through porous media, such as permeability, relative permeability, and capillary pressure, are crucial to understanding flow problems in permeable media. During the last sixty years, numerous attempts have been made to establish a relationship between the electrical measurements and reservoir rock properties1–3. Electrokinetic techniques have proven to be a valuable tool to provide direct information on charge solid/liquid interfaces. The Schlumbergers and Leonardon4,5 were the first to recognize the variation of electrokinetic potential in the borehole. The investigations of Wyllie6, Salisch7 and Moore8 provide the most extensive sources on the measurements of streaming potential across mud cakes. Today the oil industrial companies have looked to electrokinetic techniques with great interest to describe the oil reservoir physics occurring in and near the well bore during production9–11. The application of electrokinetics in reservoir rock samples can provide reliable information on reservoir flow behavior, oil/water saturations, permeability, and wettability12–14. Electrokinetics is the name given to study of phenomena resulting when a tangential electric field interacts with a charged surface immersed in electrolyte solution15–18. The electrokinetic effects in a porous system are defined as the movement of part of the electric double layer (EDL) from the charged pore surfaces when a liquid is forced through the system. The movement of liquid through the capillaries carries a net charge (mobile part of the EDL) and it gives rise to streaming current, consequently, a potential difference (streaming potential). The electrokinetic behavior depends on the potential at the surface of shear between the charged surface and the electrolyte solution. This potential is called the electrokinetic, or zeta potential17–19.

... SPE 35373. Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mahroos, FA, 2005. Future Challenges for Producing Middle East Oilfields During Maturation Stage. SPE 93708. ... Journal of Petroleum Technology. 739-750 (July) Milhem, MM, Ahmed, KN, 1987. ...

Primary oil recovery is usually very low which leaves large quantities of oil retained by capillary and viscous forces. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques are used to recover these retained hydrocarbons volumes. Thermal recovery is an EOR technique which is usually used to enhance oil production from heavy oil reservoirs. In thermal recovery methods, hot fluids, such as steam or hot water, are injected into hydrocarbon strata to reduce the retaining forces responsible for oil entrapment and enhance recovery efficiency. In Middle East, heavy oil deposits are encountered in many countries. The maturity status of the current major oil producing fields in addition to the current high energy demands are main contributors to the current interest in developing heavy oil resources. Therefore, the need to predict the performance of thermal EOR processes in these heavy oil accumulations is of a major importance. The targeted reservoir in this study occurs at shallow depths, ranging from 5...

The development of unconventional oil resources is becoming important factor to meet the increase of world oil demand. One of these unconventional resources is heavy oil deposits. Producing this high viscosity oil is complex and challenging. These resources usually require thermal recovery techniques in which heat is introduced into the reservoir to lower the oil viscosity. Steam flood is a popular thermal recovery method. Understanding the mechanism of steam injection and heat utilization improves the efficiency of heavy oil recovery. In this work, steam flood is applied to Middle Eastern heavy reservoir, and the advancement of steam zone and formation of oil bank ahead of it are investigated and modeled. First, experimental work was done to conduct the steam injection to unconsolidated core sample saturated with heavy oil. X-ray computed tomography (CT) was used during the experiment. The experimental data and X-ray CT measurements were used as input data to the numerical simulati...

Characterizing and understanding the porous media network structure are essential for maintaining and enhancing oil and gas recovery. The pore system controls the fluid transport processes, described by the permeability and diffusion. This work studies vertical diffusion of tracer solution (sodium iodine, NaI) in a 60 cm long and 5 cm diameter layered Berea Sandstone sample that was partially fractured

The hydrodynamic thickness delta of adsorbed petroleum (crude) oil layers into the pores of sandstone rocks, through which the liquid flows, has been studied by Poiseuille's flow law and the evolution of (electrical) streaming current. The adsorption of petroleum oil is accompanied by a numerical reduction in the (negative) surface potential of the pore walls, eventually stabilizing at a small positive potential, attributed to the oil macromolecules themselves. After increasing to around 30% of the pore radius, the adsorbed layer thickness delta stopped growing either with time or with concentrations of asphaltene in the flowing liquid. The adsorption thickness is confirmed with the blockage value of the rock pores' area determined by the combination of streaming current and streaming potential measurements. This behavior is attributed to the effect on the disjoining pressure across the adsorbed layer, as described by Derjaguin and Churaev, of which the polymolecular adsorption films lose their stability long before their thickness has approached the radius of the rock pore.