The report is limited to 3,000 words, including the Executive Summary. Reports which exceed the word limit will be penalised. As the project is a report to the company’s board its presentation, legitimacy and readability is important so the marks will be divided as follows:
? An executive summary must be included.
? Current state of the economy
Here we are looking for a broad overview, not a section filled with tables and graphs of time series data. Such data, if appropriate, should really be in an Appendix. Although some reference will be needed to these headline statistics in analysing the current state of the global economy, higher marks will be awarded to reports that recognise that they are merely the symptoms and instead focus on the underlying problems.
? Challenges and prospects
The items identified in the next section of the report should form the basis of the challenges for the next few years. This section also provides scope for the report to bring in the global (or external) elements.
? Implications for the oil industry
In the section, students should not simply resort to a list of potential implications for the industry. Such vague lists will attract few marks. Students are supposed to provide valid arguments as to how the industry is likely to be affected in the future.
? Appendices
The Appendices should provide some evidence of research and should be referred to, where appropriate in the text. A list of sources used must be provided at the end of your report.
As a newly appointed manager in an oil company you are concerned about global demand for oil. Given the existing dynamic but highly uncertain global economic environment you have been assigned to write a report on the global economic outlook over the next 5 years and elaborate on the implications for the oil sector. The key points you are required to touch upon are as follows:
a) the current state of the global economy (it is essential that the information is as up to date as possible);
(b) the challenges and prospects the global economy is likely to face over the next five years;
(c) implications for the oil industry.
You report should generally be confined to the global economic situation although brief reference where necessary may be made to the changing political, social and technological developments.
It is imperative that the report is structured in a comprehensive manner by drawing extensively on published journal/academic papers where appropriate.
Sources of information can readily be found online: World Bank, UN, IMF, etc.
This is an individual assignment.
You may include Appendices of up to FIVE pages (these will not contribute to the word count).
The report itself must be your own work and if the views of recognised experts are included they must be acknowledged. The penalty for plagiarism – which includes downloading and direct reproduction from the web – may result in a zero mark for the report.