Leslie E. Grayson

Patterns of energy consumption and economic growth and structure

Summary The role of energy utilization in economic growth has received much attention in recent years. The distinctive characteristics of our analysis are that this role is dealt with in a quantitative way and that both cross‐section and time‐series approaches are utilized. We confirm earlier findings that energy consumption tends to be more responsive to economic growth in less developed than in advanced countries. We conclude, however, that the relationship between energy and economic growth activity is affected by a variety of other factors. Multivariate tests suggest that the industrial structure of the economy and the composition of energy consumption are especially significant additional variables.

Decentralisation in Planning and Economic Decision-Making in Ghana

‘The general guide should be to transfer power to the smallest unit consistent with the scale of the problem.’ This quotation is based on the experience of the United States, but should be even more applicable to less-developed countries, because of their poor system of communications. In this article I shall examine the attempts to decentralise planning and economic decision-making in Ghana, analyse the rationale for such moves away from centralisation, and evaluate the Ghanaian experience against the existing body of knowledge on this subject and the special local conditions that are relevant.

The Implications for Future Contingency Planning of the 1979 Gasoline Shortage

This paper examines the origins and management of the 1979 oil crisis in search of policy implications for the next oil shortage. Deliveries of gasoline were insufficient to meet demand during the first eight months of 1979; gasoline represented half of all refinery output.1

The Planning Process

The design and the workings of a planning system involve every executive and manager in a basically political process. The people within the system determine how, and how effectively, it will work. Patterns of information-flow and decision-making depend heavily on the power and negotiating and persuasive skills of individuals committed to the planning process and to specific plans. Before turning to a comparative description of the five oil companies’ planning systems, therefore, this chapter will discuss briefly how the critical human factor can be taken into account in a planning system. In reading the explanations and comparisons of the oil-company planning systems, the reader would do well to remember that the kinds of systems put in place and the way they work depend on the political and marketing acumen of planning executives and managers.

Planning in Sohio

The Standard Oil Company (Ohio), or Sohio, was the twenty-fifth largest US industrial corporation and the fifty-second largest industrial corporation in the world. 1983 sales were

Planning in the Royal Dutch/Shell Group

11.6 bn and net income was

Long-Range Strategic Planning

1.5 bn. 53 per cent of Sohio was owned by the British Petroleum Company (BP). BP was the second largest industrial corporation outside the US and the fifth largest in the world, with sales of

Oil-Company Planners

49.2 bn and net income of

Planning in Conoco

1.6 bn in 1983.1

Planning in Compagnie Française des Pétroles (CFP)

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group, or Shell, was the second largest industrial corporation in the world and the largest industrial corporation outside the USA in 1983. Sales were