Software approach to correlation analysis of natural gas production and disposal data recorded from oil companies’ operations in Nigeria

Abstract

Within the context of operations research, an attempt aimed at evaluating and analyzing, the strengths of associations between the empirical data, generated from the operations of the Nigerian natural gas industry was undertaken. The data which spanned from 1965 to 2009, were subjected to simple correlation analysis, which employed a computer-driven approach, for the following pairings; flared-gas volume (X-variable) and utilized-gas volume (Y-variable); gas-production volume (X-variable) and gas-utilization volume (Y-variable); gas-production volume (X-variable) and flared-gas volume. The results from the computer analyses containing the evaluated coefficients of correlation and determination, test of significance of correlation coefficients and p-value, were presented as outputs 1, 2 and 3, detailed in this paper would show. In all of the results and interpretations reported, no cause-and-effect relationships could be inferred. These were pointers to the limitations of statistical correlation analysis.