Petroleum Business Review

Abstract In the 2000s, some projects were defined to export Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in order to increase Iran’s presence in gas export markets.
However, despite the initial planning until 2020, when this research was conducted, none led to a result, and Iran could not play a role in this market. Delay in executing these plans will lead to losing the opportunity to use the joint South Pars field and billions of dollars of foreign exchange earnings. The purpose of this study, which was conducted 2019 to 2020, is to identify the factors leading to the failure of Iran’s LNG projects. In order to identify and prioritize these factors, the opinion of experts and the Fuzzy Delphi technique is employed.
Investigating the condition at the national and international level indicates that some factors have prevented all of these projects from being successful, including political issues, international sanctions on Iran, lack of domestic capital, lack of appropriate foundation for attracting foreign investors, constraints of domestic rules and regulations, especially in the upstream sector for choosing the contract format, not having access to the liquefaction technology, and the issues pertinent to marketing, and the most important one, lack of suitable commercial structural design. Identifying these factors and planning for tackling them is the key to escaping this current situation and a guide for prospering in future projects of the country.

Abstract Foreign investment contracts are one of the major ways to absorb the technology in oil and gas industry. Studies show that governments and investing companies prefer to gain more profit and control economic resources and political influence by investing financially and technically in developing countries than to buy foreign technology and intellectual property rights directly. On the other hand, for developing countries, the sum of foreign capital and technology within a contract is a great opportunity for advancement provided that the technology transfer is chosen with due regard to the country’s needs, requirements, and economic future. In this work, after examining the relationship between investment and technology transfer and its various methods in oil and gas industry, we will analyze the constraints on and the barriers to technology transfer through foreign investment in developing countries, including Iran, and provide a solution.