Petroleum Business Review (PBR)

The pipeline project, Nord Stream 2 (NS2), has been an issue of controversies. Russia and Germany consider the project an economic contract, but the United-States and Eastern European countries have concerns about its geopolitical effects. These disputes have created a divide in Europe and have posed a threat to trans-Atlantic relations. The current research suggests NS2 can influence the strategic balance between great powers in the international system, giving energy leverage to Russia against United-States, and consequently to China by strengthening projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Our findings put forward that not only NS2, in case of realization, is a source of American decline, but also the debates on the issue are a sign of American struggling for protecting its precarious international position. By placing Europe in front of the United-States, NS2 could be one component of European strategic autonomy (ESA); meanwhile, it may jeopardize ESA by depending on Europe on Russia. Europe’s solution to gain ESA is to use its leverages such as normative one to manage the situation for outcomes like protecting Europe’s unity and economic interests.

The main purpose of this research is to explain why and how the stock liquidity affects the default risk of petrochemical and petroleum products companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. The study used experimental data and parametric tests in order to estimate the relationship between stock liquidity and default risk through information efficiency and corporate governance roles of stock liquidity. The present research is applied in terms of purpose and is a descriptive-correlative study. All data required regarding the stock liquidity, price, trading volume and days, stockholder ownerships, etc., were extracted from Rahavard Novin database software. To investigate the relationship between variables, the multivariate regression analysis model using OLS method was applied in Eviews platform. The empirical findings showed that there is a significantly negative relationship between stock liquidity and default risk of petrochemical and petroleum product companies listed in TSE and also stock liquidity can affect the default risk through reducing the information asymmetry in the stock pricing process and strengthen the corporate governance. These results could provide visible signals based on the realities of the market in order to improve models to assess and predict the risk of default and lead managers and decision makers of suppliers, customers, partners and stakeholders, to conclude more flexible contracts with petrochemical and petroleum products companies and ultimately better mitigate business risks.

Todays, the issue of environmental instability and destructive environmental behavior can leave many irreparable effects and damage on future ecosystems and the lives of future generations. Method: This study aimed to present an environmental model of sustainable development in the Iranian gas industry. The present study used a qualitative with grounded theory method. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 academic experts (professors of public administration and environmental engineering at universities in Mazandaran province) and the heads of the National Iranian Gas Company in five regions of Iran using the "rich information" sampling method. Results: The results indicated that the environmental model of sustainable development in the Iranian gas industry had 15 dimensions in terms of causal conditions. 1. Services, 2. Safety and health requirements, 3. Social responsibility, (context condition) 4. Education and learning, 5. Acculturalization, 6. Managers' attitude and awareness (intervening conditions) 7. Contractors, 8. Technical facilities and equipment, 9. Technology and technical operations (Strategy) 10. Medium and long term policies of the Ministry of Energy, 11. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of project progress, 12. Consumption management programs, 13. Pollutants management programs and consequences 14. Improved environmental performance of the gas company and 15. Moving towards sustainable development. Conclusion: Since the gas industry is one of the most polluting industries and the lack of attention to environmental issues in this huge industry will lead the Iranian environment to very serious and perhaps irreparable crises, using the environmental model of sustainable development in this industry seems highly important and necessary.

Environmental tax reform can be used in a fundamental transformation towards a green economy. Green tax may reduce the energy consumption and pollution emissions, as well as other economic benefits. This study mainly focused on the effects of green taxes on labor demand in Iranian industry sector during 1980 – 2015. Regarding the double dividend hypothesis, green taxes may improve the employment by substitution between labor and energy. Using CES production function, the elasticity of substitution between labor and energy is estimated 0.48 percent for industry sector. Then, the effect of green taxes on labor demand is investigated subject to government’s fixed budget constraint and labor demand function. The results show that green tax will have positive effects on employment in the industry. During the transfer of the labor tax system to the green tax system, the environment and employment may improve, without additional cost to the government and producer.

By intensifying sanctions against Islamic Republic of Iran, identification and development of mechanisms to sell crude oil has gained attention among most experts and oil industry activists. Limitations for financial transactions and settlements are one of the fundamental challenges in international oil transactions; thus, various solutions are proposed to solve the limitation. Using capability of virtual currencies is one of the proposed suggestions for petroleum transaction under sanctions but there is a research gap in finding whether and which one of these currencies are able to be used in petroleum transactions in present condition. In this study, performed by analysis and quantitative approach, indices are introduced for choosing a valid currency for international transactions, and subsequently are confirmed by experts. The indices are ranked by the experts through TOPSIS method and are studied on the most suitable virtual currencies to find the best suit for petroleum transactions. The results reveal that Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether are respectively the best, second and third choice for this end. It is noteworthy that some experts might believe the virtual currency market size may not meet the high volume of crude oil transactions, making it unsuitable. Although current study has shown that there would be no problem in covering the whole petroleum market for Iran’s crude oil by virtual currencies platform, if the concerns remain, virtual currency platform could be used for selling Iran’s crude oil temporarily and partially through various channels.

Supply Chain Sustainability is a new and highly influential debate that has drawn the attention of researchers in the field of supply chain management. This concept is particularly important in the oil and gas industry because of its nature and the risks and sustainability risks associated with this industry, especially environmental hazards. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risks related to supply chain sustainability in the oil and gas industry based on the FMEA method. The statistical population of this study consisted of all experts familiar with the concept of sustainability in the oil and gas industry, out of which 10 experts were selected and surveyed through snowball sampling. The results showed that among the risks posed in the field of supply chain sustainability in the oil and gas industry, risks such as failure and pollution in surface (hydrological) and groundwater (hydrogeological) systems and flows, energy price fluctuations and sanctions as well as the emission of hazardous and greenhouse gases, the reduction of air quality and climate change were prioritized over other risks, as well as sustainability commitment (organizational culture, top management leadership and transparency), management readiness (risk management, cross-functional teams and performance management) and external factors (political stability, economic stability, stakeholder pressure, energy transition policies, and laws and regulations) can all play an important role in managing the risks associated with this industry.