Petroleum Business Review (PBR)

Paying attention to special opportunities and trying to enumerate existing capabilities at the heart of regions by using the scientific and technological capacities available to them are some of the instances in which the shortfalls in development programs can be eliminated and the way can be paved for a balanced progress at the local level with the fair distribution of opportunities. To this end, a transition from first (Education oriented) and second (Education and research oriented) generation universities, towards third generation (3G) universities which, in addition to education and research, actively seek to impact society and the economy, is one of the most central issues which can bring about full scale, dynamic, and sustainable progress in the regions based on science and technology. As a first step in the present research, attributes in third generation universities impacting regional progress have been examined by studying the resources. Using the Delphi method and Shannon’s entropy, the mentioned components and their weight were examined based on the opinions of 63 well-known experts active in the national oil industry and specialists in universities, and research, science and technology centers affiliated to the industry. Twenty-eight basic components and six principal components were approved in the survey of experts. Of these, three were prioritized and given weight in the following order: 1) Formulating regional endogenous innovation and value creation ecosystems, 2) designing and implementing a regional skills, education, and training system, and 3) developing organizational capacities according to the new functions of regional universities.

One of the main strategies in oil industries management is the evaluation of the relationships between the customers and employees. To do so, the interpretive paradigm, the qualitative approach, and the Grounded Theory Approach have been used. As for the qualitative approach, snowball sampling has been used, and the latent content analysis technique has been used to analyze the in-depth reviews, helping to code and identify the employees’ cognitive appraisal indices. Also, as for the quantitative approach, simple random sampling was used, with a structural equation model used for data analysis. The results and findings of the study indicate that the top managers in Iran Petroleum Products Distribution Company, especially those in the Human Resource Development, Commercial, and Research & Technology sections, can use the model extracted in the current study as well as the suggestions provided, to pay more attention to the mental health of the Frontlie Employees (FLEs). They can also use the results to know how the employees deal with the customers’ aggression and abuse. Hence, the current study can be useful for the oil industries researchers.

the formation of the current legal system is a function and is influenced by a basic element called time. An element that influences not only the formation of the legal system, but also its evolution.so, the legal system in the Iranian oil industry began with a contract and not with the legislation of a law. In relation to the term "contractual framework", it seems necessary to explain that the contractual framework refers to the criteria which give the contracts such a feature that it distinguishes that contract and similar contracts from other contracts concluded in that field. What were these contracts? How did they form the legal system of the Iranian oil industry? What has been their impact on technology transfer in the oil industry? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this work. Disappointment with the framework of previous agreements (concession agreements), along with socio-political contexts such as the nationalization of the oil industry, led to a re-examination of this industry's contract frameworks in the light of past experiences, better future benefits and national independence and sovereignty. But how successful it was, that is another matter. Because the oil companies did not simply want to transfer the maximum benefits to the countries with oil resources, and used the dependence of those countries to their industry as a tactic against this trend as much as possible. Therefore, the structure of contracts governing the oil industry should be considered as a result of this conflict of interests.

The world is presently witnessing a shift in approach to organizational jobs and structures towards temporary and flat structures. Accordingly, people’s careers and how they are managed are changing in organizations. Understanding career anchors as a way to discover self-image and external feedback of behavior can be effective in personal and organizational decisions. This research is an attempt to understand career anchors among the employees of National Iranian Oil Company, which is one of the most important economic organizations in Iran, using a mixed-methods approach. In the qualitative phase, 30 interviews were subjected to content analysis, which resulted in identifying 14 categories. The four categories of career stability, halal income, God satisfaction, and dedication were not observed in the research literature. The reliability of the qualitative data was estimated at 0.853 by William Scott’s method. In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire, which was based on the standard CIO2 questionnaire of Schein (1990) and some self-designed questions for the newly identified anchors, was used for data collection from a sample of 200 people. The questionnaire’s reliability was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha. It was observed that career stability and halal income were the top-ranked career anchors of the studied employees.

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.

Oil and gas industry play a crucial role in the developed and developing countries’ financial and economic development. Resource rich countries are extremely dependent on oil companies for the extraction of petroleum resources. Governments decide which company has the right to extract the petroleum. However, according to the principle of permanent sovereignty over the natural resources, awarding the right to petroleum resources shall be exercised in the exclusive right of the people. Safeguarding the people’ right, governments are required to design both regulatory institutions and governance for develop, enforce and review of awarding regulations. For this reason, the present article analyzes the regulatory authority of petroleum right awarding in Iran. By reviewing the existing laws and regulations we conclude that the current status is chaotic and intricate due to the multiplicity in awarding regulators and inadequate governance. It is recommended to establish an awarding regulator based on the principles of regulatory excellence.