Analyzing and Classifying Upstream Oil Contracts in Iran in terms of Learning and Technology Transfer Capacity

One of the key issues and challenges discussed in the oil industry is the problem of innovation and technology transfer in buy-back contracts. Some experts believe that the weakness in technology development in the country's oil industry is due to this contractual model and have proposed a new oil contracts model to address this problem. This research aims to identify the key obligations related to learning and technology transfer in the oil industry contracts by using text analysis approach and analyzing the country's upstream contracts. To achieve this goal, we first investigate the nature of technology in international contracts, considering both tangible property with transferability and intangible knowledge. Then, using the opinions of experts and previous research to develop a conceptual model for the research and by using it, then analyzed 29 upstream oil contracts in Iran using this model. The research results indicate that there is no significant difference between the types of upstream contracts in the oil industry in terms of their capacity for learning and technology transfer. However, the vagueness and generality of these obligations, as well as the lack of appropriate performance guarantees, are among the defects that exist in all contract models (concession, service, product sharing, and buy-back) and need to be addressed.