Research On The Investment Environment Of Oil And Gas Resources In Iran

In recent years, with the rapid development of economy, China has also mushrooming energy consumption, the increasing demand for oil and gas and the growing incisive contradiction between supply and demand. China’s oil and gas production has long been unable to meet the demand that led to steadily rising imports. So it becomes more and more important for oil and gas enterprises to actively go out to invest oil and gas field in foreign countries. Relying on rich oil and gas reserves, Iran is one of the world’s most important oil producing countries and one of China’s important oil import source countries. Especially on the premise that the Iranian nuclear agreement has fully reached and the sanctions against Iran adopted by Europe and U.S.A. will be gradually lifted, Iran’s domestic investment environment and the national would improve. And it also has a direct impact on foreign investment in the oil and gas sector. Hence, the strengthening oil and gas cooperation with Iran is particularly necessary. However, oil and gas cooperation with Iran is not always favoring, and there are also some uncertain factors. Therefore, it’s has an important practical significance and reference value to strengthen the research of Iran’s oil and gas investment environment for that scientifically and objectively understand Iran’s oil and gas investment environment and enrich Iranian research in related fields.Based on the latest data and scientific payoffs, the research, supported by the investment environment theory, uses the literature research method and system analysis method to systemically analyze the domestic and overseas research status and the advantages and disadvantage of Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment. Synthetically considering the various factors which affect the investment environment of oil and gas, it designs the evaluation index system of oil and gas resources’ investment environment. Synthetically considering the various factors which affect the investment environment of oil and gas, it designs the evaluation index system of oil and gas resources’ investment environment. In order to make the evaluation result objective and reasonable, the article intends to combine the AHP and entropy method to make objective and comprehensive evaluation of Iran’s oil and gas investment environment in 2007-2014. And then it calculates out the comprehensive score of Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment through the method of weighted synthesis. The index quantification is from expert scoring method, the quantitative index is from the World Bank database, International Statistical Yearbook, the BP statistical review of world energy, etc. It aims at analyzing the merits and demerits of the country’s oil and gas investment environment and the possibilities of investment through the comprehensive evaluation of Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment, thereby providing reference for China’s oil and gas companies’ invest to Iran. By the system analysis, the main conclusions are as following:(1)The advantages of Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment are more than its disadvantages. From the overall advantages and disadvantages of the six factors, the status quo of Iran’s oil and gas resources has the overwhelming superiority, the oil and gas regulatory policy environment and infrastructure environment is gradually improving, the economy has shown signs of recovery, stable political situation and a good social and cultural environment. While the factors have unfavorable factors more or less, the advantages are still more than the disadvantages on the whole.(2) Through the comprehensive evaluation and analysis, it can be seen that the impacts of the six factors on Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment, including the status quo of oil and gas resources, the oil and gas regulatory environment, infrastructure, economic environment, political environment and social-cultural environment and its subsystems. Six influencing factors and the sorting of the importance of the subsystem: the present status of oil and gas resources(45.29%), the sorting of subsystem for the oil and gas reserves, the rate of Storage and mine, the degree of exploitation and the conditions of mine, the effective exploration and the quality of oil and gas. Political environment(21.81%), the sorting of subsystem as follows: the political stability, the degree of protection of the foreign capital, the efficiency of government administrative; the environment of economic(13.34%), the sorting subsystem as follows: the volume of foreign capital inflow, the rate of labor participation, the per capita GDP, the rate of inflation, the growth rate of GDP and the rate of unemployment. The environment of Oil gas laws and regulations policy(9.93%), the sorting of subsystem for foreign cooperation, the perfect degree of oil and gas laws and regulations, the preferential policies for foreign investment and the rate of total tax; The infrastructure environment(5.52%), the sorting of subsystem as follows:the transportation of oil and gas pipeline, the equipment of refining technology, the scale of oil refining factories, the conditions of sea, the density of road network, the rate of per capita electricity and telephone penetration; The environment of social and cultural(4.11%), the sorting of the importance of the subsystem as follows: the system of social security, the concept of value, the level of education and the conflicts of ethnic and religious.(3) Through the analysis of Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment using the time series method, it can be found that the overall level of Iran’s investment environment is increasing in 2007--2014 except the decline in 2012 and will continue to rise in the future. From the developing trend of the six factors, the status quo of oil and gas resources, oil and gas regulatory policy environment and political environment are on the rise; and the economic fluctuate; social-cultural environment remains stable. With the lifting of sanctions and the positive measures taken by Rouhani’s administration, the investment environment will continue to improve, and the level of investment environment is also expected to further enhance.(4) Aiming at existing problems of Iran’s oil and gas resources investment environment, this thesis put forward the countermeasure and suggestion. Firstly, foreign-funded enterprises should strengthen communication with the Iranian all sectors of society to improve cooperation environment in Iran. Secondly, on the basis of complementary advantages, investment companies should bring its own technology, funds and personnel into full play. Thirdly, it will perfect laws and regulations of oil and gas cooperation for foreign investment objectively to avoid the risk of oil and gas policies and regulations. Fourthly, it will be strengthening information platform construction to promote oil and gas cooperation. Fifthly, it should choice some reasonable operating mode to reduce investment risk.