Investigating policies to improve the local content in the upstream sector of the petroleum industry and present policy considerations for Iran

Developing local content and promoting the use of domestic capacities in the oil industry as one of the main drivers in the country's development requires identifying and adopting appropriate strategies. For this purpose, in the present study, after considering the policies of some countries and other empirical and theoretical studies, the policies were carefully identified and confirmed by the experts through questionnaires and surveys. On the other hand, in order to rank these policies according to the country's situation, indicators were designed through the focal group and provided to experts for validation and weighting. The final ranking of policies based on the weight of the indicators indicates that the determination of the specific percentage for the use of manpower and raw materials, long-term contracts with foreign companies, and the requirement for the replacement of forces and domestic companies gradually and determining financial incentives for the full use of manpower and domestic materials are in the top priority. The final part of the paper reviews the status of the laws, regulations, and contracts of the country in this regard and provides policy analysis