Identifying and Ranking the Factors Influencing the Determination of the “Delivery Point” in International Natural Gas Sales Contracts (Case Study: Natural Gas Sales Contracts in LNG state)

The analysis of the global environment of the energy industry and its developments shows that natural gas is the shaper of the world's energy future. The future of Iran, as the owner of the world's first gas resources, is undeniably tied to a category called "Natural gas". New developments, such as the environmental conditions of the world, the consequences of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the tensions in the Middle East region, and the prediction of a rise in the global price of crude oil in the near future have also increased the role and importance of natural gas. According to the analysis of British Petroleum (BP) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the trend of natural gas consumption will continue at a faster pace until ۲۰۳۰. Therefore, in order to maintain Iran's superior position in the world markets and to timely use the advantage of the country's gas reserves so as to turn these reserves into more value-added capital, we need to further develop country’s technical, political, marketing, legal, infrastructures etc. One of the main components of the legal infrastructure to create and develop market share in the global natural gas markets is to pay attention to the issue of how to design and regulate international natural gas sales contracts in accordance with the transfer method and the basic bottlenecks in it. One of the most important bottlenecks in international contracts for the sale of natural gas is the design and determination of the “Delivery Point”, which can be different in different contracts, according to the method of transfer and the contingent factors of each contract. In this research, in order to identify the factors influencing the determination of the “Delivery Point” in the international contracts for the sale of natural gas in LNG form, the research literature was reviewed and interviews were conducted with experts, and the conceptual model of the research and their measurement indicators were designed. The collected indicators were distributed among the members of the statistical community in the form of a researcher-made questionnaire and their opinions were collected. According to the findings of this research, the results of the T-test indicated that the five main factors defined for this research are effective, according to the members of the study's statistical population, in determining the delivery point in international natural gas sales contracts with an emphasis on the LNG method. On the other hand, the Friedman ranking test was used to rank these factors in terms of their level of importance. Based on the test results, the contractual factor had the highest mean rank and, consequently, the greatest importance. The political, geographical, technical, and economic factors followed in terms of importance, respectively.

کلیدواژه ها:

Natural gas ، liquefied natural gas (LNG) ، natural gas sales and transmission contract ، delivery point ، contractual factors ، contingent factors