Complexity and Conflict Management in Iran’s Oil and Gas Projects Evidence from One of the South Pars Gas Field Development Phases

Conflicts naturally emerge within a project during the project life. Some conflicts support the project goals and improve their whole performance. On the other hand, some can be an obstacle to the performance. As a result, this would lead to the tension between the company and contractor which prevents the project from progressing smoothly and within the budget and deadline. This research works on the complexity and conflict phenomena and tries to understand complexity, sources of conflicts between the two parties (company and contractor) and how they are managed in a mega gas producing project in Iran (one of the phases of South Pars Gas Field Development situated in Asaluyeh) as a case study. The research uses Grounded Theory as its methodology. In this regard, data were collected entirely through interviews from twelve experts, observations and documents reviews in the year 2018. The collected data were then analyzed utilizing a set of coding (open, axial and selective) procedures and the Leximancer software. The initial findings show that unpredicted issues (especially sanctions) increasing time and cost of the project have been among the three main drivers of the conflicts which had resulted in the project complexity. The project scope clarification, intra-organizational structure, and liquidity were also among the sources of conflicts.