Evaluation of the external forces affecting the sustainability of oil and gas supply chain using Best Worst Method

Abstract

The world’s economy is highly dependent on oil and gas (O&G) sources. However, O&G development and use can cause negative impacts on the environment and society in terms of, for example, carbon emissions and community displacement. A sustainable O&G supply chain management practices may help to mitigate these problems. Current research on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) in the O&G industry context, however, falls short in understanding the external forces that facilitate or hinder its implementation. This paper aims to address this gap by quantitatively assessing the importance of these forces to SSCM practices in the industry. It focuses on six external forces: economic stability, political stability, stakeholder pressure, competition, energy transition and regulations. A survey was conducted among academic experts in the SSCM and O&G field from American and European universities to obtain individual measures of importance. Similar survey was conducted in two national O&G companies from developing countries. We analyzed data gathered using the Best Worst Method (BWM) to identify the collective importance of the forces. The findings from the academic experts and practitioners indicate that economic and political stability are the most important forces; energy transition, on the other hand, is the least important force that could influence SSCM in the O&G industry. Interestingly, while academic experts think that regulatory factor is the second least important external force, it is the third most important factor according to practitioners. Our findings demonstrate the importance of identifying the context of SSCM practices in order to understand how sustainable supply chain strategies can be designed and implemented more effectively.