Strategic Technologies Selection for Oil Production: An Application of Attractiveness-Capability Matrix of Technology

The rapid development of technologies and their increasing complexity and variety together with limited organizational resources and efforts for survival in industrial competitions have made the task of appropriate technology selection a major challenge. The present research is aimed at the formulation of a technology strategy related to oil production in one of the west Karoon oil fields in Iran. At first, the processes and challenges of production in the studied oil field are recognized by an experts’ survey. Then, the priority of the challenges is evaluated, and four key challenges of the considered field are recognized by using a paired comparison questionnaire and Chang fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In the next step, the existing and new technologies of oil production in the four recognized key challenges are determined. For each of the recognized technologies, the attractiveness assessment and capability assessment questionnaires are designed based on Jolly indices and distributed in a sample composed of production engineering experts. Sampling is done by the nonrandom and purposive–judgmental method. Based on the results of the questionnaires, the attractiveness–capability matrix is designed by Morin’s model, and then based on the obtained technology portfolio, the strategies for each of the four areas are formulated and discussed.