Identifying and prioritizing foreign companies interested in participating in post-sanctions Iranian energy sector

Ever since the sanctions on economic and financial cooperation with Iran have been lifted, leading contractors in the field of energy have expressed their interest in participating in Iran's energy sector. This study sought to propose a model for assessing and ranking foreign companies willing to take an active part in the Iranian petrochemical industry. To accomplish this, an integrated model composed of Best-Worst Method, ELECTRE III and PROMETHEE II was proposed. More specifically, to weight the criteria, Best-Worst Method was used, and to evaluate and rank them, ELECTRE and PROMETHEE methods were utilized. The data were gathered through questionnaires which collected the opinions of 8 experts in the field of the Iranian petrochemical industry. Results of data analysis revealed that in final evaluation, some well-known European companies in this area had higher positions compared to the others and those which cooperated with Iran during the sanctions.