Causes of delay in Iranian oil and gas projects: a root cause analysis

Purpose: The international energy agency states that the world’s primary energy needs are expected to grow to 55 per cent until 2030. Therefore, oil and gas industry as the main energy source will be more crucial where building or advancing new capacities is required. Because the reports highlight the delay as a recurring problem, thereby, more in-depth investigation to find out the main contributing causes is needed. Design/methodology/approach: Root cause analysis (RCA) was applied to identify, rank, analysis and categorize the main sources of this problem. Findings: Based on RCA procedure; Pareto analysis showed that 84.7 per cent of the delay is because: the radar chart indicated no difference in perception of the participants regarding the importance of the root causes, correlation analysis suggested strong relationship among the participants and the cause-and-effect diagram emphasized more on operational, human and equipment categories, which in total account for 51.86 per cent of the delay. Originality/value: The risk planners of large-scale projects can consider these root causes as the main items to analysis, monitor and control, as they are vitally important for project success.