Designing Policies for Completing the Methanol Value Chain in Iran: Thematic Analysis of Upstream Documents with a Resistance Economy Approach

Azimi, Sayed Milad; Goudarzi, Gholamreza; Sadeghi Shahdani, Mahdi; Zahedivafa, Mohammad Hadi

doi:10.22034/jmi.2026.577083.3289

Designing Policies for Completing the Methanol Value Chain in Iran: Thematic Analysis of Upstream Documents with a Resistance Economy Approach

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article (Original Article)

Authors

Sayed Milad Azimi ¹

Gholamreza Goudarzi ²

mahdi Sadeghi Shahdani ³

Mohammad Hadi Zahedivafa ⁴

¹ Ph.D. Candidate of Management of International Oil and Gas Contracts, Imam Sadegh University, Tehran, Iran.

² Professor, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Management, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.

³ Professor, Department of Economic, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Economics, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.

⁴ Associate Professor, Department of Economic, Faculty of Islamic Studies and Economics, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22034/jmi.2026.577083.3289

Abstract

Despite Iran's high methanol production capacity, the petrochemical industry remains largely trapped in a crude-export-oriented pattern. This study aims to design policy solutions for completing the methanol value chain within the framework of the Resistance Economy and upstream policy documents. Using thematic analysis and conducting 16 semi-structured interviews with experts from the oil and petrochemical sectors, along with reviewing 21 upstream policy documents, basic, organizing, and global themes were extracted and analyzed through a thematic network.
The findings indicate that the main gap lies not in the absence of upstream policy documents, but in weak institutional coherence, lack of integrated implementation mechanisms, financing challenges, technological limitations, and the absence of incentive systems aligned with downstream development. Accordingly, the most important proposed policy solution is "conditioning natural gas feed discounts on downstream chain development" which, together with other solutions, were developed and prioritized across four main axes: governance and investment steering, reform of incentive and financing systems, technological and infrastructure development, and market and export development of downstream products. The results suggest that the effective realization of the Resistance Economy in the petrochemical industry requires a shift from a production-oriented approach toward a value-added and policy-driven paradigm.

Keywords

Industrial Policy

Methanol

Resistance Economy

Thematic Analysis

Upstream Policy Documents

Value Chain

Subjects

Industrial Policy

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