Politics and technology in the Soviet petroleum industry: the record of the seventies and the challenge of the eighties

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6036495

Hedges, Jr, L R

This dissertation assesses the prospects for technological development in the Soviet petroleum industry. The focus of the study is on the ways organizational, bureaucratic, environmental, and other systemic factors affect the innovative process. Chapters I and II are devoted to defining the technological development process in terms of concepts drawn from political systems analysis, to describing the major policy approaches to innovation, and to highlighting the major organizational relationships in the petroleum industry. Chapters III and IV examine the ways systematic factors affect technological development in the petroleum extraction, drilling, and exploration functions. Chapter V assesses the impact of foreign technology on the innovative capability of the industry. The study concludes that the prospects for increasing the pace of technological development are poor. The prime causes of technological lag are found in the economic system of the industry and in the organizational and bureaucratic relationships derived from central planning. Soviet leaders have required that technological development be pursued without significant modifications to the economic system - a system which places more emphasis on achieving planned targets than on technological development.

• OSTI ID: 6036495
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020200 -- Petroleum-- Reserves
Geology
& Exploration
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294002 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Petroleum
ASIA
EASTERN EUROPE
EUROPE
EXPLORATION
INDUSTRY
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
POLITICAL ASPECTS
PRODUCTION
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
USSR