The main purpose of the research design is to serve as a guideline for the entire research. Figure 1 Research Onion Source: Saunders and Lewis 20121.4.2 Research Philosophy This research will focus its philosophy on interpretivism, which is “the study of social phenomena in their natural environment.” Interpretivism simply seeks to understand what happens in a company, an organization or an economic sector, in the case of the oil and gas sector (Saunders and Lewis, 2012:106). In order, they can be used to understand the role of project management best practices applied by oil companies and how they impact their results, performance and the industry at large. It helps to “understand and study the social phenomenon in the environment” (Saunders and Lewis, 2012:106) by owning the views, perceptions and evaluation of oil and gas