Petroleum and Natural Gas Law

(with Madeleine J. Lewis)

Conditions precedent to Farmout Agreements (FOA) are critical in ensuring that an agreement is fulfilled under conditions that are protective of the parties' interests in the agreement. Conditions precedent offer parties an escape route from a project if certain approvals are not obtained or if other unexpected circumstances render the project legally or technically infeasible. In the context of FOAs, parties may make their agreement to a project contingent upon governmental approvals, the farmee's timely drilling of wells, or environmental assessments, for example. Generally, if one or several conditions have not been fulfilled by a certain date, the parties may have the right to terminate the contract. As with any contractual clause, ambiguous or contentious conditions precedent are likely to foment disagreement among parties and may result in disputes. Though many ambiguities can be avoided through precise language and careful drafting, it is not always possible to avoid the host of potential disagreements regarding the correct interpretation of a contract. For seamless resolution of disputes, parties to a FOA must carefully select their FOA model in light of the parties' specific positions and interests. This article endeavors to provide a limited overview of conditions precedent in FOAs for students and young practitioners, and highlight possible dispute resolution planning techniques for use in practice.

The petroleum industry globally and especially that of petroreliant countries has been gravely impacted by the cascading effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry grapples with divergent unprecedented dilemmas ranging from an oil price war, and an overwhelmingly severe Covid-19 impact. Moreover, other underlying issues such as a steep drop in oil prices, OPEC/Russia conflicting views on oil prices & cuts, as OPEC and allied countries often in the quest for stabilized oil prices moved to cut down their combined output by 9.7 million bpd. This was inevitable due to the fact of oil demand/supply imbalance occurring simultaneously with the decline in fossil fuels use necessitated by global lockdowns, industrial slowdowns, travel bans or other restrictions, and disruptions flowing from Covid-19 implementation protocols.

Over the years, Nigeria has had a number of petroleum laws. The Act that governs the upstream and downstream sector of the petroleum industry has evolved over the years with constant lacunas in these laws. It is on this basis that the Petroleum Industry Act was signed into law. The

This research concludes that, natural gas dewatering techniques consists of; absorption, adsorption, condensation and membrane separation. The criteria for selecting the dewatering method to use, depends on the dew point requirements and the dewatering capacity. Tri-ethylene Glycol (TEG) dewatering method was chosen to be the best because it can provide the desired dewatering capacity, low cost of operation and low energy consumption. We can achieve a water content of 6lb/MMSCFD-7lb/MMSCFD which is the standard water content in natural gas.

Stratigraphic record and sin-sedimentary structures in the Paraná Basin show events at the beginning and at the end of the tectono-sedimentary sequences. Their styles are representatives of extensional and compressional events respectively. The correlation of the paleo-stress regimes with cycles of the solar system in the galaxy is good. The flexural basin evolution worked out as a geotectonic system driven by an initial overload of lithosphere and evolved under the effect of internal crustal proprieties and external cyclical variation of the solar system.

This paper aims to examine the causes, effects and solutions to vandalization of pipelines in Nigeria. The act of vandalism is without doubt a serious issue which needs to be addressed with urgency, it is however important to note that certain factors are responsible for this and in effect the act has its impact on the nation at large. A solution is aptly required because we cannot aim to get to the position we want to in our economy and environment without paying attention to this issue. As long as pipeline vandalism continues a lot would continue to go wrong in the oil sector, power sector and a number of other sectors, it is therefore of high importance to address this problem.

Man has the ability to meddle and alter his environment in pursuit of an improved quality of life. Indeed, the environment is at the core of man's existence on earth in that he cannot exist without it. Therefore anything that affects the environment must affect the quality of his life. Environmental problem is now a subject of serious international concern. These problems include atmospheric pollution, marine pollution, global warming, and ozone depletion, the danger of nuclear and other extra hazardous substances that threaten wild life species. Such Environmental issues have assumed a global character as environment is said to be beyond people's immediate surroundings, sometimes assuming international dimensions. This has led to international and local laws on environmental protection. The issue remains that these laws have not achieved the purpose for which they were made. We therefore recommend that there is need for more stringent measures to ensure compliance by the defaulting parties.

This paper attempts a critical look at the current existing legal framework for any divestment action by international oil companies situated in Nigeria, with particular reference to their environmental obligations and responsibilities arising before and after such divestment. In attempting to do this, it also looks at similar divestment legal and regulatory provisions in other countries.

Indonesia’s oil and gas governance has been specified in certain laws. The first oil and gas law was Emergency Law No. 44 of 1960. This law was changed to Law No. 8 of 1971 which gave a dual function, namely to Pertamina National Oil Company (NOC), as an operator and regulator. Meanwhile, the function of policy making was carried out by the government. These two functions are known as “two feet.” Furthermore, with the promulgation of the Oil and Gas Law No. 22 of 2001, there was a separation of regulatory functions by Pertamina and giving them to state institutions known as BP Migas. The agency was later converted into two different institutions, SKK Migas for regulating upstream oil and gas and BPH Migas for downstream regulation. These functions are known as ‘three feet’. However, the Oil and Gas Law No. 22 of 2001 received a lot of criticism, because this law was considered too liberal and put Pertamina as a NOC to compete openly with the International Oil Company (IOC) which was considered to have more good advantages in technology, capital, and risk management. The existing Oil and Gas Law has caused prolonged stagnation in the national oil and gas industry, and reduced the performance of this strategic industry in terms of lifting, exploration, exploitation and oil production. This study is intended to provide a description regarding the various design concepts of oil and gas law governance by referring to the oil and gas management and performance models in various countries and IOC. Furthermore, this study empirically offers a comparison of the NOC model in managing oil and gas, and the advantages and disadvantages of institutional selection over the oil and gas administration

In recent years, the European Commission has issued many Article 9 Regulation 1/2003 commitment decisions on the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU in electricity and natural gas markets. In those decisions, some new forms of unilateral conduct such as “long-term capacity bookings”, “capacity withdrawal/withholding”, strategic “underinvestment/strategic limitation of investment” and “capacity hoarding” have appeared. In addition to being novel to the enforcement of Article 102 TFEU, these forms of conduct have been subject to assessments that have pushed the boundaries of the analytical framework of Article 102 TFEU in terms of the goals and functions of Article 102 TFEU, the relationship between Article 101 TFEU and Article 102 TFEU, and compliance with the established jurisprudence on the subject matter. This article analyses the new forms of abuse in the European Commission’s commitment decisions in the EU energy sector and explores the aspects of these decisions that challenge the analytical framework of Article 102 TFEU.

O projeto de nova lei do gás (P.L. nº 6.407/2013): uma longa jornada rumo à eficiência no transporte de gás natural no Brasil RESUMO A indústria de gás natural (IGN) brasileira experimentou um momento de forte expansão no Brasil no início dos anos 2000, com a entrada em operação, em 1999, do Gasoduto Bolívia-Brasil. A demanda de gás natural no País, por sua vez, permanece estagnada, na média, nos últimos cinco anos, até 2017. Enquanto a extensão da malha de transporte dutoviário permanece a mesma também nos últimos cinco anos, as redes de distribuição vêm experimentando sensível expansão. Parece haver, portanto, um engessamento do setor de transporte de gás natural no Brasil, circunstância que contribui para a incipiência da IGN como um todo, já que o transporte é exatamente o segmento operacional central desta cadeia econômica. Além de outros, existem também fatores de ordem legal e regulatória que contribuem para que o gás natural enfrente dificuldades para colocar-se no mercado brasileiro. Este artigo se propõe a estudar e buscar fundamentação empírica e teórica para explicar em que medida as alterações jurídicas proposta no Projeto de Lei nº 6.407/2013 podem impactar o desenvolvimento da IGN brasileira,

This paper attempts a critical look at the current existing legal framework for any divestment action by international oil companies situated in Nigeria, with particular reference to their environmental obligations and responsibilities arising before and after such divestment. In attempting to do this, it also looks at similar divestment legal and regulatory provisions in other countries.

ABSTRACT

In an effort to expedite dispute resolution, decongest the law courts and to provide for other forms of voluntary dispute settlement in Ghana, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798) was passed. Act 798 seeks to among others facilitate and encourage the settlement of disputes through alternative dispute resolution procedures; and provide by legislation for the subject of customary arbitration.

The Land Act 2020 (Act 1036) has made it mandatory for aggrieved persons in certain land related disputes to at first instance attempt settlement of their dispute in accordance with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798), before resorting to the law courts.

This article identifies some of the land related disputes provided for in the Land Act 2020 for which parties are obliged to first attempt a resolution by ADR before proceeding to the law courts.

The settlement of dispute outside the court system have proven to be an effective and efficient option to dispute resolution in Ghana and with its introduction as the first option to land related disputes, it is expected that the resolution of certain categories of land related disputes would be expeditious and cost effective.

El mercado de gas natural en Colombia tiene estructurada una cadena de producción conformada por producción, transporte, distribución y comercialización de gas natural. Acorde al régimen legal colombiano, se consideran servicios públicos las actividades de transporte, distribución y comercialización y en ese sentido, la actividad de producción no está sometida al régimen de la Ley 142 de 1994 ni a la regulación de la CREG puesto que la producción al no considerarse un servicio público, se rige por las reglas de exploración y explotación de hidrocarburos contenidas en el Código de Petróleos y demás normas referentes a dichas actividades.

Economic Geography of the Australian Mining Industry.  Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie.  2016.  ISSN: 1467-9663. 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tesg.12185/abstract

This paper is a discussion of the economic geography of Australia. It provides a history of foreign investment in mining, and discusses several resources booms that shaped the landscape of the continent and the role of governments (state, federal and territory governments) in this process. The paper presents a chronological account of the development of the Australian mining industry, the primary activities of which are the extraction, and export of unprocessed coal, iron, minerals and increasingly natural gas. The paper analyzes the industry’s interaction with foreign investment and government assistance (that is government spending in relation to the industry such as subsidies, loans and infrastructure construction etc). Australia’s trade and foreign investment environment have long been deregulated. The Australian mining industry has benefited from this deregulation. But its most spectacular period has been the “commodities super-cycle” of the 2000s-2010s. Overall, its contribution to exports has long typified the mining industry. The discussion herein draws attention to the applicability of the ‘eclectic theory’ in reference to foreign investment in mining. That is, investing mining MNEs (multinational enterprises) have three main types of ‘locational advantages’ in Australia, 1) volume of the availability of resources, 2) foreign investment regulatory environment and 3) government assistance that benefits the mining industry’s expansion.
Keywords: Australia, economic geography, mining, FDI, government, neoliberalism

The valuation of the real option to store liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the downstream terminal of an LNG value chain is an important problem in practice. As the exact valuation of this real option is computationally intractable, we develop a novel and tractable heuristic model for its strategic valuation that integrates models of LNG shipping, natural gas price evolution, and inventory control and sale into the wholesale natural gas market. We incorporate real and estimated data to quantify the value of this real option and its dependence on the throughput of an LNG chain, the type of price variability, the type of inventory control policy employed, and the level of stochastic variability in both the shipping model and the natural gas price model used. In addition, we develop an imperfect information dual upper bound to assess the effectiveness of our heuristic, and find that our method is near optimal. Our approach also has potential relevance to value the real option to store ot...

The contemporary oil and gas industry is confronted with irrefutable global challenges and is at a critical juncture. These challenges cut across environmental, economic, political, or technological demands to tailor exploration and production activities in accordance with wide-ranging issues tied to the sustainable development paradigm. In essence, the modern-day petroleum industry must consider all interlocking and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development articulated as: environmental protection, economic growth and social development. Although the concept of sustainable development has

This paper considers the concept of national participation and development of Nigerian content in the country's oil and gas industry. It analyzes the state of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. An attempt is made to succinctly elucidate on the otherwise illusory concept of national participation. The various policy and legal framework for the realization of Nigerian content in the development of the industry is considered as well as the prospects and challenges attendant to such initiatives. While the paper finds that significant progress has been recorded in the development of local content in the industry, it makes adequate recommendations towards addressing some of the key challenges to such development in the industry.

The use of inhibitors is one of the most practical methods for protecting metal against corrosion, especially in acidic media. In this research work, the evaluation of inhibitive action of plantain peduncle extract on the corrosion of medium carbon steel in tetraoxosulphate (vi)acid medium was investigated. The medium carbon steel bars were machined into coupons and suspended in solution of 0.25M tetraoxosulphate (vi) acid to the varying concentrations of plantain extract inhibitor (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5% v/v)that  were added and allowed to in media for a duration of ten (10) days.  The weight loss and electrochemical measurement of each coupon was at a duration of two days interval and the rate of corrosion and protection efficiency of the inhibitor calculated. The results obtained revealed that the corrosion rate decreased with increasing concentration of inhibitor to maximum level of 2.0v/v% while the protective (inhibition) efficiency increased with increasing concentration of inhibitor. More so, this research work has demonstrated that plantain peduncle can be used for the corrosion inhibition of medium carbon steel in tetraoxosulphate (vi) acid.

"• Russia warns EU over anti-monopoly investigation; OMV enters into price-revision talks with Gazprom and Statoil; Gazprom and GDF Suez agree to revise their gas contract; Gazprom’s European exports rise 9.6 percent y-o-y in H1 2013, but net profits fall 35 percent; Gazprom cancels calls for bids to prepare project documentation for the Shtokman project; Gazprom subsidiary to enter the Italian fuel market as Gazprom plans an expansion of its own natural gas vehicle (NGV) market
• Ukraine reduces its imports of Russian gas in favour of supplies from Europe
• Russian Stroytransgas to build the overland sections of South Stream in the Balkans
• No new developments in Gazprom-CNPC negotiations, but Putin’s meeting with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, at the G20 Summit could add fresh impetus
• Gazprom wins auction for Moscow power generation utility, MOEK
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