Foreign Investment Contracts in the Oil & Gas Sector: A Survey of Environmentally Relevant Clauses (original) (raw)

Impediments to enforcement of environmental treaties against oil pollution

2017

Indisputably, at various fora, the hopeless picture of the condition of the global environment vis-a-vis the linkage of environmental degradation with growth and human welfare has been painted. ‘Safe water is increasingly limited, hindering economic activity. Land degradation endangers the lives of millions of people. This is the world today.’ Unfortunately, despite oil’s significance to the world’s economy, pollution arising from it has constituted one of the major sources of the global environments’ degradation. To address the threat posed by oil pollution to the global environment, some international and regional instruments have increasingly emerged. This article examines some of these instruments along with some of the challenges confronting their effectiveness. The article concludes that relevant steps should be taken to address the challenges in order to ensure that the various instruments and treaties are effectively implemented by States to safeguard a healthy global enviro...

Environmental Regulation of Upstream Sector of Oil and Gas Industry.

2012

The extraction of hydrocarbons is an inherently hazardous activity with potential grave risks to the general environment. Environmental woes occur during all the stages of oil and gas cycle but more notable during the upstream stage of operations. The upstream stage involves exploration, appraisals and production. This stage is accompanied by a range of environmental issues like accidental spills and blow out during development stage , operational discharge and atmospheric emissions like gas flaring during production stage. Major incidents like Ecuador rain forest pollution, Piper alpha offshore disaster (1988), gas flaring in Nigeria, Montara accident (2009) and macondo blowout (2010) are but a few examples. The discussion below evaluates different approaches employed by governments to minimise the risk of upstream operations on the environment. The evaluation will also show how these approaches work and criticisms levied and offer an opinion on what the writer considers the best approach. It is the author’s hypothesis that a combination or two or more approaches could be the best option depending on the host country’s legal framework.

VICTOR K. BETT LL.M THESIS 2020 ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORY APPROACH POLLUTER PAYS PRINCIPLE OIL & GAS

VICTOR BETT LL.M THESIS, 2020

The oil and gas (O&G) upstream sector has been touted as being among the greatest lucrative natural resources in propelling Kenya’s economic growth. It is axiomatic that the O&G sector anywhere- whether in developed or developing countries brings with it succinct environmental and socio-economic challenges such as land, water and air pollution. This research is mainly concerned with the impact of upstream O&G operations with respect to the regulatory and conceptual underpinnings of the polluter-pays principle (PPP). This principle aims at preventing or otherwise remedying environmental damage through tort/delict liability leading to internalization of costs; the costs are transferred from Governments to the actual ‘polluters.’ Owing to the absence of sufficient sanctions in environmental laws and regulations (both regionally and internationally), it has proven difficult for the implementation of the PPP. This underscores the legal and economic importance and encumbrances associated with the upstream petroleum sector. Through historical, analytical and comparative study, this research examines the PPP’s application in upstream petroleum operations in Nigeria and in the United States of America (USA). The difference between these two countries is in the nature of laws and regulations enacted to protect the environment coupled with the institutional enforcement of these laws. While the legal regime in USA is a bit more proactive, dynamic and goal setting; Nigeria’s has conversely been static and largely prescriptive in approach. This will lead to an appraising the legal regulatory frameworks in the application of the PPP in curbing the anthropogenic impacts of O&G pollution and the responsibility of the ‘polluter’ thereto in relation to Kenya’s emerging O&G industry. Ultimately, a predisposition will be drawn for Kenya to properly apply the PPP in its O&G related regulatory frameworks by highlighting lessons learnt from Nigeria and USA in order to forester the attainment of both the social and ecological justice stance.