Economic Sovereignty and Oil And Gas Law: Essay on the Normative Interactions between International Law and Constitutional Law (original) (raw)
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The Journal of World Energy Law & Business, 2013
Business activity in the hydrocarbon sector, involving the extraction of natural resources essential to maintain our modern lifestyle, begins with the negotiation of oil and gas exploration and exploitation contracts. Apart from the traditional role of the parties' contractual autonomy, determining the legal regime of these contracts necessitates considering the role of international law, the development of oil sector-specific international rules (lex petrolea), and the impact of the imperative norms of national legal systems, especially in expropriation cases and in those situations in which investments or commercial transactions in a particular State are subject to limits or prohibitions relating to economic coercion measures.
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The threat of environmental problem concerns the whole world at the global level. This is because the global environment is one while the national boundaries, which have demarcated the world into distinct nations, are manmade. The features of the world's environment, ie land, air and water, and their susceptibilities are no respecter of those national boundaries made by man in his enterprise of building sovereign States. The implication of the exploitation of oil in both onshore and offshore locations is that pollution may occur in such a way as to affect shared water resources beyond national boundaries. When this happens, it becomes an international law concern. This is why the world environment has come to be regarded as common resource. There are international conventions on the environment relevant to the control of oil and gas pollution, to which Nigeria is a signatory. The researcher aims at appraising the usefulness of these conventions in the control of oil and gas pollution in Nigeria. The study depicts that the applicability of these conventions in Nigeria is limited by the fact that they are not binding on Nigerian courts but merely persuasive in that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 excludes the enforceability of such Conventions in Nigeria except they have been domesticated as national laws. The study makes a case for enforceability and bindingness of international conventions in Nigeria by their being enacted as Acts of the National Assembly in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.
Fordham International Law Journal, 1985
At the end of 1982, Mobil Oil Corporation (Mobil) withdrew from its Libyan oil exploration and production concessions. Subsequently, Mobil filed an arbitration claim against the Libyan Government, alleging that government action had effectively destroyed the economic value of Mobil’s concession. This arbitration raises substantial questions of transnational contract law. Part I of this Note provides the factual background to the Mobil-Libya dispute and a review of the major issues involved. Part II discusses the right of a host government to set export prices. Part III considers whether a host government may take unilateral action even though the concession agreement includes a stabilization clause. Part IV examines the issue of “creeping expropriation.” Part V analyzes the effect of the doctrine of permanent sovereignty over natural resources on the issues raised by the Mobil-Libya dispute. The Note concludes that when an oil concessionaire continues to operate in the host state fo...
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Alberta Law Review, 2001
In this article the authors draw upon the experience of the World Bank in encouraging petroleum investment in its member countries to analyze the essential elements of international-standard legislative frameworks for petroleum exploration and production operations. The basic components of Petroleum Law, Regulations, and Model Contracts are examined with a view to explaining the principles and rationale for each essential element of successful legislative frameworks while recognizing that there is room for a myriad of variations and innovation depending on the hydrocarbon endowment, real or perceived, of each host government.
Exploitation of Offshore Transboundary Oil and Gas Reservoirs; An International Law Perspective.
Under international law, state’s territorial sovereignty ends at its boundaries and any hydrocarbons reservoirs that straddle across would belong to a different state with control over such territory. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides a legal framework for maritime boundary delimitation. However, it does not entirely solve the equation in regard to exploitation of cross-border hydrocarbons. What happens when the hydrocarbon cross boundaries of different states? It may be difficult to determine the quantity of hydrocarbons due to one state. Neighbouring states have access to the same reservoir and any activities by one state would have an impact on the position of the other to exploit the same. This paper will analyse different frameworks adopted by states to exploit shared offshore reservoirs. It will traverse challenges posed by exploitation of such deposits and the status of international law, specifically on the obligation to cooperate. The paper will also focus on state practice and how different concepts in the cycle of hydrocarbon exploitation have been tackled; from discovery to cessation. The emphasis is ( but not limited to) on Norway-UK, USA-Mexico, Australia- Timor-Leste, and Nigeria Sao Tome, Principe arrangements.