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The distribution of petroleum resources has always been an issue of serious controversy in the Nigerian state under the previous petroleum regime. Thus, this paper examined the extent to which the newly enacted Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 has engrained distributive justice with respect to petroleum resources management. It concludes that the PIA has made giant strides towards this end, in view of the creation of the Host Communities Development Trust Fund, Frontier Basin Exploration Fund and improved environment protection measures. However, this study identified certain factors which will limit the full realisation of the distributive justice intendment of the Act. It is, therefore, submitted that until these issues are addressed, distributive justice would continue to remain elusive for petroleum resources management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains the calculation of oil and gas royalties in Texas. It discusses the elements of an oil and gas lease, including the royalty clause of the contract. It describes the different types of royalty clauses, as well as factors that may complicate royalty disputes. It also compares the calculation of royalty payments in Texas and in other states.

The author highlights the achievements of law professor John S. Lowe, particularly his knowledge on gas and oil laws.

The author shares how he became friends with Professor John S. Lowe, along with their international travels as lecturers, and commends Lowe for his teachings and expertise on oil and gas law.

This paper examines whether laws requiring oil and gas firms to disclose the chemicals used in their fracking operations affect the mortgage lending activity for properties located in nearby areas. I hypothesize and find that the disclosure mandate reduces uncertainty about the value of housing collateral and subsequently increases (1) the probability of obtaining a mortgage by 2.5 percentage points (pp), and (2) loan-to-value by 2.2 pp. My main analyses exploit the variation in the location of properties relative to fracking wells. Cross-sectional tests that exploit heterogeneity in drinking water sources and the content of firm disclosures further substantiate my inferences and mitigate endogeneity concerns. These findings suggest that disclosure regulation for oil and gas firms affects housing collateral values, thereby impacting the mortgage market. JEL Classifications: G14; G21; G32; G38; K22; L71; M41; M48. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History Studies (13094688) is the property of History Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In North Dakota, oil and gas is an important industry and with that importance comes meaningful legal issues. In Oil & Gas Transfer L. L. C. v. Karr, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals analyzed an issue never heard be - fore in North Dakota: whether an employee of an oil and gas company is entitled to a lien under North Dakota Century Code section 35-24-04. Oil & Gas Transfer L.L.C. ("OGT") is an oilfield construction company. OGT hired John Karr ("Karr") to manage and expand its business in North Dakota. Karr left OGT and claimed the company owed him $1,304,026.42. OGT was insolvent at the time, so Karr filed a pipeline construction lien statement under North Dakota Century Code section 35-24-04. The issues before the court were (1) whether Karr was considered an employee ofOGT and (2) if he was considered an employee, whether he was entitled to a lien under North Dakota Century Code section 35-24-04. The novel issue before the court was if someone is considered an employee of an oil and gas company, are they entitled to a lien under section 35-24-04, because the statute explicitly gives independent contractors the right to a lien. The court held that an employee is not entitled to a lien under North Dakota Century Code section 35-24-04. As a case of first impression, the holding provides North Dakota practitioners with direction on how to handle pipeline construction liens when the party filing for the lien is an employee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the radical transformation of the mineral regime of South Africa, the African National Congress government introduced the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 ("MPRDA") on May 1, 2004. In a previous contribution, the transitional provisions of the MPRDA were discussed within the context of the rights of holders of old order rights ("OORs") to convert their transitional rights to, or to apply for, new prospecting rights or mining rights under the MPRDA during different periods of transition. It was shown that due to poor administration by the state, as custodian of the mineral resources of South Africa, in post-apartheid South Africa, competing rights were granted to land that was subject to transitional rights. Also indicated was how priority rules have evolved to deal with competing prospecting or mining rights and transitional rights. In the category of priority disputes between holders of so-called unused old order rights ("UOORs") and holders of prospecting or mining rights, the Supreme Court of Appeal set out the applicable priority rule in Pan African Mineral Dev. Co. v. Aquila Steel Ltd. 2017 (5) SA 124 (SCA) (S. Afr.) (discussed in the previous contribution). However, in the decision of Aquila Steel Ltd v. Minister of Mineral Resources 2018 (3) SA 621 (CC) (S. Afr.), the priority rule received the attention of the Constitutional Court of South Africa ("CC"). This Article examines the CC's interpretation and application of the said priority rule. It also deals with the substitution of the Minister's decision with an order granting an application for a mining right to an applicant who applied without notice (of prior rights) for prospecting and mining rights that were inconsistent with the rights of the holder of the UOORs. The nature of rights that are created under the MPRDA are examined with reference to the different legal acts that take place during applications for and granting of rights. The Article advocates for a private law approach to determine the nature of these rights. The problems associated with the public law style state custodian construction of the MPRDA are again discussed and highlighted with reference to the facts of the Aquila Steel decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ownership is commonly regarded as a powerful tool for environmental protection and an essential solution to the tragedy of the commons. But conventional property analysis downplays the possibility of negative-value property, a category which includes contaminated, depleted, or derelict sites. Owners have little incentive to retain or restore negative-value property and much incentive to alienate it. Although the law formally prohibits the abandonment of real property, avenues remain by which owners may functionally abandon negative-value property, as demonstrated recently by busts in certain coal and oil & gas markets. When negative-value property is abandoned, whether formally or functionally, the rehabilitation of such property typically requires public expenditure--an externality which cuts against property's general and salutary tendency to internalize spillovers at a low social cost. The existence of negative-value property, as well as its increasing abundance, reveals an underdeveloped aspect of property theory and a pressing need to fortify legal mechanisms that prevent abandonment and enforce owners' financial responsibility for severely degraded property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through modern technology we can use the void pore space of underground rock formations for a growing number of socially beneficial purposes. These run the gamut from unconventional oil and gas production to climate change mitigation. The common law of property and tort, however, has struggled to keep up with advancing technology in this area. Significant questions remain about the nature of property rights in pore space. Of particular interest are the limits, if any, on an owner's right to use pore space for beneficial purposes when it extends beneath the land of another. For example, may A hydraulically fracture an oil well on her property if the fractures extend beneath B's land? May C store anthropogenic carbon dioxide for climate change mitigation in a common reservoir that extends beneath the land of d, E, F, and G if they do not consent? If so, what, if any, compensation does C owe to the others? These and similar scenarios pose urgent questions for a wide range of landowners, industries, environmental interests, courts, and policymakers across the nation. This Article searches for answers to these pressing questions in the doctrinal histories of similar common pool natural resources. The Article reviews the development of common law rights in water and oil and gas to synthesize lessons for shaping the content and limits of rights in pore space. Then, applying these lessons to the current state of pore space rights, the Article explains that rights in pore space are established by a default rule of prior use and are absolute, subject to little, if any, limitation. As demand for the resource continues to grow, however, owners, and, ultimately, courts will likely search for ways to limit the absolute extent of pore space rights to avoid a tragedy of the pore space commons. In searching for doctrinal mechanisms to make pore space rights limited, or correlative, the Article predicts that courts will be tempted to choose between establishing limits by strict, formalist rides of proportionality (which favor certainty), on the one hand, and instrumentalist, utilitarian standards of reasonable use (which favor development of the resource), on the other. This Article identifies an underexplored doctrine from oil and gas law that would define the limits of pore space rights without resort to purely instrumentalist or formalist doctrines. The "fair-opportunity doctrine " articulated here would permit an owner to use any quantity of pore space anywhere in a common reservoir, so long as it does not interfere with the lawful existing operations of other owners or deprive other owners of a fair opportunity to either participate in the proposed operations or conduct like operations from their respective land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of History Studies (13094688) is the property of History Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses the decommissioning framework for oil and gas infrastructures in Brazil, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago. It examines whether the existing provisions in each country are able to guarantee that the government and, by extension taxpayers, do not bear the costs of decommissioning and, the consequences of insolvency on residual liabilities. An additional motivation for this examination is the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a pandemic with significant adverse impacts on the oil and gas industry. A likely consequence of the economic devastation from this is the insolvency of any party with decommissioning obligations. The article argues that the provisions of the Brazil petroleum legislation on the reversion of abandoned installations to the government could imply that taxpayers have to bear the residual liabilities without any compensation from the concerned concessionaires or contractors. It also argues that the provisions of the Petroleum Law to the effect that 'the reversion of facilities does not entail any expense whatsoever for the Brazilian government 'does not certainly translate to pecuniary compensation to the latter for assuming the future residual liabilities from abandoned installations. The Nigerian and the Trinidad &Tobago Decommissioning Framework also suffer the latter risk of the government bearing the residual liabilities for such disused installations. In Nigeria, the framework is silent on who bears the residual liabilities for disused installations. However, it is argued that the provisions of the Production Sharing Contracts on the transfer of ownership to the Nigerian government implies that they would have to bear eventual liabilities for such disused installations. Even in cases where the licensee or contractor may bear the burden of residual liabilities, the problem of future insolvency and cessation of such companies may entail that taxpayers bear the burden of residual liabilities. The article concludes with key recommendations on how to address the identified gaps using lessons from best practices such as United Kingdom, Norway and United States of America. One of such proposals is on the allocation of liability where there is a transfer of interest. Another is for joint and several or at least secondary liability of responsible parties even after decommissioning activities are over; a recommended provision to this effect is also provided. The third recommendation is on how timeconstrained residual liability can be used alongside lump sum payments to limit the State's financial exposure for decommissioning costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First World War saw the emergence of a 'politics of oil'/politique de pétrole centred on energy security. On both sides of the Channel, ministers toyed with different ways of achieving national 'control' of oil, some étatiste, others laissez-faire. With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Mesopotamian oil awaited allocation. Considering how little it contributed to the war in the Middle East, France did well out of this allocation. British concessions constituted an oily entente, more striking as Anglo-French relations deteriorated in the early 1920s. In seeking to explain this entente, inter-oil company as well as international relations need consideration. Oil companies used lobbying, the media, and mercantilist rhetoric to shape apparently 'national' oil policies in their own interests. The oily entente served the interest of an emerging world cartel more than it did British or French energy security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaks and spills have been endemic on long-distance oil pipelines in Canada since the mid-twentieth century. Evidence from the National Energy Board (neb) pipeline incident reports reveals a track record of thousands of spills totalling millions of litres of oil across the country. What causes onshore oil spills? Why do they occur? Where have they occurred? What have been the environmental consequences of these incidents? This article explores the history of onshore oil spills on federally regulated long-distance pipelines since the mid-twentieth century. It argues that oil pipeline spills are an endemic characteristic of complex enviro-technical systems built primarily for economic efficiency rather than environmental protection. Based on the analysis of incident reports submitted to the neb, the article finds that, while frequent, onshore oil spills in Canada have been variable in scale and have had a wide range of potential adverse environmental effects, depending on location, product type, and volume. The causes of such spills have also been variable, conforming to no obvious pattern over time. Instead, oil pipeline spills have occurred most often in an unpredictable fashion, posing great challenges for policy development. These spills have also represented a proportionally small fraction of the total oil delivered on Canada's long-distance pipelines, but, in absolute terms, this has meant the uncontrolled release of many millions of litres of oil into the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author shares his personal relationship with law professor John S. Lowe, and commends Lowe for his expertise on gas and oil law.

The author shares his personal relationship with law professor John S. Lowe, highlighting how he came to know more about gas and oil laws because of Lowe.

This article contributes to an emergent literature identifying expectations and domestic politics as the drivers of change in Africa's 'new oil'-producing countries. Whereas much attention has been paid to weak institutions as an explanation for the resource curse that has marred Africa's petroleum economies, the article points to the interplay between oil markets and domestic politics that is still under-researched. Based on empirical research into contractual and regulatory changes in mainland Tanzania, the article provides an overview of the development of the country's petroleum sector and argues that for a new oil country it is a constant struggle to keep abreast of market signals. Changes to contractual and regulatory regimes therefore tend to come rather late in the price cycle, both when high global oil prices allow for tougher fiscal terms and when falling prices call for downward adjustments. This was the case historically and is no less the case in today's resource nationalist environment, in which terms have been toughened despite falling global oil prices. Driven by electoral politics, decision-making has been politicized to such extent that exploration activities have come to an almost complete halt and no new contracts are being signed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil and chemical industries are subject to very strict legislations throughout Europe, in particular about the control of major accident hazards (Seveso Directive) and the integrated prevention and reduction of pollution (IPPC Directive). Further restrictions come from the legislation about the safety of chemicals as well as from that concerning occupational safety and health. Ageing of plants and equipment, due to corrosion and other phenomena, is currently a problem recognised by the Seveso Competent Authorities, as well Natural Technological (NaTech) risk and cybersecurity. This paper focuses on further critical issues emerging in Seveso industries. Equipment ageing produces also long-term environmental effects, which should concern also IPPC regulations. Another problem is obsolescence. The regulatory framework that guides chemical and oil industries is becoming tighter, hence establishments that are still in good condition could become unusable because the operator did not make in advance adequate changes to face the new context. Ageing of staff and organization is a further emerging issue. Market is becoming more and more competitive and financial context in many industries is becoming difficult. This paper outlines a few practical solutions, to face adequately these emerging critical issues by using a dynamic model for risk management. A case-study, which is a chemical coastal depot, is presented to understand the effects of new threats on safety in a very specific sector. The benefits of a dynamic risk assessment and management are discussed in the detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the development of the gross split system of oil-and-gas contracts in Indonesia. Topics covered include analysis of laws and regulations using doctrinal approach, the right of state control over natural resources and its correlation with the gross split concept and with Article 33 of the Indonesian Constitution, nature and requirements of the gross split contract.

Abstract The U.S. is undergoing a rapid energy transition, driven in large part an explosion in oil and gas production driven by unconventional drilling technologies. Some communities have embraced the boom in new oil and gas production, often resisting efforts to regulate the oil and gas industry. On the other hand, some states and municipalities have effectively banned new oil and gas drilling. In this paper, we examine how natural resource dependence, local economic conditions, and perceived economic benefits relate to support for restrictive oil and gas regulations in Colorado, US. Using representative survey data, our results suggest that perceived benefits, especially in the form of tax revenue, predict oil and gas policy preferences, while local and personal economic circumstances have little impact. Highlights • Communities around the world host oil and gas development. • Natural resource dependent communities often resist efforts to regulate the oil and gas industry. • Our results suggest that economic conditions do not explain all oil and gas regulatory preferences. • Residents who perceive significant economic benefits still support some modest regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chart on the history of petroleum in Uganda is presented including the passing of the petroleum act, end of the civil war, and formation of the Civil Society Coalition on Oil and Gas. It presents a transcript of the documentary film "Blessing or Curse?". It also mentions a list for acronyms related to the petroleum industry including American Petroleum Institute, Chief Executive Officer, and Civil Society Organization.

According to Greek mythology, the Greek God Zeus gifted Pandora a box and told her that she must never open it.1 Despite this warning, Pandora opened the enigmatic box only to unleash all of the troubles into the world.2 The colloquial phrase "Pandora's Box" refers to anything that appears ordinary but may produce unpredictable or harmful results.3 Unbeknownst to them at the time, parties to an oil and gas royalty dispute opened a Pandora's Box when a mineral lessee perfunctorily alleged that the absence of a cross-conveyance of interest between royalty interest owners partially invalidated a pooled unit.4 In Texas, the "Box" remains open yet still contains the unknown legal impact of leases' express disclaimers of crossconveyances when the lessee pools the lease into a designated unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2018 Petroleum Host and Impacted Communities Development Trust Bill before the Nigerian National Assembly was proposed to foster sustainable development (SD) and embed corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the oil and gas corporate activities within host communities. From the backdrop of SD and CSR as regulatory concepts, this article scrutinizes the Bill for its viability to realize its objectives in its current form. It raises concerns about: (i) perceived negligence by the government to provide social services and public goods, seeming to outsource such responsibilities to the business community; (ii) the reduction of CSR to capital or community development projects; and (iii) the absence of useful delimitation criteria to determine host and impacted communities. The article argues that past mistakes are being rehashed and queries the capacity of the Bill to live up to stakeholders' expectations. Using the normative contributions of global templates such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the article recommends policy and regulatory changes to the Bill's governance structure towards embedding effective CSR and engendering SD in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent series of Supreme Court decisions has assumed the economic power of large oil companies causes dealers to restrict sales to sponsored brands with the result that competitors are denied access to the market. The validity of this assumption is questioned in this note. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents legal developments in marketing with particular focus on the regulation of competition. Regarding price discrimination, the case "Bergjans Farm Dairy Co. v. Sanitary Milk Producers" is discussed, involving alleged violations of the Sherman Act and the Robinson-Patman Act. Regarding resale price maintenance, the cases "Joseph J. Broussard v. Socony Mobil Oil Company, Inc.," "Meus LeBlanc v. Continental Oil Company," and "Lee Roy Guidry v. Continental Oil Company," are discussed, in which it was found that a major oil company may not use a short-term service station lease as a coercive device to achieve resale price maintenance. Regarding price control, the Amendments to the Connecticut Unfair Sales Practice Act is discussed.

Copyright of Canadian Geotechnical Journal is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Few industries in the United States carry the clout and capital of the oil and gas and agricultural sectors. Economic behemoths, their booms and busts shape the destinies of states, define national policy, and secure the life or death of small towns across the United States. Like it or not, the agriculture and oil and gas industries have strong lobbies and vehement and mobilized constituencies. Recent years have seen both sectors facing public push-back on modern trends in extraction, growth, and methods of production. In response to these developments, these industries have used their considerable political capital to seek new laws that curtail the ability of opposing parties to use state and local legislation or ordinances to interfere with certain industry interests. These industry-specific legal developments are often happening concurrently, at times in states that have both a vibrant agricultural and oil and gas sector. This article makes several unique contributions. First, it builds on existing administrative legal discourse regarding "regulatory islands," the concept of state to state regulatory isolation, by highlighting an unacknowledged hole in the regulatory fabric: where federal law is silent, intra-state regulatory isolation is equally as harmful as extra-state regulatory islands. Thus, legal and administrative coordination is not only necessary across state lines, but within a state to achieve optimal policy goals. Second, this article describes and analyzes how oil and gas and agriculture function as regulatory battleships (rather than passive islands) within state legal systems-autonomous from federal regulation, isolated, and potentially battering up against each other in a pond of finite resources. Finally, this article is the first to provide three normative administrative frameworks to address the problems of piecemeal regulation in the oil and gas and agriculture context. Ultimately, this article concludes that treating these industries as insular, rather than interrelated, is likely to be unsustainable-administratively, environmentally, and economically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the development of the oil and gas legal framework in Iran. Topics discussed include individually negotiated agreements dating from the discovery and exploration of oil in Iran in 1901 through to nationalisation of the resource in 1951; domestic and foreign argument over nationalisation of Iran's oil industry to restructure the oil concession framework; and use of Five-Year Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plans.

Governments, oil companies and universities frequently pay lip service to such noble concepts as empowerment, local content, workforce nationalization and knowledge transfer. Unfortunately, well-intentioned and loudly-touted programmes typically begin with great fanfare and admirable intentions but seldom meet expectations in the long term. One happy exception has been the Masters of Oil and Gas Law and Management at Angola's Agostinho Neto University ('Program') which recently celebrated 10 years of existence. The authors describe the genesis, history and methodology of this unique Program in whose development and implementation they played crucial roles. They also recount their promotional visits to law schools and other institutions on four other continents and the tangible effects that the Program has had outside of Angola. The article identifies a number of lessons learned in the process and hopefully will serve as a roadmap for those wishing to recreate the Program's success elsewhere. In short, this is the story of how a major oil company and a national law school brought together a world class teaching faculty and local experts for the benefit of more than 230 professionals and the nation as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pre-Salt Polygon is amongst the most important oil and natural gas discoveries of the last few years in Brazil and globally. In July 2017, its production represented 48.2 per cent of total Brazilian output.2 Due to the geological structure of the area, and the presence of fields already granted under concession agreements and onerous assignment agreements, this will probably result in the signing of many unitization agreements (UAs) in the next few years. The Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP) is about to regulate 'procedures and guidelines for the unitization agreement negotiation', according to Article 34 of the Pre-salt Law. In compliance with this article, ANP published Resolution No 25 of 2013 on 9 July 2013, which regulates the unitization procedure in Brazil, covering onshore and offshore E&P operations. These rules provided solutions to issues that the revoked Article 27 of Petroleum Law, the various E&P concession agreements and other ANP Resolutions could not solve, although other issues, especially relating to open areas located in the Pre-salt Polygon, remain. The National Energy Policy Council (CNPE) has published Resolution No 8 of 2016, establishing unitization guidelines for the process of involving open areas. CNPE has also launched Resolution No 7 of 2017, which provides guidelines on local content in unitization areas. Following the new CNPE policies, ANP amended its Resolution No 25 of 2013, through Resolution No 698 of 2017. This article gives a brief update of the Brazilian regulatory framework for E&P activities and discusses the unitization process, highlighting the main changes and observing what will be important to consider in all the forthcoming unitization activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay's objective is limited. It examines basic provisions of production sharing contracts (PSCs) between international oil companies (IOCs) and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq (KRG) with an eye to whether language appears that could affect IOC claims prosecution in European or other fora where KRG-sourced oil or gas are then held. Three sets of provisions, in particular, are examined. While all are replicated in the actual PSC's struck between the KRG with its IOC partners, the first to be scrutinized is that contained in Article 20 of the KRG's Model PSC, and concerns the Kurds' assertion of title over KRG-sourced oil and gas. The second is the Model's Article 41, paragraphs (a) and (b), which waive immunity from prosecution for actions looking towards determinations of contractual illegality. And the third, Article 41, paragraph (c), provides a similar waiver in connection with remedial, penalty, or procedural actions. The essay concludes with a few brief comments on the relevance of other provisions appearing in the KRG's Oil and Gas Law of 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on topics on environmental law such as first topic discusses lawsuits by state and local governments against petroleum companies, where the 8th Circuit Court found that the companies cannot avoid state law claims related to climate change. Topic covers include the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal for more stringent vehicle emissions standards, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light- and medium-duty vehicles starting from model year 2027.