OGEL (Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence)

Associate Editor:
Zhanibek Saurbek
CEPMLP

Matt Stone
CEPMLP

OGEL 3 (2008) - Eurasian Energy

This issue of OGEL has a special feature on Eurasian Energy prepared looking at developments in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Russia and the Caspian Region as a whole.

This special issue was prepared by Zhanibek Saurbek, a researcher and doctoral candidate at the CEPMLP, and Matt Stone, a post-graduate also at the CEPMLP.

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Associate Editor:
Elisabeth Eljuri
Macleod Dixon

OGEL 2 (2008) - Venezuela: The battle of Contract Sanctity vs. Resource Sovereignty

This OGEL / TDM Special Issue on Venezuela: The battle of Contract Sanctity vs. Resource Sovereignty was prepared by Elisabeth Eljuri, the head of Macleod Dixon's Oil and Gas Department in Caracas, Venezuela. In this Special we have attempted to provide articles on a wide array of topics in the oil and gas as well as the arbitration areas.

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Associate Editor:
Ms. Xin Ma
Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee

OGEL 1 (2008) - China's Energy and Environmental Challenges

This first issue of OGEL in 2008 is a special issue on "China's Energy and Environmental challenges". Edited by Ms. Xin Ma, a petroleum economist and doctoral candidate at CEPMLP, University of Dundee, this special brings together the views of various specialists in order to help "outsiders" develop a better understanding of the Chinese energy and environmental issues.

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Associate Editor:
Dr. Sanam S. Haghighi
ECONGAS

OGEL 4 (2007) - Energy Security

OGEL 4 (2007) includes a special feature edited by Dr. Sanam S. Haghighi on "Energy Security" which intends to open an up-to-date debate about energy security while encompassing the current risks, as well as analyzing what this concept means for various players, and what strategies are or should be undertaken by them. Dr. Haghighi recently published the book "Energy Security - The External Legal Relations of the European Union with Major Oil and Gas Supplying Countries" (Hart Publishing - available at a 20% discount for OGEL readers).

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Associate Editor:
Richard E. Walck
Global Financial Analytics LLC

OGEL 3 (2007) - Energy Litigation and Arbitration - Expert Perspectives

We are pleased that Richard Walck, Global Financial Analytics LLC, prepared this joint OGEL/TDM Special Issue on "Energy Litigation and Arbitration - Expert Perspectives". In this issue, we try to provide some thoughts on the use of experts in arbitration and litigation. While the stated focus in on the energy sector, some of the authors have written for a more general audience. Some articles are written by the experts; others about them.

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Associate Editor:
Dr. Jim Ross
Ross Petroleum Limited

OGEL 2 (2007) - Unisitation

OGEL 2 (2007) has a special feature on international unitisation put together by Dr. Jim Ross, a well known and experienced geologist, with additional legal qualifications and a specialty in unitisation consultancy.

The papers contained in this special issue are subdivided to reflect, first, "sole-country" unitisations and legislation, and, second, papers and agreements related to "cross-border" issues. The latter group of papers includes discussion of the recent development of "framework" unitisation agreements, as well as the agreements covering the Greater Sunrise field, a field that crosses the boundary between a JDZ on one side and, on the other side, an area where Australia has exercised sovereign rights pursuant to an earlier delimitation agreement with Indonesia, but which is now subject to a claim by Timor-Leste. If it is possible to achieve agreement on unitisation in such a difficult and complex situation, anything is possible!

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Associate Editors:
Kim Talus
University of Helsinki

Charles Zimmermann
Nexant Inc

OGEL 1 (2007) - Electricity Interconnectors (2nd special)

Charles Zimmermann (Nexant Inc.) and Kim Talus (University of Helsinki) have prepared another special on Electricity Interconnectors for our OGEL Journal.

An electric interconnector may be defined as a high-voltage overhead line or undersea cable, and related equipment, used to connect the transmission networks of two countries or to connect the networks of two provinces or states that have separate power systems. In many parts of the world, investment in electric interconnectors will be needed over the next twenty years. Without electric interconnectors, electricity trade would not be possible.

While the first special issue (Volume 4, issue #2, August 2006) focused primarily on EU regulation in this area, this second issue has opted for a broader approach.

Although the majority of the articles have an "EU focus," the key policy issues and investment questions are also associated with interconnectors outside the EU. We would welcome future OGEL articles covering interconnectors in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the rest of the world.

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Associate Editors:
Professor Edmilson dos Santos
University of São Paulo


Chris Flynn
Ashurst

Energy Charter Secretariate
www.encharter.org

OGEL 4 (2006) - Special feature on Pipelines

This issue of OGEL has a special feature on pipelines prepared with the help from Professor Edmilson dos Santos (University of São Paulo), Chris Flynn (Ashurst), Dr. Andrei Konoplyanik and his team from the Energy Charter Secretariate, contributions from Global Pipeline Monthly editor John Tiratsoo and a selection of project analyses focusing on pipeline projects from the A&A Energy Security Briefing newsletter.

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Associate Editor:
B.O.N Nwete
Schlumberger Oilfield UK Plc

OGEL 3 (2006) - Special feature on Africa

OGELs' Africa Editor Bede Nwete has prepared this special feature on Africa with a collection of articles on the oil, gas and mineral industry in Africa dealing with such issues as; the role of the African Petroleum Producers' Association, the promotion of petroleum expertise in the continent, and issues of energy financing in Africa. A host of other issues rest on Algeria's new hydrocarbon laws, and the OHADA (Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Laws in Africa), including ways and manners of dealing with community issues in petroleum and mineral development in the continent.

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Associate Editors:
Kim Talus
University of Helsinki

Charles Zimmermann
Nexant Inc

OGEL 2 (2006) - Electricity Interconnectors

Electricity Interconnectors present serious challenges for both the Community legislator and the enforcer: attracting investment, freeing interconnectors from various encumbrances, securing the supply of energy and creating opportunities for market based competition.

This special issue will also approach these questions from a wider setting and discuss issues such as international energy trade and access to networks or disputes arising from the operation of interconnectors.

Similar issues will no doubt be discussed in the thirteenth meeting of the European Electricity Regulatory Forum in Florence on September 7 and 8, 2006. This special issue of OGEL will serve those who wish to get a complete picture of various issues relating to interconnectors. It will also provide for alternative ways of looking at the problem areas Europe is presently facing.

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Associate Editors:
Philip R. Weems
Stéphane D. Gauducheau

King & Spalding LLP

OGEL 1 (2006) - Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

In this issue we have a special feature on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The articles in the special come from authors around the world and relate to import and export terminal projects, shipping and trade issues.

The last 10 years interest in LNG has been growing. For gas exporting nations, LNG is a mean to monetise gas reserves otherwise difficult to access. For European nations and the United States LNG helps to satisfy an ever increasing gas demand.

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Associate Editor:
Professor Maniruzzaman
University of Portsmouth

OGEL 4 (2005) - Asian Energy Law and Policy

We are very pleased that, together with Professor Maniruzzaman from the University of Portsmouth, we have been able to publish the first in a series of Special Features on Asian Energy Law and Policy.

Recent developments in Asia makes it more important than ever before to study energy law and policy in this region of the world.

This is the first issue of the series, and we are hoping to bring out more issues during the year. Contributions for future issues are most welcome, please contact to submit your papers or make suggestions.

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Associate Editor:
Veronica Brieno Rankin

GeoSeq International LLC

OGEL 3 (2005) - Special Feature on COAL

This OGEL issue follows up on earlier special issues with extended reporting on production-sharing contract and windpower issues. In addition, we are very pleased that we have been able, with our special issue editor, Veronica Brieno Rankin, to put together a special issue on coal.

Coal used to be a "legacy" energy resource; but with the much increased prices for oil and gas, coal has won in attractiveness. That attractiveness is reinforced by two further factors: First, the climate change risks associated with goal are likely to be reduced as new technologies are developed that manage CO₂ emissions better; Second, the continued reluctance in particular in EU countries to expand nuclear plants (involving a difficult trade-off between superior climate-change performance and a still unresolved waste decommissioning challenge) means in effect that coal, in particular "clean-coal" may experience a significant come-back.

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Associate Editor:
Carol Smoots
Perkins Coie LLP

OGEL (2005) - Windpower

In this OGEL issue we focuses on Windpower. Thanks to our contributors and to Carol Smoots of Perkins Coie LLP in Washington, this special issue illustrates both development in windpower, and regulatory, financing, investment and commercial challenges.

Windpower is not the only alternative to oil & gas, but it could well be one essential part in a mix of measures which include energy efficiency, windpower and other renewables, expansion of nuclear and new technologies (carbon sequestration). A future special issue will focus on coal.

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Associate Editor(s):
Philip R. Weems
King & Spalding LLP


Scott C. Craig
King & Spalding LLP

OGEL 1 (2005) - Production Sharing Contracts

This first OGEL issue in 2005 focuses on production-sharing contracts. Production-sharing contracts now dominate the world of upstream exploration and development for oil and gas, with some exceptions in Europe (where concession-licenses prevail), in the US and in some Latin American countries which have during their privatisation period in the 1990s re-introduced mineral concessions on the Chilean model (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru in particular). Production-sharing contracts are also used, though sparingly and with limitations, in Russia.

The production-sharing contract originated in the 1960s in Indonesia, conceptually and culturally derived from the share-cropping model then familiar to Indonesians (and indeed much of the agricultural world where agricultural leases have traditionally often been based on simple production-sharing). It offered a new model to reject the "mineral concession" then seen as colonialist (though in itself it is nothing but a particular form of a legal title to exploration and subsequent development in case of a commercial discovery); it was made attractive to the then (and now) nationalistic sentiments in producing countries as it did (or seemed to give) the symbolic functions of ownership and control of the resource, both underground and after extraction, to the state enterprise (in Russia the state) as the agent of the nation. It also provided the state with oil in kind to supply domestic needs. To the international oil companies, it was first seen as revolutionary and widely resented.

This special issue was prepared by Philip R. Weems and Scott C. Craig of King & Spalding in Houston.

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OGEL 5 (2004) - Energy Charter Treaty

The Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence (OGEL) publishers are delighted and most honoured with this special feature to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Energy Charter Treaty.

This issue was prepared by the ECT staff and we would like to thank them for taking on the responsibility for editing this special issue.

The issue concludes with a list of previously published articles on the ECT and articles written by ECT staff.

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Associate Editor:
Christine Batruch
Lundin Petroleum AB

Associate Editor:
Ms Ayesha Dias
UNDP and CEPMLP

OGEL 4 (2004) - Corporate Social Responsibility

OGEL 4 (2004) has a comprehensive special issue on "soft" regulation of oil, gas and energy activities focusing on corporate social responsibility, codes, guidelines, standards and authoritative and influential soft-law rules. Lawyers and regulators in the field have to know the applicable law; but moreover, they now have to be familiar with the emerging, and sometimes difficult to identify, soft-law rules emerging from international organisations, professional associations, "civil society", industry self-regulation and other relevant sources of authority.

These have sometimes a direct legal effect - if incorporated or referred to in "hard" legal instruments such as laws, regulations, treaties and contracts. They also can have an indirect legal effect - such as when they define standards of liability or help to interpret open-ended formulations in international treaties, contracts of regulation. Lastly, they also define the expectations against which companies are measured - expectations that play a role in negotiations with governments, local communities, financing institutions, NGOs or that define the ambiguous concept of the "social license to operate".

This special issue was prepared by Christine Batruch, Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Lundin Petroleum AB and Ayesha Dias, Consultant on Human Rights and Access to Justice (Bureau of Development Policy, UNDP, New York) and Course Director on Human Rights and Natural Resources Industry (CEPMLP), University of Dundee.

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Associate Editor(s):
Professor Angel de la Vega Navarro
National Autonomous University of Mexico

Dr Helder Queiroz Pinto Jr
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Dr. Dominique FINON
CNRS Senior Fellow, France
CIRED, EHESS (Paris) and IEPE (Grenoble University).

OGEL 3 (2004) - Energy, institutional reforms and development in Latin America.

In November 2003 specialists from different disciplines met in Mexico City to debate issues related to energy reforms at an international conference sponsored jointly by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the University of Grenoble and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The conference objective was to debate reforms in the electricity, oil and gas industries from a historical and institutional perspective. Multiple factors have changed the organisation of the energy industries, but not always in the ways foreseen or anticipated. The conference did not consider privatisation and foreign-investor participation as the only alternative to State monopoly in its evaluation of the inadequacies and defects of industrial organisation. Nor did it advocate a return to the integrated public monopoly, considered as a viable solution.

This special feature was edited by Professor Angel de la Vega Navarro (National Autonomous University of Mexico), together with Dr Helder Queiroz Pinto Jr (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and Dominique Finon (Senior Research Fellow in Economics of the French National Center of Scientific Research). Speakers at the conference came from Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Algeria and Mexico.

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Editor in Chief:
T.W. Wälde

OGEL 3 (2004) - Taxation

Taxation of oil, gas and energy has become a very specialised business, with expertise shared between accountants, lawyers and economists in particular. There are international constraints on taxation (WTO - to prevent protectionist preferences; investment treaties - to prevent expropriatory taxation and discrimination; double taxation treaties). There are now a good number of on-going large and complex international arbitrations, most of which deal with very difficult tax questions, usually where the unequal national taxation power gets into conflict with the equal-level contract. The recent Occidental-Ecuador award, for example, had to deal with the question if an exploration and production oil and gas agreement did provide, implicitly or explicitly, with refund of VAT; other ongoing disputes deal with the accounting rules in production-sharing and joint operating agreements, the impact of national tax law on such contracts and their always complex interaction.

The tax treatment of decommissioning of oil and gas facilities (with the costs arising when there is no longer serious income to offset against) is another issue that awaits adjudication and more in-depth professional examination which, at present, is virtually absent. Tax credit issues, eg the decisions of US tax courts in favour of a tax credit for Norwegian and UK additional petroleum income taxes, are only intelligible for the chosen few.

With this special issue, we introduce a discussion of tax measures, both economic, legal and from the accountancy perspective. We would be pleased to receive future contributions on these questions.

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Associate Editor:
Dr. Alexandra Wawryk
University of Adelaide

OGEL 2 (2004) - Renewable Energy

In this issue OGEL publishes an extensive special feature on renewable energy edited by Dr. Alexandra Wawryk, Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Adelaide in Australia. Dr. Wawryk recently obtained the prestigious Willoughby Prize for an excellent article on environmental standards in the international oil and gas industry in the IBA's Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law (2002, Vol 20, No 4). This special OGEL feature shows Dr Wawryk's great dedication and ability to deliver on the related issue of renewable energy.

This section on renewable energy has been prompted by the forthcoming Bonn Conference (www.renewables2004.de) and my own involvement, as adviser and co-author of the primarily IUCN-sponsored input paper on international arrangements.

Renewable energy is a current policy priority in many countries, in particular in the EU. It is related to climate change policies (see the special OGEL feature edited by Christian Egenhofer in OGEL 1 (2004)), but also to the massive and ever-increasing dependence of the world's major economies (US, EU, Japan, China and India) on oil and gas supplies from the politically-as-ever volatile and explosive Middle East. We do not know if oil and gas resources are on their way to depletion or not (the OGEL context chapter continues the discussion), but we certainly know that getting most of the oil from the Middle East is a high-risk factor, both for the security of supply and the impact of the oil price on the global economy.

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Associate Editors:
Christian Egenhofer
CEPS

Louise van Schaik
CEPS

OGEL 1 (2004) - Climate Change

The climate change policies now instituted in pursuit of the Kyoto protocol (mainly in the EU, so far) challenge the primacy of oil and gas. While this is not an issue for the consumers, it is the strategic issue for the main producing countries - and oil and gas producing companies. These are all at present starting to examine the implications of the Kyoto protocol, its demise, modification or expansion as the case may be, of the negotiated accession of Saudi Arabia and Russia to the WTO and of other climate-change related initiatives such as the Bonn 2004 Conference on Promotion of Renewable Energy. This special feature is put together as Guest Editor by Christian Egenhofer (supported by his team), coordinator of the European climate change network, fellow at the influential Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels and a climate change policy adviser to many governments and international agencies.

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Associate Editor:
Richard Shoylekov
Wolseley plc

OGEL 5 (2003) - Corruption

Richard Shoylekov, at the time of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, now with Wolseley plc, and former General Counsel of AGIP and later the Corus Group, has put together a very interesting and up-to-date Special Section on the Implications of Bribery in the international energy industries.

Bribery is a constant challenge for energy companies: the grant of upstream acreage by license / contract can be of great value and is therefore a natural opportunity for bribery; subcontracting - in particular in case of an obligation to provide domestic procurement in producing countries with a low governance level - is another natural entry for bribery practices. Few established oil companies would ever wish to be involved in bribery; circumstances and competition, however, can act as a driver pushing project managers keen to show a result into actions not condoned by policies designed at corporate headquarters.

The implementation, in national law, of the OECD convention against bribery attempts to create - slowly - a more level playing field and a more united front of companies, but it also pits corporate headquarters - under pressure from national law and their own reputations - against project teams required to show tangible success. Under the pressure of such legal and reputational concerns, there is a logical strategy to out-contract the legally and reputationally risky 'dirty business' to external consultants engaged in 'government relations', lobbying and to partners and farm-out sellers of acreage not subject to the same constraints. The articles, comments, guidelines and related materials should help to better understand the issue and design and apply practical anti-corruption policies within the global organisational network of multinational companies.

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Associate Editor:
Professor Luciani
The Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies, European University Institute

OGEL 5 (2003) - Geopolitics of Oil and Gas

Professor Giacomo Luciani, formerly a senior corporate strategist for ENI and now professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, organised in 2003 a conference, together with the Aspen Institute, on the geopolitics of energy. The geopolitical context of oil and gas development in particular serves as the foundation for several legal challenges at present - eg the evolution of regulatory, project finance and contractual practices in the budding natural gas sector, the entry into Saudi Arabia (gas), Kuwait (oil) and perhaps at some point Iraq. Professor Luciani has prepared a special section of OGEL on the geopolitical context of oil and gas law.

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Associate Editors:
Paul Griffin
Herbert Smith

Peter Storm
International Gas Union

OGEL 4 (2003) - Natural Gas

OGEL 4 includes a special section on natural gas, greatly helped by Associate Editors Paul Griffin of Herbert Smith and Peter Storm of DONG / IGU (International Gas Union).

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Editor in Chief:
T.W. Wälde

OGEL 3 (2003) - Energy and Electricity Regulation

A special feature of OGEL 3 is an extensive collection of articles, comments, notes, news and primary legal and official documents in the area of electricity regulation. Electricity used to be a mainly domestic, state-owned and monopolistic industry. But that has changed. Privatisation, de-regulation and competitive markets are emerging almost everywhere, although not without pain. My own advisory team has been heavily involved, not only in legislative reform, but also in several large-scale, complex, cross-border contract and investment disputes, all under the shadow of, sometimes, three moving and disjointed regulatory regimes. Some of the insights gained are reflected in pertinent comments, including from our partners in major law firms.

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Editor in Chief:
T.W. Wälde

OGEL 2 (2003) - Unique feature on Dispute Management in the Oil, Gas and Energy Industries

OGEL 2 contains what in essence is probably the most exhaustive and extensive collection of in-depth analyses, incisive comments, relevant current news, but also primary documents (institutional rules and guidelines; manuals; awards) on the management of disputes in the oil, gas and energy industries.

The special feature quite consciously uses the term 'dispute management' - and not arbitration or dispute resolution in the conventional terms. While we bring a wealth of intelligence on arbitration, this is contrasted with new forms of dispute management, in particular mediation.

My lead comment highlights the management perspective - rather than a more formal, black-letter only discussion of rules and procedures. It is followed by a lively, orchestrated discussion by noted practitioners on the pros and cons - I have rejected only comments that contain the text: 'As Professor Wälde so aptly puts it'.

If this were printed in full, it would be the equivalent of one or several large books. The strategy of OGEL is not just to publish papers, but to show the various facets of a rule, a procedure, an institution and the various experiences and views that professionals in the international oil, gas and energy industries are developing.

Note: As of April 2004 we also launched a new website and Journal on dispute management & mediation: Check www.transnational-dispute-management.com for more information. This new 'TDM' service will include previous, current and future content from the OGEL section on 'disputes', but it is intended to develop a separate identity over time, with a special associate editors' team and focus on the management of transnational disputes be they commercial, inter-state or state-investor in the global economy.

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