The nature and legal dimensions of the assignment of upstream oil contracts with a view to the IPC contract
Subject Areas : International Legal ResearchAhmad Panjeh pour 1 , Mohammad Hossein Zarei 2
1 - PhD student of Public Law of Shahid Beheshti University
2 - Department of Law, Associate Professor of Shahid Beheshti University
Keywords: Oil upstream contract, assignment contract, IPC contract, arbitration clause, oil operation,
Abstract :
One of the important processes in oil upstream contracts is a process called assignment. In general, there are three types of upstream contracts: the first category is risk service contracts, the second category is production participation contracts, and the third category is concession contracts. In addition to this, IPC contracts have been considered as Iran's new oil contracts. Based on this, in this research, we are going to examine what are the legal dimensions of the assignment of upstream oil contracts? And we will examine this by looking at the IPC contracts.Assignment in upstream oil and gas contracts means the selection of the contractor, and the conditions stipulated in these contracts are very important for the parties to the contract, especially the country that owns the reservoir. The approach of the countries to hand over the field to the companies to carry out oil operations is based on the license system, and based on the said license, all the oil produced from the field is considered to belong to the license holder. There are two major approaches in concluding oil contracts and assigning them, which are the direct negotiation approach and the approach of holding tenders/auctions. The principles of the upstream contract assignment can be considered to comply with environmental considerations, maintain the government's sovereignty and ownership of oil resources, and respect the rights and National interests in the course of upstream oil operations.