Petroleum Contracts

Book excerpt: In response to the primacy of English law as the lingua franca governing petroleum transactions, and the increased global demand for new sources of oil and gas, this fully updated new edition analyses the application of English law to contracts for project investment, financing, and development. The book provides practitioners and other parties with essential operational detail, as well as advising on the implications of English law on the interpretation of relevant provisions. The scope extends, unusually, beyond petroleum contracts made in the UK to cover all petroleum contracts worldwide, delivering exceptionally extensive coverage of this ever-growing sector for an international market. This work is a stand-alone practical guide on the application of English law to petroleum contracts, and provides a detailed and scholarly level of analysis, with reference to all relevant contracts and case law. Beginning with an introduction to the English legal system and the law of general contract, the author goes on to distinguish those characteristics that set petroleum contracts apart from others, including distinction between upstream, midstream, and downstream agreements. The contracts considered include those for the financing, management, sale, purchase and exchange of petroleum assets and interests (collectively called interest contracts), and contracts for the management, sale, purchase and exchange of petroleum quantities and petroleum storage, transportation and capacities (collectively called commodity contracts). Subsequent chapters introduce preliminary petroleum contracts and the obligation to negotiate, conditions precedent and subsequent, joint ventures, and the involvement third parties and the implications for privity in this context. Breaches and doctrines triggered by the impossibility of performance are set out in detail, alongside legal advice on damages, termination, liability allocation and equitable remedies. All relevant provisions are analysed in a final chapter of miscellaneous analysis, ensuring a truly comprehensive treatment of the sector. This new edition has been updated with new chapters on contract architecture and related issues and new sections on the Limitation Act and tolling, further assurances, quantum meruit and estoppel. Chapters have been updated in light of key cases on good faith and relational contracts, fiduciary duties and consequential loss recognitions, amongst others. As English law continues to grow in international importance, this is a key text for practitioners in a number of jurisdictions who are looking to draft contracts or handle international transactions under the umbrella of English law.