عباس کاظمی نجف آبادی

Iran's Ministry of Petroleum due to empowerment of Iranian companies for executing local mega projects, regional and international markets penetration and upgrading national technology in petroleum upstream industry, predicted a competent Iranian partner called Exploration and Production (E&P) companies, for cooperating with the International Oil Company (IOC) in Article Four of the Cabinet Approval. Now considering the absence of IOCs, it seems that the capacity of other oil contract models to be used by Iranian oil companies should be examined. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of Concession agreements’ execution, by an E&P company in Iran’s upstream industry. The research method is descriptive and analytical and governing laws of Iran are reviewed in this study. Since the host government makes the final decision on the conduct of oil operations, it cannot be described as domination of oil resources, and therefore does not seriously contradict the Iran’s Constitution. Furthermore, E&P companies will not be subject to Article 81 of the Constitution. In the Oil Laws, the only restriction on the inflow of foreign capital in the upstream industry of Iran has been observed, which again does not apply to E&P companies. In the Laws of the Five-Year Plans, this restriction of oil laws has been adjusted too much in which it seems that the restriction has also been removed for IOCs. Finally, the investigation shows that there are no major legal barriers in applying Concession agreement in case that the operator is an Iranian E&P company.

Various hazards exist in the upstream oil and gas industry. Therefore, the contracting parties of any petroleum contract always try to reduce the inevitable economic burdens of occurring adverse events arising out of risks in the course of petroleum operation by applying legal approaches such as contractual risk allocation provisions, which can be realized by drafting efficient insurance and indemnity clauses as the subset of risk allocation provisions. Hence, this study addressed the main research question of “What are the necessary parameters for drafting the insurance and indemnity clauses in the main types of upstream petroleum contracts?” To achieve this end, the mentioned clauses stipulated in the main types of upstream petroleum contracts, have been examined; including concessions, production sharing, and service contracts of 15 different countries around the world besides the comparative analysis with the new model of Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC). Eventually, the hypothesis of this study stating “There should be several parameters such as liability towards risks, limitation of liability, exclusions/exemptions, etc. for drafting the insurance and indemnity clauses in these contracts” verified. That is the result and the answer to the research question. Moreover, the comparative analysis of the extracted set of parameters needed to draft these clauses legally, with the related ones in IPC has been done. Therefore, it led to the detection of the existing contractual shortcomings. Thereafter, the necessary suggestions to resolve them are offered, which can enhance the effectiveness of the upstream petroleum contracts and avoids potential litigation in this regard.