Subjects:

Energy & Natural Resources Law

Contents:

1 Introduction and Context

Greg Gordon and John Paterson

2 Current Economic Issues in the Maturing UKCS

Alexander Kemp

Licensing and Regulation

3 Petroleum Licensing

Greg Gordon

4 Mature Province Initiatives

Greg Gordon and John Paterson

5 Access to Infrastructure

Uisdean Vass

6 Health and Safety at Work Offshore

John Paterson

7 Decommissioning of Offshore Installations

John Paterson

8 Public Procurement Rules in the Upstream Oil and Gas Business

Judith Aldersey-Williams

9 Competition Law and the Upstream Oil and Gas Business

Judith Aldersey-Williams

10 Selected Employment Law Issues in the Oil and Gas Industry

Sarah Arnell

Contracting and Commercial Issues

11 Joint Operating Agreements

Scott Styles

12 Unitisation

Nicola Macleod

13 Risk Allocation

Greg Gordon

14 Acquisitions and Disposals of Upstream Oil and Gas Interests

Norman Wisely

15 Aspects of Land Law Relative to the Transportation of Oil and Gas in Scotland

Roderick Paisley

16 Dispute Management and Resolution

Margaret Ross

Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends is a concise and readable account of oil and gas law, not only as it stands but as it is likely to evolve in the context of the United Kingdom Continental Shelf as a maturing province. Tables and an Index are included.

The United Kingdom Continental Shelf is now routinely described as mature. It is no longer a new frontier of oil and gas exploration, with the steep climb up the production profile ahead of it and the principal question being how high that profile will rise. Rather, it is an established hydrocarbon province on the downward slope of the production profile, with the main question being how steep that decline will be.

Insofar as this is the case, a new book on the subject of the law affecting oil and gas operations on the UKCS may appear to be rather late in joining the game. On the contrary, however, it is the very fact that the UKCS is now a mature province that provides the rationale for this book: maturity brings with it new problems and challenges and can present existing problems and challenges in a new light.

But maturity also has a much more positive aspect: the accumulation of years also means the accumulation of experience. Industry and government (and their respective lawyers) have earned a great deal in the 40 or so years of hydrocarbon operations on the UKCS. Mistakes have been made along the way and lessons have sometimes been learned the hard way. But the legal and regulatory framework that is now in place on the UKCS can justifiably claim to be one of the most advanced anywhere in the world.

This book brings together academic and practising lawyers, all based in Aberdeen, Europe’s Energy Capital, to consider the key regulatory and contractual dimensions of the mature hydrocarbon province.