From the oil shocks of the 1970s to the 2008 global financial crisis and the disruption that followed the shale revolution, the global energy sector has weathered many crisis events. Each has left its mark, yet few have had more impact than the European energy crisis of 2022–2024. Never before had legal remedies been tested under such sustained volatility and geopolitical disruption, with international arbitration providing the primary forum in which such disputes were contested. Long-term contracts were upended, governments intervened and an unprecedented wave of disputes followed – price reviews, force majeure and hardship claims, delivery defaults, regulatory measures and contract terminations – requiring the application of legal and valuation frameworks in markets that had ceased to function normally.
The disruption is not over. Just as markets were beginning to stabilise, the Strait of Hormuz crisis renewed concerns over security of supply, price volatility and the reliability of long-term contracts. With a substantial share of the world's LNG and crude passing through the Strait, continued threats to disrupt it have revived the same legal and contractual questions that defined the European energy crisis.
With these issues very much live, there has never been a greater need for a comprehensive, practice-oriented volume drawing together lessons learned from crises and their implications for present and future disputes. While articles and reports have addressed various aspects of these developments, none has yet brought together:
This book consolidates those insights into an authoritative and commercially relevant work, making it an invaluable guide for practitioners, arbitrators, in-house counsel, experts and anyone interested in the field.
