Description

Designed for you, if you are...

• An upstream E&P professional
• Involved in commercial contracts
• Involved in field development
• Legal personnel
• A project manager
• Involved with decommissioning

How we build your confidence

• Open dialogue
• Problem solving
• Case studies
• Exercises

The benefits from attending

• Understand what is meant by unitisation
• Be familiar with instruments such as the ‘Joint Operating Agreement’
• Be able to understand common problems with decision-making processes relevant to unitisation
• Have knowledge of ‘tract participation’ and how this is a central issue
• Be aware of the mechanics of ‘cross-border’ unitisations
• Discern the importance of establishing clarity in pre-investment issues prior to the unitisation
• Understand what a redetermination is, and why it is very important
• Consider the decommissioning and environmental aspects associated with unitisations
• Be familiar with important legal/regulatory issues such as local content policies and what impact these have on commercial contracts
• Be able to reconcile CSR issues with unitisation and grasp the importance of dispute resolution contractual provisions and mechanisms

Topics

• What is unitisation?
• Case study: The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
• The ‘Rule of Capture’ explained
• Case study: Barnard v Monongahela Natural Gas Company
• Why utilise this mechanism?
  – Efficiency of costs and the removal of duplication
  – A coherent field development strategy
  – Sharing of infrastructure development costs
  – Operational efficiency
  – Economies of scale and scope
  – Environmental issues
• The relationship between JVs; production sharing contracts and unitisation agreements
• ‘Common reservoirs’
• The migratory nature of oil and gas reservoirs
• Unitisation ‘triggers’
• The issue of ‘trans-border’ and ‘ownership’ boundaries

• The pre-unitisation agreement
• The unitisation agreement – contents and structure
• The JOA (Joint Operating Agreement) – assignment and novation issues
• Who gets to be the ‘operator’?
• The problems with unitised decision making
• The potential problem of production sales contracts – ‘future unitisations’

• What is meant by ‘tract participation?’
• How do these work?
• Who has got what (amount of reservoir)?
• Proven vs. unproven reservoirs
• Compulsory or voluntary unitisations?
• Factors that lead to cost differentiations
• Infrastructure considerations
• Pre-investment by a party – what is recoverable? How is it recoverable?

• What are JDAs and JDZs?
• JDZs – a precursor to a cross border unitisation?
• The key issue – no precisely universal accepted structure/form
• International maritime and land boundaries
• The powers of a JDA
• Case study: The Nigeria Sao-Tome and Principe joint development zone

• The key differences between sole unitisations and cross border unitisations
• How do we deal with potentially different legal regimes?
• The process of equity determinations
• The development plan and the unit operating agreement
• Case study: The Loran Field

• Reasons for inclusion of a redetermination clause
• Reasons for exclusion of a redetermination clause
• Key features of a redetermination
• Case study: Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
• Case study: The Tortue Field Development

• Why the ‘Rule of Capture’ is not good from an environmental perspective
• Environmental impact assessments (EIAs)
• Seeking to minimise ‘footprint’
• The relationship between the environment and decommissioning
• Case study – The ‘Idle Iron’ legislation (Gulf of Mexico)
• Security for decommissioning
• Case study – The ‘Letter of Credit’ regime (UK)
• Stakeholder analysis – the key to conservation and protection?

• International law – treaties and conventions
• National laws
• Local content issues
• Commercial contracts

• Can unitisation lead to CSR initiatives trans-border?
• The advantages of CSR
• The disadvantages of CSR
• What are organisations doing relative to CSR?

• Dealing with default of a party
• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Key inclusions in a dispute resolution clause
• The arbitral clause
• The ‘Doctrine of Separability’