International Legal Aspects of Iraqs Oil and Gas Sustainable Development - Dissertation Example

Download file to see previous pages This chapter will also look into how political factors, both external and internal, tend to affect petroleum agreements, especially, in the context of the friction between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the federal Iraqi government. This chapter will then explore the environmental clauses of Iraqi petroleum agreements and ascertain their bearing on community development and economic development targets. Lastly, the chapter will look into the various legal challenges that sustainable development of oil and gas resources faces in Iraq at the present.

Evolution of International Petroleum Agreements
International petroleum agreements (IPA) have evolved over time as the relationship between suppliers and producers has transformed through its highs and lows. In the modern-day, IPAs are well-established tools of business and a narrow range of IPAs tends to provide for most business arrangements between petroleum producers and suppliers. The various legal arrangements utilized under international law and IPA to benefit the petroleum producer and supplier are being discussed in order to evaluate what kinds of legal arrangements are more sustainable than others. This will further be applied in Iraq’s case to decipher how Saddam-era petroleum agreements tend to differ from modern oil and gas contracts, especially with reference to sustainability and sustainable development for the people of Iraq.

Concession Agreements
Since most nation-states tend to assume control of any mineral resources discovered in their territory, it is a direct consequence that they tend to represent any such interests under international law. The discovery of oil over the globe in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century saw a number of nation-states trying to conjure legal arrangements to allow for petroleum extraction. In the initial period of such exploration and exploitation, the oil companies used simple legal arrangements in order to extract a larger share of profit. The legal arrangements were simple and depended on concession-based agreements between individuals and oil corporations. However, as nation-states took onto petroleum agreements, especially in the Middle East and Latin America, legal arrangements diversified from the initial legal frameworks in use. Concession agreements allow the investors to own the entirety of the produced mineral item. This is particularly helpful to oil prospectors since they are allowed possession of any oil and gas present in a field with concession agreements.

Profit-Sharing
The fifties saw a drive for profit-sharing principles between the host country (HC) and the international oil company (IOC) involved. ...Download file to see next pages Read More