Contracts for Oil and Gas Fields Development; a Jurisprudential Examination and Analysis

Oil and gas are now considered to be two of the most important energy resources. These resources are located in reservoirs and underground layers. Therefore, the only way to achieve oil and gas resources is to explore and extract the oil fields. The oil industry in Iran and the whole world has experienced three types of contracts in the exploration and development of oil fields: concession, production sharing and services contracts. The use of these contracts to develop oil and gas reservoirs will not be possible without jurisprudential examination of them and their being authorized in the viewpoint of Islamic law. There are two theories in relation with theses contracts’ being authorized: first, the theory that recognizes only certain contracts, and second, the one that confirms the validity of indefinite contracts provided that some general principles be observed. In this study, we have examined whether the contracts are consistent with Islamic certain contracts. Also, according to the lack of complete consistency and the novelty of upstream contracts, general principles of contracts validity have been investigated. As a result, according to the presented jurisprudential arguments, one can generally confirm the validity of these contracts within the framework of indefinite contracts, unless in some cases these contracts violate the principles of contracts validity.