نشریه مطالعات حقوق انرژی
سال هفتم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1400)

According to the legislator, the compensation of oil companies for service contracts (Buyback and IPCs) will be conditioned to gain commercial production of the field and the place of sale of the same products or proceeds. In this regard, long-term contracts for the sale of oil shall be concluded as an attachment of upstream contract and for reimbursement of costs and Contractor fees. The implementation of these contracts over time, changing conditions in the domestic and global markets, the importance of oil in energy supplying, and its political and economic impact on the region and the world, have made these contracts subject to change . Because of importance of the subject, after determining the nature of long-term oil sale contracts, attachment, it will be the subject of this research to examine the authority of the government to change them and the effects and consequences of this change. Finally, an appropriate solution is offered to safeguard the rights of the foreign investor so that his legitimate rights and expectations are safeguarded and upheld, while respecting the government's extra-contractual rights and powers.

The oil and gas sector has the potential to have a positive and negative impact on a wide range of areas covered by the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, this potential can make the Gas Exporting Countries Forum an important player in order to participate in achieving the goals of sustainable development. Although the Sustainable Development Goals are at the heart of the Forum's long-term strategic goals, success in this area requires multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approaches, which will highlight the role of others in this area. Aware of its responsibility for sustainable development, GECF has taken a positive approach to the principles of prevention, commitment to cooperation and protection of the environment, and the integration and sustainable use of natural resources and other principles of sustainable development. The organization's focus on climate change is also seen as a key step. Because responding to climate change can help advance other sustainable development goals.

In July 2020, the United States of America sought to disrupt Iran's trade and economic relations with Venezuela by issuing a seizure warrant of Iranian oil tankers, which was moving to Venezuela. The decision was based on claims that there was a link between Iran's energy revenues in the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the affiliation of some oil companies with this organization, which The United States has previously placed this organization on its sanctions list for claiming to be a terrorist. Due to the importance of this issue in the national interests of our country, the legal status of the issuance of a ban on Iranian oil shipments by the United States from the perspective of international law is the main question of this article. The results of the descriptive-analytical studies of the authors confirm that the basis of this action is contrary to the fundamental principles of international law and the seizure of oil cargo and the prohibition of the free navigation of ships are in conflict with the rules of the International law of the sea, the immunity of states and also the rules of human rights.

The emergency which occurs following the imposition of economic sanctions, necessitates the business transactions to be conducted through non-standard and irregular methods. Using front companies, and intermediaries, and non-transparent ways of doing banking payments have become the necessary part of Iran's foreign trade regime following the imposition of economic sanctions. Disputes raised before Iranian courts in relation to sale of Iranian crude oil through these unusual means proves the specific features of oil transactions which using these irregular methods of foreign trade may not corresponds to these specific features, This Article studies the different types of new commercial disputes which are created due to imposition of economic sanctions on sale of oil and oil products and proposes contractual solutions to mitigate the likelihood of these disputes.

Choosing the proper method for resolving disputes in the oil and gas industry is important and among these various methods, However, it is less acceptable to refer to an expert-determination than other dispute resolution methods, but because of the technical nature of issues, the speed and accuracy of experts in decision making, referring disputes to expert-determination is of particular priority and importance. And in some cases, such as estimating the volume of reserves, the financial value of the benefits of participating and reviewing the base price of gas sales contracts, It is the best possible solution for resolving disputes. For this reason, identifying common expert characteristics in the legal doctrine and documents of international organizations and also examining the special advantages of this method in contracts concluded in oil and gas industry can help its development in this contractual system. The most important challenge of using this method is how to implement them in the courts of justice. In this article, by analyzing the legal bases related to the principle of free will and validity of regulatory documents outside Iran, an attempt has been made to provide a solution for the implementation of expert-determination in Iranian legal and judicial system.

Submarine communication cables are located under the legal system of the UNCLOS. The coastal state or other states have special rights and interests in connection with submarine communication cables in different maritime areas. In this regard, it is important to examine the legal aspects of the theory of the confrontation between the application of the sovereign rights of the coastal state and the rights of the state seeking the submarine communication cable, which is one of the aims and topics of this article. The research method is descriptive-analytical and relies on the requirements of the Convention on the Law of the Sea to answer the question, what are the legal aspects of coastal state intervention in the submarine communication cable of other states in different maritime areas? The research findings show that submarine communication cable of all states in the Exclusive Economic Zone and the Continental Shelf is the concept of freedom of the seas and free from the permission of the Coastal State. The Coastal State has economic interests in these areas, but is not allowed to prevent submarine communication cable from other states. This situation is a manifestation of the rule of law of the Coastal State.

The legal characterisation of cross-border oil and gas pipelines remains controversial. It can be said these pipelines shall be considered as “Permanent Establishments” of the oil and gas companies. These pipelines might also be characterised as immovable properties the income of which shall be subject to the rules governing taxation of immovable properties. Pursuant to another view, it can be claimed that oil and gas pipelines only have a facilitating role as they only transport oil and gas products. Thus, it could be discussed that compared to the main activities of oil and gas companies, this facilitating role is of non-central importance for these companies. The adoption of each approach has different financial implications for the companies. This article seeks to put forward some solutions for reducing the ambiguities surrounding the topic and to resolve the conflicts of laws in respect to the characterisation of cross-border oil and gas pipelines.

Although in the case of disputes, the principle of general jurisdiction of the Courts has been established for the resolution of disputes, the existence of the Contractual Dispute Resolution Regulation makes some ambiguities to identify the competent authority to settle disputes of main and sub-companies of Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, Firstly, does the clause of dispute resolution and the nature of the resolution board in the above mentioned Regulation have the characteristics of the arbitration?Secondly, if the resolution board is an arbitrator, does fulfillment of the Regulation related in the case of disputes on properties belonging to the Ministry of Petroleum companies necessitates compliance with provisions of Constitutional law article 139?This article proves that firstly, substance of the clause of dispute resolution and stated process of resolution in the Regulation do not encompass the arbitration and secondly, if the board is accounted an arbitrator, disputes on properties of state corporations and disputes of which subjects do not directly pertain to state properties, will not be subject to the limitations mentioned in Constitutional law article 139 and civil procedural law article 457.

The end of an oil field does not mean the end of operating costs for the companies involved in the project and One of the most costly stages of any oil project is the decommissioning. This step is basically costly and without economic income for oil companies, considering that it is the last step in implementing an oil project and this has led to oil companies in many cases to default their obligations at this stage. The Joint Operating Agreement is the major legal framework under which oil companies will implement this stage in partnership. Examining the current approaches in the oil industry worldwide and surveying the disadvantages of them and finally providing practical suggestions to prevent breaches of obligations are the topics that will be study in this article. The result is that improving the efficiency and modifying some of the current mechanisms is a more appropriate way other than creating a new approach to this problem.

According to the strong recommendation of the legal department of the National Iranian Oil Company, which indicates that the inclusion of Iranian law as the governing law in gas export contracts is preferable, the usual pricing mechanism in this type of contract and its acceptance is important from the perspective of Iranian law. In gas sales contracts, the transaction is based on a price formula including specific indexes for the contract term, and the calculation of the price will be postponed until delivery. According to the rules accepted in jurisprudence and Iranian civil code, the price should be definite and determinate, otherwise, the contract will be considered void and invalid. The present discussion will try to prove the legal validity of determining the price in the future based on the pre-agreed formula in gas sales contracts by explaining the jurisprudential and legal principles of open price in domestic law. The research findings show that the method of determining the price in gas sales contracts, which is called open price, according to the study, is under the principles of Iranian law and acceptable and does not damage the validity of the contract.

Citizenship is one of the most important concepts that represent the relationship between the individual and society in terms of rights, duties and responsibilities and it determines each person's access to social and economic resources. Energy is also very important in human life today and a direct link to economic security in the context of sustainable development, global environmental security and then on national security. Accordingly, the present study seeks to address the relationship between energy security, national security and civil rights and it has considered the various dimensions of energy security that have affected civil rights on the basis of the rights enshrined in the Charter of Civil Rights and other legal documents. Based on this, we can mention the direct relationship between energy security and civil rights. That is, by securing the next energy from civil rights and then we can talk about citizenship rights and its non-fulfillment will lead to a lack of human security and consequences for national security. The results show that energy insecurity is one of the threats to national security, and looking at from the perspective of civil rights can highlight the commitment of governments to ensure its realization.