ADVISOR - AIPN

ADVISOR 

Full Steam Ahead: Preparing for 

AIPN Major Conferences 

As I write this message in mid 

September, I want to welcome everyone 

back from their summer holidays (apologies 

to my Southern Hemisphere friends). I hope 

that you all had an opportunity to take some 

time off and relax and recharge. For me, the 

summer went by way too fast. I worked for 

most of it, but was able to get away to the 

beach in Maine for a while. That was 

enjoyable, but it wasn’t quite as relaxing as 

in years past. The weather was great, the 

island was tranquil, the ocean was 

reassuringly cold, the beach was not 

crowded and the lobsters were delicious – 

all as usual. But I found that it was simply 

not possible to disconnect from work for 

more than one full day. The emails and 

phone calls were relentless and they refused 

to be ignored! So, as a result, I had a series 

of half day holidays. Enjoyable to be sure, 

but not quite the same as it used to be. I can 

remember not that long ago traveling to 

Vietnam or Cambodia and not 

communicating with the office for a week or 

SEPTEMBER 2012 

more without any stress at all. I guess this is 

the price of progress! 

MILESTONES 

In this quarter’s message I would like to 

acknowledge and celebrate some important 

AIPN milestones. 

Corporate Sponsorship 

Thanks to the hard work of our 

Corporate Sponsorship committee, led by 

Richard Aguirre (ExxonMobil), and the 

generosity of our member companies, we 

have exceeded our annual corporate 

sponsorship target. Corporate sponsorships 

are critical to the success of AIPN. With the 

help of our sponsors, we are able to keep 

the annual dues affordable while continuing 

to expand the services offered globally to 

our membership. A notice was sent out 

recently thanking our sponsors, but I also 

want to add my personal gratitude to all our 

Your quarterly newsletter, keeping you apprised of 

AIPN initiatives, upcoming events and emerging 

trends affecting energy industry negotiations. 

ASSOCIATION OF 

INTERNATIONAL 

PETROLEUM 

NEGOTIATORS 

www.aipn.org 

pg2 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 

pg3 CORPORATE SPONSORS 

pg4 WHAT’S HAPPENING REGIONALLY 

pg6 AIPN CHAPTER CONFERENCES 

pg7 ENDORSED EVENTS 

pg8 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 

pg10 2012 MAIN AIPN EVENTS 

pg14 MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS 

pg15 MEMBERS ON THE MOVE 

pg20 SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS 

pg22 EAB INTERVIEW: MARILDA ROSADO 

pg23 CHINA BID ROUND FOR SHALE GAS 

pg24 MOVING TOWARDS AN AFRICAN 

LEX PETROLEA 

pg26 EASED SANCTIONS WIDEN DOORWAY TO 

MYANMAR OIL AND GAS SECTOR 

pg30 JWELB ABSTRACTS 

pg31 ABBREVIATED BOOK REVIEW

sponsors for their continued support of 

AIPN. 

Student Scholarships 

This year the Scholarship Committee, 

led by Eric Fry (Anadarko) and Karen Krug 

(SNR Denton) recommended, and the 

Board approved, a record number of 

student scholarships. A total of 14 

scholarships were awarded to deserving 

students from 8 different schools. 

Education is one of the founding principles 

of AIPN and I am extremely pleased to see 

AIPN support the education of our student 

members. After notifying the recipients of 

these awards, the committee received a 

number of touching thank you notes that 

made the awards all the more gratifying. 

Membership 

This month the AIPN reached a historic 

membership milestone when we exceeded 

4100 members for the first time. Under the 

Thank you for your membership to AIPN. As an AIPN member you 

represent an elite group of professionals dedicated to career 

growth and development and are an important part of AIPN’s 

overall mission and success. Over the past year, you have helped 

to shape these milestones: 

expanded student outreach. Yet again we surpassed last year’s 

record with a total of 14 students receiving the AIPN Scholarship. 

And in 2012, another student club was formed at Southern 

Methodist University. 

AIPN expands its reach with events in new cities. Events were 

held in new cities: Vienna and Lima. A conference will also be held 

in Belgrade this October. 

Seminar Series on Model Contracts continues to grow. Last year’s 

first in the series have sparked four more to take place in 2012. 

Bridging the gap between NOCs and IOCs. 2012 was marked by 

continued efforts to bring together NOCs and IOCs . There has 

been a 32% increase this past year of NOC applicants. Registration 

is now open for the highly anticipated 2012 NOC/Government 

Entity Conference to be held in December in London. 

Membership reaches record number. In 2012, AIPN membership 

SEPTEMBER 2012 • 2 

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 

guidance of the Membership Committee 

currently led by Kimberly Reeder (BP), our 

membership has grown by approximately 

60% over the past three years. The 

distribution of members has been 

changing as well. Although the US and 

Europe/Africa regions still represent about 

60% of our membership, Asia and Australia 

Pacific have grown to now make up over 

20% of membership. Recently, we have 

been focusing great attention toward 

growing our NOC membership, and these 

efforts are beginning to pay off with NOCs 

now representing over 6% of our roles. The 

impressive membership growth is a 

testament to the relevance and wide 

appeal of AIPN’s services and programs. 

NOC CONfereNCe 

By the time this message is published 

we will be well into the planning for AIPN’s 

inaugural NOC Conference to be held in 

London December 4 - 6. The conference 

chair, Chris Moyes (Moyes & Co.), along 

with his committee have put together an 

excellent program consisting of three days 

of interactive workshops and breakout 

groups with experienced faculty. These 

sessions are designed to help attendees to 

develop practical skills and knowledge 

around Host Government Instruments, 

Upstream Model Contracts and Oil & Gas 

Dispute Resolution for application to their 

day-to-day work. The conference has been 

well received so far, but it’s important that 

we continue to spread the word and recruit 

NOC attendees. Complete information can 

be found on the AIPN website, so please 

use it to promote the conference and 

encourage your NOC contacts to 

participate. We are hoping the NOC 

Conference can become another annual 

AIPN event, so initial 

success is critical. Your 

support towards making 

this happen will be greatly 

appreciated. 

William Lafferrandre 

AIPN President 

We Hope You Will Stay For a While 

See what you have helped to accomplish 

rose to more than 4,100 members in some 100 countries. 

Increased number of regional conferences. Since its inception, 

2012 will mark the most number of regional conferences held 

within one year. Cities include Vienna, Belgrade and Bogota. 

Two model contracts published. The highly anticipated revised 

Joint Operating Agreement was published this year, as well as the 

LNG Master Sale and Purchase Agreement. 

We hope you continue to rely on AIPN for your educational and 

networking needs to keep you one step ahead in your career. Stay 

connected by renewing your membership today. 

Active membership: $150 and Student membership: $25 

To pay with credit card, please login to www.aipn.org and select 

"Pay Your Dues Online" from your Member Dashboard. 

For membership questions, please contact Chelsea Ordonez, Event 

& Membership Coordinator, at +1 281-558-7715 ext. 100 or at 

membership@aipn.org. A $25 late payment fee will be applied to 

all dues received after January 31, 2013. 

Don't forget to select the Journal of World Energy Law & Business 

Print Subscription!

CORPORATE SPONSORS 

Moyes & Co. 

P A T R O N L E V E L 

B E N E F A C T O R L E V E L 

Apache Corporation • Baker & McKenzie • Covington & Burling • Fraser Milner Casgrain 

Herbert Smith Freehills • Hess • Hogan Lovells • Nexen Inc. • Noble Energy Inc. • Thompson & Knight LLP 

Van Dyke Energy Company • Veirano Advogados • Vinson & Elkins LLP 

S P O N S O R L E V E L 

Aelex • Alliani & Bruzzon • Barnes & Cascio LLP • Barrows Company • Eni US Operating Co. Inc. • EOG Resources 

Hunt Oil Company • Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. e Quiroga Advogados • Petrotrin 

Scotia Waterous • Wood Mackenzie Ltd. 

Contact aipn@aipn.org for sponsor opportunities 

SEPTEMBER 2012 • 3


WHAT’S HAPPENING REGIONALLY 

United States: Scott Barber 

UPCOMING EVENT 

US Chapter Luncheon 

“A Perspectve on IOC/Host Country Relatonship” 

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 17, 2012 

Houston Club | 811 Rusk | Houston, Texas 77002 

George Kahale III, Chairman, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & 

Mosle LLP 

George Kahale III will share his views on the contentious issue 

of upstream government petroleum contract renegotiations and 

the relationship between International Oil Companies and Host 

Countries. 

Kahale is a renowned practitioner who has been the chairman 

of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP since 2008, after 

serving 15 years as the firm's Managing Partner. He has 

simultaneously maintained an active practice in both 

international transactions and international arbitration. Mr. 

Kahale has represented energy ministries and national oil 

companies in highly publicized and controversial contract 

renegotiation processes in Latin America and acted as lead 

counsel in major international transactions and infrastructure 

projects in the international petroleum industry in many oil and 

gas producing countries. He also has been lead counsel in several 

of the world's largest international arbitrations. 

Kahale's practice was the subject of a feature article in the June 

2008 issue of The American Lawyer magazine. In February 2009, 

Latin Lawyer awarded its Restructuring Deal of the Year honor 

to a series of financing transactions in Venezuela to a Curtis team 

led by Mr. Kahale. In April 2009, The American Lawyer named 

Mr. Kahale one of its “Dealmakers of the Year” for his work 

representing KazMunayGas (KMG), the national oil company of 

Kazakhstan, in agreements for the future development of the 

Kashagan field. 

LARC: Ruben Sabatini 

UPCOMING EVENTS 

AIPN-YN Internatonal Conference Recepton 

10 p.m. - 12 a.m. Sunday, October 21, 2012 

Pestana Rio Atlantica Hotel | Deck Bar - Cobertura | Avenida 

Atlantica, 2964, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

After the Welcome Reception at the 2012 International Conference, 

join the Young Negotiators group for a late night reception. 

Drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be served. 

Registration fees are Members $15 | Non-members $25 | Students 

$10. 

Register at aipn.org/Events/LARC21October2012.aspx. 

See the next page for the Latn America Chapter Conference in 

Bogota! 

Middle East: Judith Kim 

RECENT EVENT 

“Iraq Oil & Gas: Recent Developments and Upcoming Issues” 

7 - 10 p.m. Wednesday, October 3, 2012 

The Capital Club, Signature Lounge | Dubai, UAE 

Kyle Stelma, Managing Director, Dunia Frontier Consultants 

Kyle Stelma is the Managing Director of Dunia Frontier Consultants, a market research 

and advisory firm based in Dubai, UAE that supports the oil and gas community as well 

as other multinationals throughout the MENA region. He has worked with CitiGroup in 

Mumbai, India, performing financial consulting for Indian conglomerates and later with 

a management consulting firm on private equity transactions in the Middle East and 

South Asia. Mr. Stelma has lived and worked in Mumbai, Dubai, and Germany for a 

number of years. He holds a B.S. in systems engineering from the United States Military 

Academy, and a M.A. in international finance from Johns Hopkins University SAIS. 

Europe-Africa: David Leckie 


EA Chapter Event: Autumn Drinks 

6 p.m. Thursday, October 4, 2012 

Society of Advocates | Aberdeen, Scotland, UK 

Join your fellow colleagues in Aberdeen for a reception. A short 

welcome will be given by Uisdean Vass, Head of Oil & Gas in 

MMS. Drinks and canapés will be served. 

EA Chapter Breakfast Recepton - Paris 

9 - 11 a.m. Tuesday, October 9, 2012 

White & Case Paris LLP | Paris, France 

AIPN members and guests are invited to a meet and greet to 

get to know other Paris-based energy players and discuss 

current oil and gas issues in the context of growing energy 

challenges in France. 

Speakers Cyril Vock, Total, and David Leckie, Clyde & Co. LLP, will 

discuss respectively the new 2012 version of the AIPN Model 

Joint Operating Agreement, and the latest developments 

concerning the UK Bribery Act. 

RSVP required to Jordan Langot at jlangot@paris.whitecase.com 

See the next page for the EA Chapter Conference in Belgrade! 

Asia: Michael Arruda 


Asia Chapter Events 

“Alignment of Interests – Costs and Transiton Issues” 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - MUMBAI 

Thursday, October 11, 2012 - NEW DELHI 

Daniel Johnston, Chairman, Daniel Johnston & Co. 

Cost Issues: One of the greatest source of anguish and concern 

for government officials around the world (especially with 

respect to the oil and gas industry) is the issue of "keeping costs 

down". Is there a mechanism that could be incorporated into 

IOC/NOC relationships to encourage companies to keep costs 

down? In his presentation, Daniel Johnston answers this 

question by presenting the 'Savings Index' – an index that 

provides mathematical proof of the alignment of interests on 

this issue and quantifies just how much of an incentive exists 

to save. There are types of contracts or contract mechanisms 

that are less likely to encourage cost savings but generally 

speaking most systems have healthy built-in incentives for 

companies to keep costs down, which will be explored in this 

talk. Daniel will focus on a number of questions that arise out 

of the Savings Index: Is there any hope for a better relationship? 

Is it possible to achieve an alignment of interests on 

development plans to keep costs down? What are the 

differences between strategic gold plating, opportunistic 

goldplating and plain old cheating? 

Transition Issues: Many petroleum arrangements have 

relatively straightforward terms for contract duration. (i.e., 30 

years or so). However, many governments find themselves in a 

difficult situation when the end-of-contract-term approaches. 

Companies with whom the Government had relatively wellaligned 

interests previously no longer have incentive to invest 

further development or especially exploration capital. In this 

talk, discussion will revolve around (1) current uncomfortable 

situations that exist right now all over the world as well as (2) 

different aspects of grass-roots design, such as contract 

duration, extension, government participation, sole risk 

provisions, relinquishment provisions, and work programs. 

Dinner will be served at both events, and both are 

complimentary. Please RSVP to To reserve, contact: Sneha 

Shenoi at sshenoi@jonesday.com. 

More information: aipn.org/Events.aspx 



WHAT’S HAPPENING REGIONALLY 

Chapter Conferences 

LATIN AMERICA CHAPTER 

Workshop on Joint 

Operating Agreement 

October 25 - 26, 2012 

Corporación Club El Nogal 

Buenos Aires Room 

Bogota, Colombia 

This regional chapter conference will focus on the 2012 Joint 

Operating Agreement approved updates and changes, 

explaining the reasons, analysis and discussion involved on its 

approval, as well as the impact on the future Operator-Non 

operator relationship. Sessions on the second day will address 

the updated JOA as it applies to Colombian law. 

aipn.org/Events/LARC25October2012.aspx 

Special thanks to event-sponsors 

Moyes & Co. 

EUROPE/AFRICA CHAPTER 

Energy Dependency, CO2 Emissions & 

Hydrocarbon Development in the 

Balkans 

October 30 - 31, 2012 

Hyatt Regency Hotel 

Belgrade, Serbia 

Topics to include: 

• Petroleum Legislation & Regulation 

• Upstream Opportunities, Technical and Financial 

• Unconventional Oil & Gas 

• Hydrocarbon Transportation, Processing & Storage 

- Regional Supply and security 

- Retail and Logistics 

• Oil & Gas Finance in the Region 

aipn.org/Events/EA30October2012.aspx 

Special thanks to event-sponsors

ENDORSED EVENTS 

One of the benefits of being an AIPN member is reciprocal member rates at other 

educational events, presented by non-profit organizations similar to AIPN. 

APPeX - Istanbul 

“The Crossroads of East and West Upstream Deal Making” 

November 5 - 7, 2012 | Ceylan InterContinental Hotel 

Istanbul, Turkey 

• Your one-stop shop for global upstream opportunities 

• The key forum for networking and international deal 

development, carefully designed to let you do real business 

• Connect with properties, prospects and clients from around 

the globe – find the next deal first 

• Explore a programme of regional and topical speakers to 

keep you on top of worldwide trends and discoveries 

• Gather new ideas, information and insights, and stay ahead 

of your competitors 

• Discover thousands of exploration products and services 

from around the world 

• Meet, discuss and negotiate deals with global decision 

makers from the majors to independents of all sizes, 

financiers, governments and NOCs 

2013 International Upstream energy 

Transactions Conference 

The University of Texas School of Law; AIPN and The Oil, Gas 

and Energy Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas 

January 16*, 17-18, 2013 | Four Seasons Hotel | Houston, 

Texas USA 

The International Upstream Energy Transactions conference, 

co-chaired by John Bowman of King & Spalding and Timothy R. 

Brown of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, attracts leading 

members of the international energy sector—corporate 

counsel, NOCs, IOCs and related industry experts—and 

features a stellar faculty, two keynote luncheon presentations 

and a reception offering valuable networking opportunities. 

*New in 2013 is the Wednesday afternoon Primer—The Law, 

Science and Finance of International Energy Projects—ideal 

for new entrants to the field or as a refresher for experienced 

practitioners. 

2013 conference topics include: 

• Equator Principles: Project Finance and Emerging 

Sustainability Requirements 

• Joint Operating Agreements (JOAs) for International 

Over two days, attendees will 

explore current and future 

trends in international 

business, new oil and gas hotspots, 

and discover and debate 

dozens of upcoming prospects 

from the following countries: 

Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, 

Bosnia-Herzegovinia, Bulgaria, 

Croatia, Georgia, Greece, 

Hungary, Israel, Iran, Iraq, 

Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgystan, 

Lebanon, Macedonia, 

Mongolia, Montenegro, 

Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, 

Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, plus some Mediterranean 

Countries (Cyprus , Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan). 

AIPN Members receive the member rate! Register online at 

www.appexregional.com/istanbul2012/index.cfm. 

Unconventional Projects: 

(How) Have Horizontal Drilling 

and Fracturing Changed the 

Game? 

• Managing Political Risks 

• International Boundary 

Disputes: Issues and 

Considerations 

• Anti-Corruption Overview 

• Elements of Drafting Anti- 

Corruption Program 

• Frontier Plays and Trends 

• Host Country Instruments 

Developments 

• Special Issues in Host Government Granting Instruments 

(HGIs) 

• Ethics of Negotiation: Are There Any? 

Visit www.utcle.org/conferences/IE13 for a complete agenda 

and list of speakers. 

Registration: 

Primer - January 16, 2013: $175 | $225 after January 9, 2013 

Conference – January 17-18, 2013: $595 | $645 after January 

9, 2013 

- Gabor Zelei 


Rio 

International Conference 

Special thanks to 2012 International Conference Sponsors 


MAIN EVENTS 

International Oil Industry 

Going to Rio: Capitalizing on 

Latin American Growth 

Thank-you 

for your support

event Co-Chairs 

Luis Pacheco, Partner, Veirano Advogados 

Cláudia Zacour, Legal Manager, Petróleo Brasileiro 

S.A. – PETROBRAS 

Ivan Simões, Government Relations, BP Brasil 

Organizing Committee 

Clarissa Querasian (Statoil) 

Paulo Valois (Schmidt, Valois, Miranda, Ferreira & 

Agel - Advogados) 

Julio Moreira (Gran Tierra) 

Leonardo Miranda (Machado Meyer) 

Danielle Valois (Trench, Rossi e Watanabe 

Advogados) 

Patricia Pradal (Chevron) 

Marilda Rosado (Doria, Jacobina, Rosado e 

Gondinho Advogados) 

Giovani Ribeiro Loss (Mattos Filho Veiga Filho 

Marrey Jr. e Quiroga) 

WELCOME RECEPTION 

On Sunday night, October 21, all 

conference attendees are invited to 

attend the Welcome Reception, from 

7:30 - 9:30 p.m. at the Windsor 

Atlantica Hotel. This is a great 

opportunity to meet your fellow 

conference attendees and speakers, 

take in stunning views of the Copacabana 

beach and enjoy complimentary drinks and hors d’oeuvres. 

NETWORKING DINNER 

E V E N I N G 

On Monday night, October 22, join your 

AIPN colleagues for a night of 

tranquility at the Rio Yacht Club, an 

exclusive, coconut tree filled paradise. 

Dinner will be served by the Pergola 

Pool surrounded by 96 coconut palms 

and spectacular views of Sugarloaf 

Mountain and Guanabara Bay. 

E V E N T S 

GALA DINNER 

On Tuesday night, October 23, the last 

evening of the conference, attendees 

are invited to participate in a lovely 

evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres 

and dinner at the luxurious Copa 

Cabana Palace Hotel. This glamorous 

Orient-Express landmark is among the 

best hotels in Rio de Janeiro. Since its Art 

Deco doors swung open in 1923, it has been welcoming the 

rich and famous: from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to the 

Rolling Stones and Nelson Mandela. 


MAIN EVENTS 

Dispute Resolution in the 

International Oil and Gas Business 

October 12 - 13, 2012 • New Delhi, India 

This conference has an outstanding line-up of panelists, 

who will cover a range of important topics in the field of 

international oil & gas dispute resolution, such as: 

• Historical overview of important cases along with current and 

emerging issues 

• State investment and commercial disputes 

• Boundary disputes 

• Environmental and human rights issues 

• ADR methods to quickly and effectively resolve disputes in 

the energy sector 

• Assessing damages in energy transactions 

• Oil and gas disputes in the Middle East and Asia 

India is a major player in oil and gas production and trading, 

and a potentially rich source of related arbitration and ADR. 

India is the sixth largest consumer of oil in the world, the ninth 

largest crude oil importer and its oil and gas sector contributes 

over 15% to the country's GDP. As per the Business Monitor 

International (BMI) forecast, India will account for 12.4% of Asia 

Pacific regional oil demand by 2015. Petroleum products has 

also emerged a one of the 

largest foreign exchange earner 

for the country (17% of the 

total exports). 

This conference is ideally suited 

for in-house counsel of oil and 

gas companies, independent 

practitioners and law firms who 

represent/advise parties from 

the oil and gas sector, 

commercial, economic and 

technical personnel of oil and 

gas companies, senior officers 

from government departments 

and ministries, arbitrators and 

mediators interested in 

knowing more about oil and gas 


disputes, advisors and consultants in the oil and gas business, 

and academics and members of the local and international 

business community interested in, and affected by, current 

developments and best practice in the oil and gas business. 

CONTINUING LeGAL eDUCATION (CLe) 

Texas: This conference is approved for 13 hours CLE. 

reGISTrATION feeS 

Delegates domiciled outside India 

Members of AIPN, and of LCIA India and LCIA Users' Councils: 

USD 1080 

AIPN members, please register online, or download the 

registration form online and e-mail/fax to the AIPN office. 

Non-members of AIPN should register with LCIA India.

WWW.AIPN.ORG/EVENTS.ASPX 

National Oil Company and Government Entity 

Conference & Workshop 

December 4 - 6, 2012 • London, UK 

18.5 credit hours of MCLe 

(State Bar of Texas) pending 

18.5 CPD credits 

Join NOCs from the following countries: Nigeria, Serbia, 

Greenland, Indonesia, Thailand, Republic of Congo, Russia, Saudi 

Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. And more added daily! 

Three days of intense workshops and breakout groups, designed 

to provide attendees maximum, active participation in work 

groups with experienced faculty. Attendees will develop practical 

skills and knowledge with application to their day-to-day work 

environment. Each day the attendees will gather for keynote 

presentations that will set the stage for the afternoon 

workshops. 

Also, prior to the NOC Conference and Workshop will be an 

Economics, Valuation and Bid Round Workshop. Separate 

registration required. 

AIPN NOC Conference Committee 

Chair: Christopher Moyes, Moyes & Co. 

Host Government Instruments 

Steven Otillar, Akin Gump 

William Montjoy, Saudi Aramco 

Arbitration/Litigation 

Mike Josephson, Nexen Inc. 

Caroline Kehoe, Herbert Smith Freehills 

Seminar Series on Model Contracts 

David Davies, Sterling Resources 

Sam Dunkley, BG Group 

Special thanks to conference sponsors 

Herbert Smith freehills and Moyes & Co. 

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact: 

Christopher Moyes, Moyes & Co.: cmoyes@moyesco.com or 

Angelique Florez, Event Manager, aflorez@aipn.org. 


The Landmark Hotel London 

222 Marylebone Road | London NW1 6JQ | UK 

Tel : +44 20 7631 8000 

Fax: +44 20 7631 8080 

www.landmarklondon.co.uk 

Hotel reservation deadline is November 5, 2012 

room rates 

Deluxe Room - £252.00 includes English Breakfast. 

Executive Room - £276.00 includes English Breakfast. 

Reservations can be made online or by calling the hotel at +44 20 

7631 8000 and mentioning you’re with AIPN. Reservations must 

be made on or before Monday, November 5, 2012. After this 

date, the hotel will determine whether it can accept reservations 

based on a space-and rate-available basis 

registration fees 

NOC Registrant (regardless of AIPN member status): $1,200 

Member: $2,000 

Non-member:$2,300 

Keynote Presenters (as of October 3) 

Christof Rühl, Group Chief Economist, BP 

Gareth Burns, SVP, Business Development, Statoil 

Nick Banner, Hakluyt & Company 

Andrew Gould, Chairman, BG Group 

Eric Bettelheim, CEO, Floresta Holdings Limited 

John Ruggie, Professor, Harvard Law School and Harvard 

Kennedy School of Government and Special Representative of 

UN Secretary General on Human Rights 

Robert Plummer, Senior Analyst, Wood MacKenzie 


MAIN EVENTS 

Dispute resolution 

The Dispute Resolution workshops comprise presentations from 

experts combined with case studies and Q & A to provide an 

interactive environment that allows each participant to get 

involved in understanding and debating the issues. The faculty and 

panels are made up of legal and commercial experts from 

international oil companies, international law firms, advisory firms, 

National Oil Companies and multinational institutions. 

Seminar Series on Model Contracts 

Each workshop will be limited to no more than 35 participants to 

enable the opportunity for a high level of interaction and problem 

solving for each participant. The SSMC workshops will be hands 

on interactive workshops with the emphasis on engaging each 

participant in direct problem solving in the practical use and 

application of the AIPN Model Contracts in practice. The 

workshops will be run by experienced AIPN faculty who come from 

a broad range of experience and backgrounds including faculty 

from international oil companies, international law firms, advisory 

firms, National Oil Companies and multinational organizations. 

Sessions will cover: Joint Operating Agreement and Confidentiality 

Agreement; Farmout Agreement and Unitization and Unit 

Operating Agreement; Service Agreements: Well 

Services/Drilling/Master Services Agreements and Seismic 

Acquisition Agreement; Gas Sales Agreement and Lifting 

Agreement; Joint Study and Bid Agreement and Consultant 

Agreement for Business Development in a Host Country; LNG 

Master Sales Agreement and Secondment Agreement. 

Host Government Instruments 

The Host Government Granting Instrument (HGI) sessions will 

provide delegates with a solid understanding of all the major fiscal 

and contractual regimes used by oil and gas producing nations 

around the world to incentivize exploration and production, 

including concessions, production sharing contracts and 

service/risk sharing contracts. Delegates will learn the legal and 

economic underpinnings of each contractual model, and engage 

in exercises and mock negotiations with international oil and gas 

companies and host governments implementing the most 

frequently used HGIs. Attendees will learn what motivates 

governments and industry participants and how to encourage, and 

discourage, investment in the upstream sector in their countries. 

Attendees will also develop an understanding and appreciation of 

various models utilized around the world to enable them to 

compare and contrast various external investment opportunities. 

For full details, speaker list and biographies, and to register, please 

visit: 

aipn.org/Events/NOC2012.aspx

Negotiation 

Skills Workshop 

The Houstonian Hotel 

Houston, Texas USA 

December 11-13, 2012 

Approved for 10.75 CLe Credits (State Bar of Texas) 

Workshop faculty 

David Bishopp, Vice President, Commercial, Africa, 

Middle East & Asia - BG Group 

M.G. Jarvis, Manager, Business Development and 

Negotiations - ConocoPhillips 

Toufic Nassif, President & CEO - T P Nassif & Associates 

LLC 

Harry Sullivan, Senior Counsel-International - 

ConocoPhillips 

Marleen Bergman, Manager-Exploration Negotiations, 

BHP Billiton 

The workshop is specifically designed to assist 

individuals relatively new to commercial negotiations 

and/or the international side of the E&P industry; it is 

also a fantastic refresher for more senior negotiators 

seeking to sharpen their negotiating skills. 

The number of participants in this workshop is limited 

to 36 as this facilitates the highest level of interaction 

during the negotiation exercises. 

The 3-day program covers presentations, topical 

discussions, mock negotiations and will encapsulate its 

subject matter in a full day negotiation exercise on the 

last day of the workshop. Don't miss your opportunity 

to participate in this very informative and highly 

interactive program. 

The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa 

111 North Post Oak Lane 

Houston, Texas 77024 

Tel: 713.680.2626 

Rate: $199/night single/double 

Reservations can be made by e-mailing the hotel at 

reservations@houstonian.com or calling the hotel at +1 

800-231-2759 or +1 713-231-2759. Mention you’re with 

the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators 

(AIPN) to get the special group rate. 

WWW.AIPN.ORG/EVENTS.ASPX 

This is where you 

need to be. 

registration fees 

Early Registration fees – by November 12, 2012 

Member: $1,450 | Non-member: $1,650 | Student: $350 

Regular Registration fees – after November 12, 2012 

Member: $1,650 | Non-member: $1,850 

To pay by check or wire transfer, download the registration form 

online and fax or e-mail it to the AIPN office, aipnevents@aipn.org or 

+1 281-558-7073. 

Your workshop registration fee includes breakfast, materials, lunches, 

breaks, and a Networking Dinner. Your registration does NOT include 

hotel accommodations. If you are a government employee or an 

academic, please contact AIPN directly to determine if you qualify for 

special rates (aipnevents@aipn.org or +1 281-558-7715 ext. 107). 

Cancellation/Refund Policy: Conference fees are refundable until 

November 12, 2012 with a $250 administrative charge. After that 

date, fees are non-refundable. Timely delegate substitutions will be 

permitted. Total amount must be paid in full for registration to be 

processed. 



MEMBERSHIP 

5 percentage of members in NOCs 

25 number of members AIPN had in 1981 

105 number of countries who have AIPN members 

438 number of AIPN student members 

4140 number of AIPN members 

5% 

30% 

9% 9% 

Members MembersPerRegion Per Region 

13% 

30% 

7% 

5% 

2% 

4500 

4000 

3500 

3000 

2500 

2000 

1500 

1000 

500 

0 

Asia 

AAustraliaPacific li P ifi 

Canada 

CIS 

EuropeAfrica 

Latin LatinAmerica America 

MiddleEast 

UnitedStates 

5% 

5% 

HistoricalGrowth 

3% 

27% 

1981 1986 1991 2002 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2012 

11% 

1% 

ByRepresentation 

6% 

1% 

40% 

Consultant/SelfEmployed 

Government 

InternationalEnergyCompany 

LawFirm 

NationalEnergyCompany 

Other 

ServiceCompany 

Student 

University

Members on the Move 

David Davies, Vice President, Business Development, Sterling Resources, London, David.Davies@Sterling-Resources.com 

Lindsay Jennings, Commercialization Manager, Halliburton Oil & Gas Asset Management, Houston, lindsay.jennings@halliburton.com 

Alberto F. Ravell, Senior Counsel - Arbitrations, ConocoPhillips Company, Houston, alberto.f.ravell@conocophillips.com 

Switched companies or positions? E-mail wendy@aipn.org after you update your member profile to help us populate this area. 

New Members 

JULY 2012 

NEW MEMBERS 

Active 

Asia 

Kohei Akatsuka Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co., Ltd. akatsuka@iog.idemitsu.co.jp 

Garth Briffa Santos Ltd garth.briffa@santos.com 

Adrian Chan Enviro Energy International Holdings Ltd adrian.chan@enviro-energy.com.hk 

Kenny Chan Enviro Energy International Holdings Ltd kenny.chan@enviro-energy.com.hk 

Angel Chiang Bumi Armada Berhad angel.chiang@bumiarmada.com 

Eu Jin Chua Temasek International Pte. Ltd. eujin@temasek.com.sg 

Donald Downing Enviro Energy International Holdings Ltd ddowning@enviro-energy.com.hk 

Andrew Emslie Freehills Andrew.Emslie@freehills.com 

Daniel Hamer Chevron Vietnam Ltd. dham@chevron.com 

Julien Hamon Norton Rose LLP julien.hamon@nortonrose.com 

Hiroko Izumi Mitsubishi Corporation hiroko.izumi@mitsubishicorp.com 

Vikash Jain Jubilant Energy N.V. vikashjain_cs@yahoo.com 

Len-Tzan (Shan) Koh Ashurst LLP shan.koh@ashurst.com 

Kam Sheung Mok Enviro Energy International Holdings Ltd. christie.mok@enviro-energy.com.hk 

Kazuya Sasaki Mitsui O.S.K. Lines lgsmo@molgroup.com 

Samuel Tan Ashurst LLP samuel.tan@ashurst.com 

Le Tran TNK Vietnam B.V. le.tran@vn.tnk.com 

Kai Zhu ConocoPhillips kai.zhu@conocophillips.com 

AP 

Ben Cansdale Clayton Utz bcansdale@claytonutz.com 

Anita Ferguson Anadarko Petroleum Corporation anita.ferguson@anadarko.com 

Steven Hunter Santos Ltd steven.hunter@santos.com 

Daniel Law Woodside Energy Ltd daniel.law@woodside.com.au 

Johnson Lo Clayton Utz jlo@claytonutz.com 

David Martino Gilbert + Tobin Lawyers dmartino@gtlaw.com.au 

Alan Seay Anadarko Petroleum Corporation alan.seay@anadarko.com 

Lili Shen Vinson & Elkins LLP lshen@velaw.com 

Katy Warner Clayton Utz kwarner@claytonutz.com 

Natalie Watson Clayton Utz nwatson@claytonutz.com 

Geoffrey Widmer Palliser Strategic Management Pty Ltd gwidmer@palliser.com.au 

Canada 

Courtney Burton Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP courtney.burton@fmc-law.com 

Catherine Chan Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP catherine.chan@fmc-law.com 

Edith Gillespie Apache Canada Ltd. edie.gillespie@apachecorp.com 



NEW MEMBERS 

Brad Grant Stikeman Elliott LLP bgrant@stikeman.com 

Neil Herle TransCanada PipeLines Limited neil_herle@transcanada.com 

Christopher McLelland McCarthy Tetrault LLP cmclelland@mccarthy.ca 

Murangi Ratshikuni Sasol murangi.ratshikuni@ca.sasol.com 

Robert Welch Lone Pine Resources rmwelch@lonepineresources.com 

CIS 

Anatoly Ishchenko LUKOIL Overseas aishchenko69@gmail.com 

Alexey Khardykin LUKOIL Overseas akhardykin@lukoil-overseas.ru 

Viktoriya Simonova SNR Denton Victoria.Simonova@snrdenton.com 

Igor Taranov Taranov at Law info@igortaranov.com 

eA 

Angelika Abu Khalil Eni angelika.abukhalil@eni.com 

Elijah Akwataghibe Shell Nigeria Elijah.Akwataghibe@shell.com 

Oguz Altintas BOTAS oguz.altintas@botas.gov.tr 

Stewart Andrews Tullow Oil plc stewart.andrews@tullowoil.com 

Patipewe Anselme Ernst & Young Cameroun patipewea@yahoo.fr 

Nuno Antunes Miranda Law Nuno.Antunes@miranda-uk.com 

Jessica Astle ExxonMobil International Limited jessica.astle@exxonmobil.com 

Matteo Barra LALIVE mbarra@lalive.ch 

Askar Bektassov Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited askar.bektassov@naoc.agip.it 

Yakubu Belgore Total E&P Nigeria Limited yakubu.belgore@total.com 

Eldi Beyers Tullow Oil plc e ldi.beyers@tullowoil.com 

Katinka Boysen-Kleist Nunaoil A/S KBK@nunaoil.gl 

Emma Corbet-Milward Premier Oil plc ecorbetmilward@premier-oil.com 

Stephan Dewald Dewald Law&Projects RA.Dewald@t-online.de 

Mark Dryden-Brownlee DONG E&P Limited mardy@dongenergy.co.uk 

Cafer Eminoglu BOTAS cafereminoglu@hotmail.com 

Ebikabowei Fakrogha Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited ebikabowei.fakrogha@naoc.agip.it 

Mariam Fawole Agencia Nacional do Petroleo de Sao Tome e Principe mariamfawole@yahoo.com 

Abdulvahit Fidan BOTAS abdulvahit.fidan@botas.gov.tr 

Gladel Florence Gladel f .gladel@gladel-avocat.com 

Christopher Hamill Wintershall GmbH christopher.hamill@wintershall.com 

Amina Indimi-Fodio Oriental Energy Resources amina.fodio@oriental-er.com 

Moses Kabanda Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Devt moses.kabanda@gmail.com 

Mohamed Noor Kapdi KapdiTwala Energy.Law noor.kapdi@kapditwala.com 

Katarzyna Kogut Marathon Oil kkogut@marathonoil.com 

Patrycja Kujawa LNG Energy Ltd pkujawa@lngenergyltd.com 

Michael Meade Murphy Exploration & Production Co. Michael_Meade@murphyoilcorp.com 

Ian Meredith K&L Gates LLP ian.meredith@klgates.com 

Oghenevwede Omamogho Ronica Limited clem@lawyer.com 

Ozlem Ozturk BOTAS ozlem.dudukcu@botas.gov.tr 

Mark Purdy Statoil mapur@statoil.com 

Sandy Ramsamy Sasol sandy.ramsamy@sasol.com 

Anjulie Rao Vitol Services Limited anr@vitol.com 

Peter Schriver Nuna Law Firm ps@nuna-law.gl 

Sofia Serra Morais Leitao, Galvao Teles, Soares da Silva e Associados sofiaserra@mlgts.pt 

Olegario Tiny Nigeria-Sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Authority olegtiny@hotmail.com 

Stephen Trombala Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP stephen.trombala@shepwedd.co.uk 

Ramona Volciuc-Ionescu DLA Piper ramona.volciuc-ionescu@dlapiper.com 

Lonnie Wilms Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum lobw@nanoq.gl 

Michelle Yardley Memery Crystal LLP myardley@memerycrystal.com 

LArC 

Hugo Affonso ANP haffonso@anp.gov.br

NEW MEMBERS 

Ludmilla Corkey Pinheiro Neto Advogados lcorkey@pn.com.br 

Andre Costa BG Group andre.costa@bg-group.com 

Maria Crespo Estudio Beccar Varela mcrespo@ebv.com.ar 

Carlos Izquierdo Statoil ciz@statoil.com 

Guillermo Jalfin Schlumberger gjalfin@slb.com 

Mauricio Melo Petrobras mauriciomelo@petrobras.com.br 

Rodrigo Moura BG Group rodrigo.moura@bg-group.com 

Alejandro Palma GNL Chile S.A. alejandro.palma@gnlchile.com 

Karine Siciliano Petrobras karinef@petrobras.com.br 

Diana Silveira BG Group diana.silveira@bg-group.com 

Me 

Ravinder Bhullar Baker Botts LLP ravinder.bhullar@bakerbotts.com 

Thomas Nolda TRC tom.nolda@trc-international.com 

Alexander Ridout Dragon Oil aridout@dragonoil.com 

Chika Ueki Qatargas Operating Company Limited CUeki@qatargas.com.qa 

Katherine Williams Lancaster Crescent Petroleum Co. Inc. kwilliams@crescent.ae 

US 

Kent Abadie Shell Exploration & Production Company kent.abadie@shell.com 

Rotimi Ajao Shell Oil Rotimi.ajao@shell.com 

John Bakht Baker Hughes john.bakht@bakerhughes.com 

Kimberley Bell BHP Billiton kimberley.bell@bhpbilliton.com 

Emily Colantino Baker & McKenzie emily.colantino@bakermckenzie.com 

Alan Crain Baker Hughes alan.crain@bakerhughes.com 

Michael Cuda Patton Boggs LLP mcuda@pattonboggs.com 

Brendan Cummings Tesco Corporation brendan_cummings@tescocorp.com 

Christopher Elsner U.S. Department of Energy christopher.elsner@hq.doe.gov 

Ben Exner Marathon Oil jexner@marathonoil.com 

Tara Flume Looper, Reed & McGraw, P.C. TFlume@lrmlaw.com 

Marcus Fonseka ConocoPhillips Marcus.Fonseka@conocophillips.com 

Ed Hare PanAtlantic Exploration Company ehare@paexploration.com 

Simon Harrison BP simon.harrison@bp.com 

Jonathan Jenkins Repsol jonathanj.jenkins@repsol.com 

Alvaro Martinez Repsol alvaro.martinezyanez@repsol.com 

Kelechi Nwabuisi Chesapeake Austinetx@gmail.com 

Phillip Prince Consultant at Self phillip.s.prince@gmail.com 

Jessica Rivera Haynes & Boone, LLP jessica.rivera@haynesboone.com 

Karen Van Holten Kilburn Law Firm kvanholten@kilburnlaw.com 

John Wallace ConocoPhillips john.w.wallace@conocophillips.com 

Philip Williams Van Dyke Energy Company PhilW@vandyke-energy.com 

Students 

Asia 

Jane Liao University of Dundee cpc155047@gmail.com 

Huan Wang University of Tulsa huan-wang@utulsa.edu 

AP 

Neeli Haria University of Western Australia neeliharia@gmail.com 

Sinith Nom The University of Melbourne sinith.nom@gmail.com 

Richard Peasgood University College London richard.peasgood@santos.com 

Lendyn Philip University College London l.marcus.philip@gmail.com 

Alfredo Silva Prieto University of Melbourne asilvaprieto@gmail.com 

Canada 

Brianna Guenther Queen's University bguenther@bdplaw.com 



NEW MEMBERS 

Annethe Rodriguez Lomeli University of Calgary annethe.rdz.lomeli@gmail.com 

Meredith St. John University of Calgary stjohn.meredith@gmail.com 

CIS 

Alexander Sorokin Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas alex020189@mail.ru 

eA 

Fabrice Joel Adzi Essomba University of Wolverhampton fabriceadzi@yahoo.co.uk 

Nursah Alpay City University London Nursah.Alpay.1@city.ac.uk 

Simon Amaduobogha University of Dundee amadusway@yahoo.com 

Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa University of Dundee antwida@hotmail.com 

Alice Bakare University of Aberdeen abosbak@yahoo.com 

Ahamya Butysa University of Dundee ahamya@yahoo.co.uk 

Moses Ekpolomo King's College London moses.ekpolomo@kcl.ac.uk 

Faridah Nsanja University of Melbourne fnakayiza@yahoo.co.uk 

Filip Ostrowski Jagiellonian University filip.ostrowski.07@aberdeen.ac.uk 

Livia Ziegelmeyer University of Dundee liviazig@hotmail.com 

LArC 

Francisco Merino Finis Terrae University franciscomerinoj@gmail.com 

Alberto Rosa Rio de Janeiro State University betolopesrosa@hotmail.com 

US 

Kristopher Alles University of Oklahoma Kris.alles@ou.edu 

Marshal Bond University of Tulsa MLBond20@gmail.com 

Chad Briggs The University of Tulsa chad_brggs@yahoo.com 

Gary Mapes Southern Methodist University adammapes@gmail.com 

Thomas Porter University of Tulsa thomas-porter@utulsa.edu 

William Radler University of Tulsa wradler@gmail.com 

Luis Valdez University of Wisconsin l uis@valdezjimenez.com 

Alex Vugman Maritime State University of New York alexvugman@hotmail.com 

Cheyann Weinacht The University of Tulsa cheyann-weinacht@utulsa.edu 

Junaid Yisa University of Texas junaid.yisa@hotmail.com 

AUGUST LIST 

Active 

Asia 

Thavakumar Kandiahpillai Shell Malaysia Limited thavakumar@hotmail.com 

Kathryn Martin Norton Rose LLP kathryn.martin@nortonrose.com 

Ashvin Seetulsingh Clifford Chance ashvin.seetulsingh@cliffordchance.com 

Surachai Tanasomboonkit PTT Exploration & Production SurachaiT@pttep.com 

Luca Tonello Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation luca_tonello@dn.smbc.co.jp 

AP 

Robert Chamalaun Santos Ltd robert.chamalaun@santos.com 

eA 

Folake Adele-Adewole Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Limited kusamotuadewole@gmail.com 

Alireza Ahmadkhani Eni Norge AS alireza.ahmadkhani@eninorge.com 

Tony Anderson Premier Oil Ltd tanderson@premier-oil.com 

Davide Castradori RWE Dea Egypt davide.castradori@rwe.com 

Ammah Egele Nigeria Sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Authority ammah55@yahoo.com 

Ana-Katarina Hajduka Trinity International LLP ana-katarina.hajduka@trinityllp.com 

Elissa James Sasol elissajames@hotmail.com

NEW MEMBERS 

George Kharazishvili Petrotrans Limited georgekh@batumioilterminal.com 

Dornu Kogam Total E&P Nigeria Ltd dornu.kogam@total.com 

Alexander Macgregor IHS alexander.mcgregor@ihs.com 

Nuhu Mkumbukwa NexLaw Advocates nmkumbukwa@nexlawadvocates.com 

Sebastien Ribac Hafez sebastien_ribac@hotmail.com 

Kasper Soager DONG Energy kasoe@dongenergy.dk 

Katie Swainsbury BP Katie.Swainsbury@uk.bp.com 

Dominic Traynor Ronaldsons LLP dominic@ronaldsons.co.uk 

LArC 

Brenda Anthony Wintershall Energia S.A. brenda.anthony@wintershall.com 

Joana Bousquet BG Group j oana.bousquet@bg-group.com 

Cristiana Cavalcanti OSX cristiana.cavalcanti@osx.com.br 

Ali El Hage Filho BG Group ali.hage@bg-group.com 

Felipe Francisco Petrobras felipefrancisco@petrobras.com.br 

Maximo Gomez Berard Sinopec Exploration & Production Inc. Argentina maximo_gomez_berard@sinopecarg.com.ar 

Jorge Jimenez Lopez Velarde, Heftye y Soria jjimenez@lvhs.com.mx 

Sergio Laclau Xavier Braganca Advogados slaclau@xba.com.br 

Jorge Pedroso HRT Participacoes em Petroleo S.A. jpedroso@hrt.com.br 

Diego Perez Terry Estudio Muniz dperez@munizlaw.com 

Carlos Ramos Miranda Barrera, Siqueiros y Torres Landa, S.C. crm@bstl.com.mx 

Paula Surerus Xavier Braganca Advogados psurerus@xba.com.br 

Me 

Deena Abu-Issa Maersk Oil Qatar ias_deena@yahoo.com 

Marcellus Catalano Qatargas Mcatalano@qatargas.com.qa 

Hari Krishna Clyde & Co hari.krishna@clydeco.ae 

Ryo Okumura Mitsubishi Corporation ryosuke.okumura@mitsubishicorp.com 

John Podgore Dechert LLP john.podgore@dechert.com 

Gavin Watson Dechert LLP gavin.watson@dechert.com 

US 

Robert George Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, LLP rgeorge@curtis.com 

Fernando Gil Chevron fgil@chevron.com 

Larry Krug Noble Energy lkrug@nobleenergyinc.com 

Samuel Mantilla BP samuel.mantilla@bp.com 

Eulalia Munoz Anadarko Petroleum Corporation eulalia.munoz@anadarko.com 

David Pantoja Manzano Scotia Waterous david.pantoja@scotiabank.com 

Anthony Speier Baker Botts LLP anthony.speier@bakerbotts.com 

Ima Turner Phillips & Reiter PLLP iturner@outsourcegc.com 

Students 

Canada 

Jillian Bollinger University of Calgary jkm.bollinger@gmail.com 

eA 

Gabriel Onojason University of Lagos, Nigeria gabbygabby2311@yahoo.com 

Johanna Tischbierek Kassel johanna.tischbierek@web.de 

Me 

Mohammed Aldowish Southern Methodist University dwesh@hotmail.com 

US 

Olayiwola Ali-Ajibode University of Virginia layi@virginia.edu 

Claire McLaughlin The University of Texas School of Law ClaireM919@gmail.com 

Jessica Rajtar William Mitchell College of Law jessica.rajtar@wmitchell.edu 

Yuriy Vilner University of Pittsburgh School of Law yuriy.vilner@gmail.com 


2012 

SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS 


STUDENT OUTREACH 

Created in 2009, the AIPN Scholarship Program awards well-qualified students in financial need who possess 

the potential to make a significant contribution to the field of international oil and gas negotiations. Up to 

eight scholarships are awarded annually in honor of long-time member and contributor Gordon Barrows. Each 

scholarship is in the amount of $5,000, split $2,500 for each semester, and paid directly to the winner's 

university. 

Twenty six students from 10 different countries applied for scholarships this year; a great deal of talent was 

illustrated by each applicant. Committee members, Eric Fry and Karen Krug found it very difficult to limit their 

recommendations to only ten students this year. In all, fourteen students received scholarships, totaling 

$65,000.

Ahebwa-Job Khaigwa 

LLM Petroleum Taxation and Finance 

University of Dundee 

November 2013 

Aseel Saqer 

JD and MBA 

University of Houston 

May 2013 

Brandon Hauver 

JD 

Southern Methodist University 

May 2013 

Brandon Kemp 

Law 

University of Oklahoma 

May 2013 

Brock Naeve 

JD 

University of Texas 

May 2013 

Daniel de la Garza 

Energy Management/Finance 


May 2014 

Douglas Rojas Toledo 

Energy, Environmental & Natural 

Resources LLM 


December 2012 

Joey Moppert 

Energy Management 

University of Tulsa 

May 2013 

Jesica Rivero Gilbert 


Resources LLM 


May 2013 

Jillian Bollinger 

JD Energy Oil & Gas Law 

University of Calgary 

May 2014 

Kouadio Assale 

Energy Management 

University of Tulsa 

December 2013 

Mariano Ornelas Lopez 


Resources LLM 


May 2013 

Onikepo Omotade 

Mineral and Energy 

Economics 

Colorado School of Mines 

December 2013 

Sun K. Lee 

Law 


December 2012 


STUDENT OUTREACH 

John Bowman, VP Education, recently spoke with AIPN Educational Advisory Board 

Member Marilda Rosado, Professor at Rio de Janeiro State University. 

J: I’ve known you from your work on the 

AIPN board it seems for a very long time, 

maybe back in the late 1990’s. Can you tell 

us how you got on the board of the AIPN 

and what value you have derived from your 

participation? 

M: I decided to get my PhD in the early 

90’s. I got a position as a visiting scholar at 

the University of Texas. While in Texas, I 

attended an AAPG conference and saw the 

AIPN booth. I was so enthusiastic; I said “if 

I would have known about this association, 

we could have used some models during 

my international tenure with Petrobras.” I 

joined AIPN soon after that and told my 

colleagues in Brazil about AIPN. I was still 

working at Petrobras at that time, so AIPN 

invited me to be on the board. 

J: And what are you doing these days? You’re a professor at 

which university? 

M: I am currently a professor at Rio de Janeiro State University- 

UERJ. In 2000-2001, we managed to implement an oil & gas 

program. It is considered to be one of the top law schools in Brazil 

and probably the top law school for graduate courses in Rio de 

Janeiro. This program is something that is very important because 

we had the opportunity to educate a lot of people that are active 

in the industry today. 

I am also a lawyer at a middle size law firm in Rio de Janeiro. I 

juggle being a professor, having an oil and gas program and being 

an active lawyer. I try to combine the practice of law with the 

academic activities. 

J: Can you give an example of one or two of those projects you’re 

working on? 

M: One project concerns investment law and global 

administrative law. I have several students helping with this 

project and we want to write a book and create a network with 

universities that have similar programs. We are aiming at 

establishing a network of Universities that hold programs of 

similar nature, like the New York and their Global Administrative 

Center, The University of Miami and others. 


Another project is about Foreign Corrupt Practices. I am 

motivated about the concept of governance, with studying those 

topics that are so present in AIPN meetings and other 

organizations. Thanks to AIPN’s Student Summer Research 

Position, we could apply and send one master’s student, Carolina 

de Azevedo, to the US to work on this project during the summer 

and develop it further. As a recent development, she is presently 

at the University of Oklahoma, under the supervision of Professor 

Owen Anderson. We also had students and young Brazilian 

professors attending courses or doing research at the University 

of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, Northeastern University 

in Boston, George Washington University and University of 

Dundee. We are thankful to the Professors who supported us and 

are looking for other co-leaders and professors for input and 

expansion of cooperation efforts. 

J: How are things going with your student club? 

M: Some of the first students to join the club graduated last 

year, but I was lucky that three of them entered the master’s 

program so they are still members of the club as master’s 

students. We have promoted interaction with the Young 

Negotiators in Rio, promoting joint events at the University. A 

presentation on FCPA research by Carolina to other students and 

the YN is within this scope.

EDUCATION 

On September 10, 2012, China’s Ministry of Land and Resources 

(“MOLAR”) announced on its official Web site that it is now inviting 

tenders for its second shale gas bidding round. The bid will be open 

from September 10 - 14, 2012 and a deadline for tender submissions has 

been set in the morning of October 25, 2012. The auction closely follows to 

begin at 9:30 a.m. of the same day. 

This second bidding round has been much anticipated by the industry since 

the first bidding round last summer. This time, 20 blocks are put out for the 

auction. The new areas being offered cover a total area of 20,002 square 

kilometers, spanning 8 provinces including Guizhou (5 blocks), Chongqing (3 

blocks), Hunan (5 blocks), Hubei (2 blocks), Henan (2 blocks), Anhui (1 block) 

, Jiangxi (1 block) and Zhejiang (1 block). Among these blocks, eleven (11) 

blocks are larger than 1,000 square kilometers. Hefeng Shale Gas Block in 

Hubei is the largest block, covering an area of about2,306 square kilometers. 

Similar to the previous bid round, each bidder is required to have a registered 

capital of more than 300 million RMB, and must possess oil and gas 

exploration qualifications or partner with an entity with such qualifications. 

The bidder must be an independent Chinese legal entity.And, “[N]o 

consortium is allowed to bid for the projects”, stated the announcement. 

What is different from the first bidding round is that both pure domestic 

enterprises and Chinese controlled foreign joint ventures have been invited 

to participate. Previously only state-owned domestic enterprises – such as 

CNPC, Sinopec and Henan CBM - were invited to bid for the projects. The 

recent inclusion of foreign joint ventures signals that privately owned foreign 

invested enterprises may participate in the bidding if they meet other 

qualification requirements. Every bidder is allowed to bid for a maximum of 

two (2) blocks . 

The announcement states that the bidding process will begin with a 

preliminary review, followed by a detailed review at a later stage. Again, the 

criteria to select a winner is not published. Based on the bid of the winners 

in the last round, bidders who promised to drill the most wells with the 

largest capital investment were selected. Each of the two winners in the last 

round entered into a Transfer Agreement of Shale Gas Exploration Permit 

with the MOLAR (“Transfer Agreement”). The content of such Transfer 

Agreement was not released to the public. However, in accordance with PRC 

regulations, an exploration permit is valid for three (3) years, and may be 

extended under certain circumstances. Presumably, these bid winners will 

have the right to further explore and develop the projects if a shale gas 

discovery is made during the term of the exploration permit. 

Although the announcement on September 10 is silent as to what will 

happen once the bid winners have been selected, it is likely that the second 

round will follow the same procedures as the first round and each winner 

will also be entitled to enter into a Transfer Agreement with the Government. 

China 

Launches 

Second 

Bidding 

Round for 

Shale Gas 

Projects 

Joanne Du, Jones Day 


EDUCATION 

Moving towards an African Lex Petrolea 

A recent initiative from the African Petroleum Producers 

Association (APPA) to carry out a comparative analysis of the 

hydrocarbons legislation, regulations and model agreements in the 

APPA Member States is a unique initiative that has never been 

completed on such a large scale before. Importantly, the initiative 

will make a significant contribution to the development of Lex 

Petrolea in Africa. 

The African Petroleum Producers Association 

The APPA is an African organisation similar to the Organisation of 

the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), although on a smaller 

scale since Africa only encompasses 8 per cent of worldwide oil 

and natural gas reserves, and 12 per cent and 8 per cent of 

worldwide daily production of oil and natural gas respectively. 

The APPA was initially created by Algeria, Angola, Benin, 

Cameroon, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria in Lagos, Nigeria in 1987. The 

APPA is currently comprised of 18 Member States 1 with the recent 

addition of Ghana and Niger. Member States are mainly located in 

North, West and Central Africa. No frontier East African country is 

a member yet. 

The APPA is intended to develop as a common platform for oil 

and gas policy initiatives and development strategy and is mainly 

aimed at enabling Member States to derive equitable revenues 

from the management of hydrocarbons resources in Africa. To this 

end, the APPA has commissioned a significant number of 

referential studies and has created an APPA Petroleum Institute, 

an APPA Fund for Technical Cooperation and an APPA Data Bank. 

The background of the comparative analysis 

The APPA has rightly recognised the growing interest in 

hydrocarbons resources in Africa both in mature and frontier areas, 

but has also acknowledged the worldwide quest to develop 

hydrocarbons resources and the ensuing competition between 

countries for investment. 

The APPA has therefore understood the importance of a 

properly designed petroleum regime to ensure the allocation of 

maximum revenues to the Member States and at the same time 

to remain attractive for international oil companies investing all 

over the world. A properly designed petroleum regime will not 

trigger investment, which is mainly based on the attractiveness of 

By Nicolas Bonnefoy, Partner, Ashurst LLP London 

nicolas.bonnefoy@ashurst.com 

the geology, but an ill-designed petroleum regime will certainly 

deter international oil companies from investing in spite of an 

attractive geology. 

The comparative analysis 

In this context, the APPA 7th programme of action for 2008-2011 

included the performance of a comparative analysis of the 

hydrocarbons legislation, regulations and model agreements in 

force in the 16 APPA Member States. Based on the terms of 

reference, the comparative analysis was intended to allow the 

APPA Member States to review and adjust the legislation, 

regulations and model agreements applicable to the exploration 

for and exploitation of hydrocarbons in their respective countries 

in order strengthen their control over hydrocarbons resources, 

maximise proceeds derived from the exploitation of hydrocarbons 

resources and ensure compliance with environmental legislation. 

The engagement also included the determination of a set of 

principles, practices and trends applicable to the hydrocarbons 

industry in Africa to be incorporated into a model production 

sharing agreement. 

The engagement was awarded to a consortium of 

international law firms 2 and consultants 3 on 23 March 2010 further 

to a competitive bidding process, although the engagement 

officially started in July 2010. The initial steps included a significant 

information gathering process to collect the various pieces of 

legislation, regulations and model agreements in force in the 16 

APPA Member States. An initial meeting finally took place in 

Brazzaville in December 2010. The comparative analysis, the 

principles, practices and trends applicable to the hydrocarbons 

industry in Africa and the model production sharing agreement 

were progressively incorporated into a report and discussed with 

the APPA in three phases: a preliminary report was discussed 

during a technical meeting in Brazzaville in June 2011, an updated 

report was presented in Malabo in February 2012 and the final 

report was completed both in French and English in July 2012. 

As mentioned above, this comparative analysis and the 

preparation of a model production sharing agreement is truly a 

unique initiative that has never before been undertaken and 

successfully completed on such a large scale. Even the Association 

of International Petroleum Negotiators, which had been the first 

organisation to undertake a similar initiative, could not agree on a 

model production sharing agreement. 

1 Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Libya, Mauritania, Niger, 

Nigeria and Sudan. 

2 Gide Loyrette Nouel (where I was working at the time of this engagement) and Macleod Dixon (now Norton Rose). 

3 Van Meurs Corporation and the Centre for Energy Petroleum and Mineral Law & Policy (Dundee University). 


The contribution to Lex Petrolea 

The determination of a set of principles, practices and trends 

applicable to the hydrocarbons industry in Africa will be a 

significant contribution to the development of Lex Petrolea in 

Africa. 

Lex Petrolea, “a particular branch of a general universal Lex 

Mercatoria” 4 has indeed developed in the international 

hydrocarbons industry over the past 30 years. Lex Petrolea is 

comprised of a set of customary principles, rules and practices 

tailored to the specific nature of the international hydrocarbons 

industry. It has mainly developed on the basis of international 

arbitration and litigation, but has also arisen on the basis of the 

principles, practices and trends in force in the international 

hydrocarbons industry, as incorporated in petroleum legislation, 

regulations, and model agreements applicable to the exploration 

and exploitation of hydrocarbons. 

The determination of such principles, practices and trends in 

the context of the comparative analysis initiated by the APPA will 

therefore supplement the customary principles, rules and practices 

incorporated in the Lex Petrolea towards the development of an 

African Lex Petrolea, including a set of principles, practices and 

trends specific to the hydrocarbons industry in Africa. 

Post-completion of the comparative analysis 

Based on the APPA 8 th programme of action for 2012-2015, the 

APPA now intends to promote and disseminate the outcomes of 

the comparative analysis. Such outcomes will initially be 

disseminated to the APPA Member States. Although there is a clear 

disparity between long-term players and newcomers in the 

hydrocarbons arena, the work yet to be performed by the APPA 

Member States could be significant. 

The APPA Member States will first have the opportunity to use 

the comparative analysis as a tool to review and potentially adjust 

the legislation and regulations applicable to the exploration and 

exploitation of hydrocarbons in their respective countries, so to 

allow them to strengthen their control over hydrocarbons 

resources, maximise proceeds derived from the exploitation of 

hydrocarbons resources and ensure compliance with 

environmental legislation. 

The APPA Member States will also have the opportunity to use 

the model production sharing agreement attached to the 

comparative analysis. It seems unlikely that the APPA Member 

States will actually agree to a single model production sharing 

agreement being implemented in the 18 APPA Member States. 

Rather the APPA Member States are likely to use the model 

production sharing agreement to review their own respective 

model production sharing agreements so that they are better able 

to incorporate the principles, practices and trends specific to the 

hydrocarbons industry in Africa. 

4 Government of the State of Kuwait vs. American Independent Oil Co, award dated 24 May 1982. 

Moving towards an African Lex Petrolea 

Standardised rules 

It could be envisaged, however, that selected provisions of the 

model production sharing agreement might be incorporated into 

a more formal standardised set of detailed rules consistent with 

the principles, practices and trends applicable in the hydrocarbons 

industry in Africa, to which rules the parties could refer to on a 

voluntary basis in their production sharing agreement, in a form 

similar to the arbitration rules of the International Chamber of 

Commerce. 

Such rules could include mainstream provisions, such as the 

operating committee, the operator, the annual works programme 

and budget, the discovery process, and force majeure (to name a 

few), thus avoiding the need for each Member State to “reinvent 

the wheel” for each model production sharing agreement. Such 

rules could also include provisions of a more technical nature, 

such as those relating to the environment and the standard of 

care, unitisation, valorisation of hydrocarbons, and accounting 

procedures, which provisions a particular Member State may not 

have the technical ability to draft successfully and update on a 

regular basis. 

Needless to say, standardised rules would also potentially 

reduce legal uncertainty due to ill-drafted provisions, and could 

ease the negotiation process. Finally, standardised rules, together 

with the subsequent construction and implementation of the 

same, would also contribute to the development of the African 

Lex Petrolea. 

Conclusion 

Nicolas Bonnefoy, Partner, Ashurst LLP London 

The hydrocarbons industry is in a state of constant and significant 

change and this change has accelerated over the past 10 years. It 

makes the role of the APPA Member States as hydrocarbons 

legislators and industry regulators more difficult than ever before. 

Whether the principles, practices and trends specific to the 

hydrocarbons industry in Africa remain as determined by the 

APPA in the context of this comparative analysis, or will be actually 

incorporated into a more formal standardised set of detailed 

rules, the performance of the comparative analysis definitely 

shows that the 18 APPA Member States are getting ready to 

address the challenges of a global hydrocarbons industry in the 

African context. 

In the meantime, the APPA is intending to incorporate the 

main outcomes of the comparative analysis into a book for wider 

dissemination of the principles, practices and trends specific to 

the hydrocarbons industry in Africa and the APPA model 

production sharing agreement. This book, which should be 

available both in French and in English by the end of the year, will 

be marketed by the APPA directly. 


Eased Sanctions 

Widen Doorway 

to Myanmar Oil 

and Gas Sector 

Michael Arruda, Partner, Jones Day, Hong Kong* 

On July 11, 2012, the United States formally eased certain 

sanctions relating to “new investment” in the Union of 

Myanmar (“Myanmar”) and on the exportation of financial 

services to Myanmar. 1 This change in the scope of the Burmese 

Sanctions Regulations, 2 implemented by General License Nos. 16 

and 17 and issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office 

of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), will allow, under certain 

circumstances, U.S. individuals and entities to invest in Myanmar's 

oil and gas sector for the first time in 15 years. 

The decision to ease sanctions was presaged by 

announcements by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State 

Hillary Clinton in May of this year and followed the announcement 

in April by the Council of the European Union that it was 

suspending the majority of the EU’s separate, multilateral 

sanctions program in respect of Myanmar for a period of one year. 3 

Australia, Canada, and Norway also significantly eased their 

respective sanctions against Myanmar, and Japan announced that 

it planned to forgive some $3.7 billion of Myanmar’s debt and 

resume full-fledged development aid as a way to support the 

country's democratic and economic reforms. 

This article will focus on the impact of General License No. 17 


EDUCATION 

(“GL-17”) on investments in the Myanmar oil and gas sector, 

including areas in which the sanctions regime has been 

unaffected. 4 

Myanmar Sanctions regime 

Since 1990, the United States has imposed an array of trade 

sanctions and restrictions against Myanmar, which derive from 

various federal laws 5 and Presidential Executive Orders that are 

now codified in the Burmese Sanctions Regulations. 6 Some 

sanctions that initially arose out of Executive Orders have persisted 

by way of extensions granted through presidential proclamations 

under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1997, 7 

which allows the U.S. President to extend certain sanctions where 

a national emergency finding is made. The key prohibition that 

affected the oil and gas sector has been the prohibition on “new 

investments,” which is found in 31 CFR § 537.204 and originated 

in Executive Order No. 13047 issued by President Bill Clinton on 

May 20, 1997. It is an interesting turn of fate that President Obama 

delegated to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the authority to lift 

the ban imposed by an Executive Order issued by her husband 15 

years earlier. 

Taken together, these federal laws and Executive Orders 

cumulatively have precluded virtually all commerce between the 

U.S. and Myanmar since 1997. In addition to prohibiting “new 

investments” 8 in Myanmar, the Burmese Sanctions Regulations 

also prohibited, among other activities, the exportation or reexportation 

of financial services to Myanmar from the U.S.; 9 the 

importation into the U.S. of any “products of Burma”; the 

facilitation, for example through financing or guaranteeing, of any 

prohibited transactions; and attempts to evade or avoid the 

prohibited activities. 10 The Burmese Sanctions Regulations also 

nullified transactions with certain Specially Designated Nationals 

and blocked their accounts. Exemptions included activity pursuant 

to an agreement in place before May 21, 1997, personal 

communications, distribution of information materials, or 

personal travel to Myanmar. 

Prominent among the industries affected by the Burmese 

* Author’s Note 

The author would like to thank his fellow lawyers at Jones Day for their assistance in the preparation of this article, including Michael Gurdak, Ben McQuhae, Dominic Johnson, Joanne Du, 

Edith Ho and others who assisted with its editing. This article originally appeared as a Jones Day Commentary in August 2012, and the copyright is held by Jones Day. Jones Day publications 

should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The views set forth herein are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Firm. 

Endnotes 

1 General License No. 16 and General License No. 17 issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Department of the Treasury (“OFAC”) on July 11, 2012; Executive Order 13619, "Blocking 

Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security or Stability of Burma,” 77 Federal Register 41243-41245 (July 11, 2012). 

2 The Burmese Sanctions Regulations were codified in 2005 in Title 31, Part 537 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 

3 See Council Decision 2012/225/CFSP 2012 O.J. (L 115/25) (April 26 2012) (available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:115:0025:0026:EN:PDF). 

4 In this article, we refer to the Union of Myanmar as “Myanmar,” except where the U.S. documents lifting the ban or explaining it or the Burmese Sanctions Regulations refer to "Burma," in 

which case we use the nomenclature utilized in those documents. 

5 Customs and Trade Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-382); Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (P.L. 87-195); Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1997 (P.L. 104- 

208); Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-61); and Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta's Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-286). 

6 Executive Order 13047, “Prohibiting New Investment in Burma,” 62 Federal Register, 28301-28302 (May 20, 1997); Executive Order 13310, "Blocking Property of the Government of Burma 

and Prohibiting Certain Transactions,” 68 Federal Register, 44853-44856 (July 28, 2003); Executive Order No. 13448, “Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to 

Burma,” 72 Federal Register, 60223-60226 (October 18, 2007); and Executive Order 13464, “Blocking Property and Certain Transactions Related to Burma,” 73 Federal Register, 24491-24493 

(April 30, 2008). 

7 P.L. 95-223. 

8 The term “new investment” is defined at 31 CFR § 537.311. 

9 Concurrently with the issuance of GL-17, OFAC issued GL-16, which authorizes “the exportation or re-exportation of financial services to Burma, directly or indirectly, from the United States 

by a U.S. person, wherever located….” General License No. 16, issued July 11, 2012. 

10 31 CFR 537, Subpart B–Prohibitions.

Sanctions Regulations has been the energy industry, where the 

Regulations have had a direct effect on resource development 

contracts, resource project management agreements, and equity 

investments in resource companies. 11 Oil and gas investments of 

any form, be they upstream, midstream, or downstream, whether 

directly with the Myanmar government or through equity in an 

investment vehicle, have been prohibited by the Burmese 

Sanctions Regulations. The major exception to this prohibition 

related to petroleum-related contracts entered prior to May 21, 

1997 (in which case those activities were “grandfathered,” subject 

to certain importation restrictions provided in the Burmese 

Sanctions Regulations 12 ). However, U.S. persons that were parties 

to these contracts were precluded from expanding their 

investment beyond their status as of May 20, 1997 unless options 

to do so were specifically contemplated by their grandfathered 

contracts. 13 Another twist is that the exemption also does not 

remove the prohibition on imports into the U.S. of “products of 

Burma,” which would include crude oil and natural gas from 

Myanmar. 14 

Authorization of New Investment by General License No. 17 

On July 11, 2012, the director of the OFAC issued GL-17, which 

served to lift the prohibition on “new investment” in Myanmar 

that had been in place since President Clinton issued Executive 

Order No. 13047 on May 20, 1997. A “General License” authorizes 

a particular type of transaction for a class of persons. (In contrast, 

a “Specific License” is issued to a particular person or entity on the 

basis of a license application for a particular transaction.) 

Normally, a general license is issued following a governmental 

determination, pursuant to explicit conditions described in the 

regulations, that national interests overcome a regulatory 

prohibition. 15 

The operative provision of GL-17 is paragraph (a), which 

provides simply: “New investment in Burma by U.S. persons is 

authorized, subject to the limitations and requirements set forth 

in paragraphs (c), (d), and (e) of this general license.” GL-17 

basically operates to reverse the prohibition on all “new 

investment” and now authorizes new investment activities in 

Myanmar, irrespective of the sector, that have been banned since 

Eased Sanctions Widen Doorway to Myanmar Oil and Gas Sector 

1997. 

Pursuant to GL-17, U.S. persons may now, subject to certain 

limitations: 

• Enter into contracts that include the economic development 

of resources located in Myanmar; 16 

• Enter into contracts providing for the supervision and 

guarantee of another person’s performance of a contract that 

includes the economic development of resources located in 

Myanmar; 17 

• Purchase equity interests in the economic development of 

resources located in Myanmar; 18 

• Enter into contracts providing for the “participation in 

royalties, earnings, or profits in the economic development 

of resources located in Burma, without regard to the form of 

the participation”; 19 and 

• Enter into a contract to perform or finance contracts to sell 

or purchase goods, services, or technology relating to the 

above activities. 20 

“Economic development of resources located in Burma” is defined 

as “activities pursuant to a contract the subject of which includes 

responsibility for the development or exploitation of resources 

located in Burma....” 21 While “resources in Burma” includes 

everything from human capital to agricultural resources, the 

Burmese Sanctions Regulations specifically include as an example 

“a contract conferring rights to explore for, develop, extract or 

refine petroleum, natural gas, or minerals in the ground in 

Burma….” 22 In Myanmar, title to all hydrocarbons vests in the 

state, 23 and the government has the sole right to explore, extract, 

and sell petroleum and natural gas. 24 Myanmar law authorizes 

Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (“MOGE”), a division of the 

Ministry of Energy, to enter into joint ventures on behalf of the 

government with private domestic and foreign entities for the 

exploration, development, production, and transportation of 

hydrocarbons on behalf of the state. 25 Myanmar implements these 

joint venture arrangements by entering into the following types 

of contractual arrangements through MOGE: 

• Production sharing contracts (“PSC”) (based on the 

11 31 CFR § 537.311(a). 

12 31 CFR § 210(c). 31 CFR § 537.203 prohibits the importation into the United States of any article that is a product of Burma, unless otherwise authorized. 

13 31 CFR § 537.409. 

14 U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") relies on a body of established CBP regulatory and legal precedents to confer origin on an import if the matter is in doubt. A good shall originate 

in the territory of a party where the good is wholly obtained or produced entirely in its territory, including mineral goods extracted in its territory. 

15 In the case of the sanctions on "new investments," the President is authorized by Section 570 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1997 

(P.L. 104-208) to waive the prohibition on new investments "if he determines and certifies to Congress that the application of such sanction would be contrary to the national interests of the 

United States." Presidential waiver of the ban on new investments was set in motion by way of Executive Order 13619, dated July 11, 2012, in which President Obama delegated to the 

Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, authority that resulted in the issuance of GL-17 by OFAC. 

16 See 31 CFR § 537.311(a)(1). 

17 See 31 CFR § 537.311(a)(2). 

18 See 31 CFR § 537.311(a)(3). 

19 See 31 CFR § 537.311(a)(4). 

20 See 31 CFR § 537.311(b). 

21 31 CFR § 537.302. 

22 Id. 

23 Section 37(a) of Burma Constitution (2008). English translation accessed on July 25, 2012 at http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs5/Myanmar_Constitution-2008-en.pdf. 

24 Chapter II, Section 1.3. of the State-owned Economic Enterprises Law (1989). English translation accessed on July 25, 2012 at http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs12/SOEAct.pdf. 

25 Chapter II, Section 2 of the State-owned Economic Enterprises Law (1989). English translation accessed on July 25, 2012 at http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs12/SOEAct.pdf. 


Indonesian PSC), 

• Improved petroleum recovery contract/performance 

compensation contracts (akin to a risk service contract), and 

• Reactivation of suspended fields contracts. 

Thus, while there may be other reasons to restructure the energy 

sector, there should be no need to redefine or restructure the 

current contractual structure to fit the forms of investment 

authorized by GL-17 as “new investment” in the “economic 

development of resources in Burma.” 

Limitations on GL-17 

Caveat Investor: Burmese Sanctions regulations Not repealed. 

It is important to note that GL-17 does not repeal the broad 

sanctions regime comprising the Burmese Sanctions Regulations 

or the various federal laws and Executive Orders that underlie the 

Regulations, all of which are still in effect. 26 As emphasized in the 

Treasury Department's Press Release, “The core authorities 

underlying our sanctions remain in place.” 27 Instead, the President 

invoked his authority to waive the ban on new investment and 

authorized the issuance of a general license permitting new 

investments in Myanmar. GL-17 has no stated duration, either by 

law or its own terms, and may be revoked by OFAC at any time, 

which would have the effect of reinstating the prohibition on new 

investments in Myanmar, including oil and gas investments. Any 

future action along these lines would likely be dictated by the pace 

and direction of political and economic reform by the Myanmar 

government, whose progress prompted suspension of the ban on 

new investment in the first place. 

restrictions on Transactions with Ministry of Defense and SDNs. 

It is important to observe that GL-17 has not lifted the ban on new 

investments with all counterparties in Burma. GL-17 proscribes 

new investments through the Burmese Ministry of Defense, 

including the Office of Procurement, any state or non-state armed 

group, and any entity in which any of the foregoing owns a 50 

percent or greater interest. 28 GL-17 preserves the ban on new 

investments with any person named in the Specially Designated 

Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”) published by 

OFAC. 29 

Given the recent political and military history in Myanmar, it 

is not surprising that these restrictions on new investments have 

been included in GL-17 30 and thus should not be taken lightly. 

Although the standard avenue of investment in the oil and gas 

sector in Myanmar is through public auction or direct negotiation 

with MOGE, if a U.S. investor wishes to acquire an oil and gas 

interest in Myanmar through farm-in or share acquisition, it will 



be important to ensure that any such new investment is 

sufficiently diligenced to ensure that it does not trigger one of 

these exceptions to GL-17. It also will be important for new 

investors to be able to demonstrate to OFAC, if challenged, that 

sufficient inquiry has been done to avoid dealings with 

unauthorized parties. 

reporting requirements. GL-17 imposes two sets of mandatory 

reporting requirements applicable to “new investments” that will 

apply to new investments in the Myanmar oil and gas sector, and 

it incorporates by reference the Department of State’s “Reporting 

Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma.” 31 Notably, 

the Department of State, rather than OFAC, has jurisdiction over 

this reporting regime. 

MOGE Investment Notficaton. Any U.S. person who has 

undertaken a new investment pursuant to an agreement entered 

with MOGE must notify the Department of State in writing within 

60 days of its investment. 

At the moment, the interpretation of “new investments” that 

are subject to the reporting requirement remains unclear. OFAC’s 

definition of “new investments” contemplates both direct and 

indirect investments, and, as a result, we believe it is likely that 

OFAC would interpret the reporting requirement to include farmins 

and share purchases. However, the Department of State has 

not yet indicated that OFAC’s definition and guidance regarding 

“new investments” will apply to the new reporting regime. 

Annual Reportng Requirement. In addition to the MOGE 

reporting requirement, GL-17 imposes an annual reporting 

requirement affecting all new investments, whether in the oil and 

gas sector or elsewhere, which is due on April 1 each year. One 

report is required to be made available to the public (“Public 

Report”), and the other report is required to be provided only to 

the government (“Government Report”). The annual reporting 

requirement is intended to help the U.S. government assess the 

effects of investments made under the new sanctions regime. The 

reporting scheme also allows investors to claim an exemption 

under Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) 

and establishes a process to prevent the disclosure of such 

information to the public. 

Public report 

The following principal information must be included in the Public 

Report: 

• An overview of operations in Myanmar; 

26 For example, sanctions on the imports of “products of Burma” remain in place, which could pose an issue for U.S. oil and gas companies that wish to import production to the U.S. See 31 

CFR § 537.203. The prohibition on the import of “products of Burma” in Section 3(a)(1) of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003 was extended as of July 26, 2011, for an additional 

year. At the time of this publication, H.R. 5986, a bill to extend the import restrictions for another three-year period, was being considered by the House. However, as a practical matter, it is 

likely that regional markets will readily absorb any production coming out of Myanmar in the near term. 

27 Joint Fact Sheet from U.S. Treasury and State Departments: “Administration Eases Financial and Investment Sanctions on Burma,” July 11, 2012 (“Joint Fact Sheet”). 

28 Paragraph (c), GL-17. 

29 Paragraph (d), GL-17. See also Executive Order No. 13619, issued July 11, 2012. The SDN List is accessible through OFAC’s web site at http://www.treasury.gov/sdn. 

30 The Joint Fact Sheet states that the “United States remains concerned about … the role of the military in the Burmese economy.” 

31 Paragraph (e), GL-17 and “Reporting Requirements on Responsible Investment in Burma,” accessed at http://www.humanrights.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Burma-Responsible- 

Investment-Reporting-Reqs.pdf (“Reporting Requirements”). The Reporting Requirements are pending approval by the Office of Management and Budget as of July 11, 2012.

• The policies and procedures related to the submitter's 

operations and supply chain in Myanmar; 

• Arrangements with security service providers; and 

• An acknowledgement that the Public Report will be made 

public, and that the submitter has redacted any information 

it considers exempt under FOIA. 32 

In addition to providing the foregoing information, where the 

investment is for (i) the purchase of real property or the lease of 

any rights related to real property (which could be interpreted to 

include an oil and gas interest) for more than $500,000 or (ii) the 

purchase or lease of more than 30 acres of real property, then 

additional information must be submitted, principally relating to 

the dislocation or resettlement of citizens caused by the 

investment. 33 

Finally, details of all payments to each governmental (national 

or local) entity of Myanmar or subnational or administrative entity 

asserting authority over the submitter’s new investment activities 

in Myanmar must be reported. Each relevant payment must be 

reported by payment type, including royalties, tax obligations, and 

fees. Aggregate annual payments to a particular governmental 

entity below $10,000 do not need to be reported. 34 

Government report 

For the Government Report, the investor will need to include all 

the information provided in the Public Report except for the public 

disclosure acknowledgement. There are additional reporting 

requirements, including whether the submitter has had meetings 

or other communications with the armed forces of Myanmar or 

other armed groups that are material to the submitter’s 

investment in Myanmar, as well as details of such 

communications. 35 

Conclusion 

Relaxing the sanctions on new investment in Myanmar, 

particularly in the oil and gas sector, has been long awaited by the 

U.S. petroleum industry and the international petroleum industry 

at large. MOGE claims Myanmar has approximately 215 million 

barrels of proved oil reserves, split evenly between onshore and 

offshore, and more than 15 trillion cubic feet of proved natural 

gas, nearly all of which lies offshore. 36 In contrast, the U.S. Energy 

Information Administration places proved oil reserves at 50 million 


barrels and proved gas reserves at 10 trillion cubic feet. 37 

According to MOGE, there currently are 12 foreign-operated 

onshore blocks and 29 foreign-operated offshore blocks. 38 With 

one exception, the foreign operators are all Asian entities. Total, 

the one exception, operates the large Yadana gas field, in which 

Chevron is a non-operating participating owner, and the related 

pipeline that transports natural gas to the Myanmar–Thailand 

border. Chevron is the only U.S. company with oil and gas interests 

in Myanmar, which were grandfathered by Executive Order No. 

13047. 

Whether the authorization granted in GL-17 is the dawn of a 

new era of foreign investment in Myanmar’s energy resources will 

likely be first tested by the industry’s participation in the next 

round of bidding for open blocks. There was broad speculation 

that the Ministry of Energy would announce an auction for 20 or 

more offshore and onshore blocks at an oil and gas industry 

conference held in Yangon in early September. However, according 

to numerous press reports, the Ministry was requested by 

interested international oil companies to postpone the auction 

until stronger measures regarding transparency as well as 

environmental, social and biodiversity impacts were in place. 39 

Speculation is that the next round will occur before year-end. The 

last licensing round was in 2011, which resulted in an award of 

contracts on nine out of 18 onshore blocks. 40 

As the postponement of the recent auction suggests, GL-17 

is only one piece of the Myanmar petroleum puzzle. Numerous 

other practical and legal reforms are required before most U.S.based 

and other international oil companies are likely to be 

comfortable with making significant investments in Myanmar. In 

addition to the transparency demanded by western companies, 

these measures include the establishment of essential 

infrastructure for business, as well as changes to the legal 

framework to support the fiscal regime underpinning oil and gas 

exploration and development and to ensure that foreign arbitral 

awards will be enforceable in Myanmar. And for U.S. persons, 

challenges to entering the market are still seen in the 

unavailability of political risk insurance through the Overseas 

Private Investment Corporation and the absence of a bilateral 

investment treaty between the U.S. and Myanmar. 41 

Nevertheless, the relaxation of sanctions by GL-17 and the 

equivalent relaxation of trade sanctions by other countries should 

provide sufficient incentive and encouragement to enable the 

international petroleum industry to work with Myanmar to 

identify and exploit Myanmar’s full petroleum potential. 

32 Part II of the Reporting Requirements. 

33 Part II, paragraph 7 of the Reporting Requirements. 



36 Id. 

37 See http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=BM&trk=p1. 

38 Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise dated July 2011 at http://www.energy.gov.mm/moge.pdf. 

39 See e.g., Tun, A.H., “Myanmar Delays Energy Tender to Improve Transparency, Reuters(September 5, 2012) 

40 Thu, M. “Government Calls for Offshore Block Investment,” The Myanmar Times (May 28–June 3, 2012). 

41 Myanmar has investment treaties with China, India, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam; of these, the treaties with China, India, the Philippines and Thailand are in force. See the 

UNCTAD Database of Bilateral Investment Treaties provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, available at 

http://www.unctadxi.org/templates/DocSearch.aspx?id=779. 


EDUCATION 

Journal of World energy Law & Business 

September 2012 - Login to www.aipn.org and click on the Journal link to access the full articles 

Energy, economy and other global challenges 

James A. Baker III 

James A. Baker III is an American attorney, politician and political 

advisor. He was Secretary of State under George H W Bush. 

This article is the unedited text of a speech delivered by James 

A. Baker III at the AIPN Spring Conference in Washington D.C. on 

19 April 2012. 

Lex Petrolea and the internationalization of 

petroleum agreements: focus on Host 

Government Contracts 

Kim Talus, Scott Looper and Steven Otillar 

This article focuses on two separate but interrelated themes and 

discussions: Lex Petrolea and the standardization of 

international petroleum agreements. Both themes relate to the 

same phenomena: the internationalization of various legal and 

contractual aspects of the petroleum industry. 

How France shares the nuclear rent: a 

presentation of the NOME Act 

Sylvain Bergès 

For many years the largest operators in Europe have been 

attempting unsuccessfully to enter into the French electricity 

market. Many of them have developed production facilities in 

order to compete with established operators (ie EDF and GDF 

Suez). To accelerate the opening of the French market and 

enable fair competition with EDF, the French government has 

now created a means of third-party access to nuclear power 

electricity. If the legal mechanism allowing such access is 

effective, it should create real competition in the French 

electricity market. 

Foreign direct investment mechanisms and 

review of Iran’s buy-back contracts: how far has 

Iran gone and how far may it go? 

Maximilian Kuhn and Mohammadjavad Jannatifar 

For political reasons, Iran’s role in global energy politics is 

constantly declining as three decades of internal divisions, 

coupled with crippling international sanctions, have left Iran 

unable to capitalize on its vast energy potential. However, once 

these political issues have been resolved one way or the other, 


the second most important issue will remain: the direct 

investment mechanism for foreign investment into the Iranian 

energy sector—the buy-back contracts. This article sheds light 

on Iranian concessions, contracts and other forms of investment 

developed, and analyses their legal basis. We review the 

objectives of the buy-back concept and provide a historical 

perspective of its development. We advocate a fundamental 

change of the investment climate by providing incentives 

(financial, economical, tax) and amending the buy-back formula 

through a ‘new method’ to attract local and foreign investment. 

The new legal framework for oil and gas 

activities near the maritime boundaries 

between Mexico and the U.S: comments on the 

Agreement between the United Mexican States 

and the United States of America concerning 

transboundary hydrocarbon reservoirs in the 

Gulf of Mexico 

José Luis Herrera Vaca 

On 20 February 2012, the U.S. and Mexico signed the Agreement 

between the United Mexican States and the United States of 

America Concerning Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in 

the Gulf of Mexico (the ‘Agreement’).1 This Agreement—while 

not in force yet2—is the first serious governmental attempt3 to 

establish a set of rules governing the exploitation of oil and gas 

reservoirs in what both countries see as a real possibility in the 

Gulf of Mexico: shared deposits. The Agreement provides for the 

joint, efficient and equitable exploitation of such reservoirs.4 

This article outlines the main features of the exploitation of 

transboundary hydrocarbon reservoirs provided for in the 

Agreement, new possibilities for cooperation and business 

development between oil and gas companies5 along the 

maritime boundaries whether or not transboundary 

hydrocarbon reservoirs are in place and whether companies 

really need these provisions, or whether exploration of shared 

deposits could successfully take place without the Agreement. 

Colombia’s regulatory and fiscal hydrocarbons 

regime: explaining Colombia’s success and the 

challenges ahead 

Carlos Bellorin Nuñez 

This article deals with Colombia’s current fiscal and contractual 

petroleum regime and how solid institutions have played a role 

in the country’s success in increasing its oil production in a

A complete review by Sam Dunkley will appear in the 

next issue of the JWELB, December 2012. 

relatively short time. 

This article also gives 

an account of some 

of the challenges that 

this country will face in the future 

in order to maintain its position as one of 

the largest hydrocarbons producers in Latin America. 

First legislative actions to shape the 

environment of the shale gas business in 

Poland in 2012: prospects for further changes 

Jędrzej Górski 

In Poland, the new Geological and Mining Law of 9 June 2011 

entered into force on 1 January 2012. Some seemingly minor 

changes introduced by the new law will significantly facilitate 

the operation of mining enterprises that are now prospecting 

for shale gas. What has not been resolved by the new act, 

however, is the fiscal model for the shale business in Poland 

in terms of both the one-off initial fee and the subsequent 

exploitation royalties. 

New Commissioning editor of JWeLB 

Sarah Harris became the Journal’s new commissioning 

editor July 1. She has been a journal commissioning 

editor with OUP since 2005, working on the Journal of IP 

Law & Practice. Prior to that she was a senior publishing 

editor with UK law publisher Sweet & Maxwell, part of 

Thomson Reuters. She has worked in the field of law 

publishing since 1994, and her academic background is 

in Law with French, with an LLM focusing on comparative 

law. 

“Disastrous Decisions – the Human and 

Organisational Causes of the Gulf of Mexico 

blowout” 

Professor Andrew Hopkins 1 

(CCH, paperback, ISBN 978 1 921948 77 0) 

(Reviewer: Sam Dunkley 2 ) 

Summary 

Andrew Hopkins is probably the world’s leading Professor on 

safety issues, but this is no “academic” text. This is a practical 

and readable summary of why the disaster occurred, and what 

the industry needs to do to prevent a recurrence. It will be 

recognised as the leading text in this area, and will be a key 

resource for all stakeholders –politicians, regulators, investors, 

IOCs/NOCs and the drilling and service companies. It should also 

serve as a catalyst for discussions among all these stakeholders 

– including between operators and non-operators. 

In just 194 pages 3 Hopkins summarizes the key themes from 

thousands of pages of reports and literature generated since 

(and before) Macondo on major hazard risk issues. Most 

importantly – as his title indicates – he concentrates mainly not 

on what happened, but why: “It is not enough to know that 

people made mistakes; we need to know why they made these 

mistakes if we are to have any hope of preventing them or others 

from making the same mistakes again.” 

Hopkins wrote in an earlier book - “Mindful leaders feel a 

constant state of unease” 4 . Not every AIPN member is an 

industry “leader”, and clearly the main responsibilities lie with 

our colleagues/clients in line management and relevant 

functions (drilling, operations, safety, procurement, HR). But we 

certainly need to be mindful, share the “state of unease”, and 

contribute to the industry’s improvement efforts to the best of 

our ability. 

We need to study this work and discuss the issues with 

those clients/colleagues, including at Board level. And a related 

issue for us is that the bar is being raised both in terms of the 

liability of directors and officers in some regimes (e.g. the 

developing case law on “corporate manslaughter ” in the UK) 

and arguably in terms of the “reasonable and prudent operator” 

standard under our JOAs. 

Professor Hopkins has done the industry a service in 

producing this remarkable text, building on his experience of 

major accident enquiries over the past 20 years - and we should 

take advantage of it. 

1 Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University, Canberra 

2 Solicitor; Senior Principal Counsel, Upstream, BG Group plc 

3 Including two well chosen appendices and thorough footnotes, bibliography and 

index. 

4 He discusses “mindful leaders” in this 12 minute video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyqNWrkz7hs . Another notable video (55 

minutes) in which he appears briefly is on the Chemical Safety and Hazard 

Investigation Board’s landmark report on the Texas City refinery disaster: 

http://www.csb.gov/investigations/detail.aspx?SID=20&Type=2&pg=1&F_All=y 


Continuing Education 

AIPN hosts major professional 

conferences annually, featuring 

seasoned speakers and panelists 

offering insight into emerging 

trends and issues impacting 

international negotiators. These 

events also provide enjoyable 

forums for networking and 

socializing. 

Important Dates 

NOC Conference 

November 5, 2012 

Hotel reservation deadline 

Negotiation Skills Workshop 


Early registration ends 


Hotel deadline 

Important Dates - 

Membership 

Renewal begins 

October 1, 2012 

Please pay for 2013 Dues by 

December 31, 2012 

Late fees begin 

February 1, 2013 

SeeYou at these Events 

Unpaid members deactivated 

April 1, 2013 


Dispute Resolution in the 

International Oil and Gas 

Business 

October 12 - 13, 2012 

ITC Maurya 

New Delhi, India 

Co-hosted with LCIA India, 

this conference will cover 

current and emerging 

issues in oil and gas 

disputes, investor-state 

disputes, Bilateral 

Investment Treaties, oil and 

gas disputes in the Middle 

East and Asia, how 

damages are assessed in 

energy transactions, and 

more. 

International Conference 

October 21 - 24, 2012 

Windsor Atlantica Hotel 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 

The theme of this year’s 

International Conference is 

“International Oil Industry 

Going to Rio: Capitalizing 

on Latin American 

Growth.” The Windsor 

Atlantica, the newest 5 star 

hotel in Copacabana is 

located near the beautiful 

Copacabana sea and five 

minutes from Ipanema 

Beach. Shopping malls, 

cinemas, theaters, 

fashionable restaurants, 

and lively bars are close to 

the hotel as well as easy 

access to main tourist spots 

and the two airports in Rio 

de Janeiro. 

NOC Conference 

December 4 - 6, 2012 

Landmark Hotel 

London, UK 

The Conference and 

Workshop will feature 

keynote sessions in the 

morning and breakout 

workshops for the 

remainder of each day. This 

interactive event is 

designed for commercial 

and legal representatives of 

national oil and gas 

companies, representatives 

of ministries and agencies 

that interact with or 

oversee the development 

of hydrocarbons, as well as 

geologists, engineers, 

lawyers, and economists. 

The workshops encourage 

participation from 

attendees. Many of you 

have practical experience 

and the workshops are 

designed to explore and 

consider as a group the 

application of that 

knowledge. The event will 

bring together 

professionals, experienced 

teachers and negotiators, 

providing an unparalleled 

opportunity to learn and 

network with active 

negotiators from across the 

industry. We expect leading 

decision makers, deal 

makers, CEOs and others 

from government entities, 

oil companies, law and 

commercial firms to come 

together in London to 

actively participate, 

engaging in the discussions 

and contributing to the 

exchange of information, 

ideas, experience and 

learning. 

Negotiation Skills Workshop 

December 11 - 13, 2012 

The Houstonian Hotel 

Houston, Texas USA 

Come and let more than 

145 years of negotiations 

experience from your AIPN 

colleagues help you 

enhance and broaden your 

negotiating skills. The 

workshop is specifically 

designed to assist 

individuals relatively new 

to commercial negotiations 

and/or the international 

side of the E&P industry; it 

is also a fantastic refresher 

for more senior negotiators 

seeking to sharpen their 

negotiating skills.

ADVISOR - AIPN

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