© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the AIPN. All rights reserved.
Editor’s Note
I am delighted to launch this new journal, a product of a joint venture between the Oxford University Press and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). Our purpose is to provide a journal that offers a multi-disciplinary analysis of issues concerning the international energy industry. The industry is defined as upstream and downstream petroleum (oil and gas) and ‘energy’ sectors (ie those industries which produce, transport and disseminate electricity out of such varied conventional and non-conventional energy sources such as coal, uranium, wind and solar power) and those new technologies that emerge and become economically feasible.The journal will strive to combine academic excellence with professional relevance and a strong industry focus. We wish to appeal to the professional, corporate, governmental, non-governmental and academic communities. The purpose of the Journal of World Energy Law and Business (JWELB) is to fill the gap between the perspective and the approach of the various disciplines focusing on international energy, ie to become the principal forum for an inter-disciplinary dialogue.
The understanding of the commercial and legal dimension of the energy industries has always been hampered by the boundaries academia and the culture of professions have erected around each other. I have previously stressed that "leading practitioners and scholars have always been able to sharpen their analysis and application of law and contractual commercial transactions by a more than superficial understanding of the forces which underlie and determine the law". The overly strict separation between the professional disciplines and their perspectives has not gone away but this new journal is built on the premise that a multi-disciplinary approach to the energy industries is a much better way to understand how the oil, gas and other energy industries function. Our aim is therefore to encourage an inter-disciplinary dialogue with and between our authors; that requires intelligibility across the borders of the authors’ specialities.
To understand the energy business and its regulatory, political and commercial challenges properly, industry professionals and their advisors need to understand the legal framework in which it operates and the forms and enforcement mechanisms for the commercial transaction it employs. Equally, they need to understand the key drivers for the modern energy business: the market structure (which is currently undergoing a major change, with the concentration of oil and gas production and reserves in the hands of very few major producing states and the new state oil and gas companies replacing the former ‘Seven Sisters’); and also the strong and persistent drive in particular Western countries towards energy efficiency, non-hydrocarbon energy sources and emission controls under the headings of both energy security and climate change.
Fifteen years ago, there was full enthusiasm over the flow of Western investment into Russia and other CIS countries. That enthusiasm has gone, but we now see ‘Sovereign Wealth Funds’ and investment rather flowing from China, India and the major oil and gas producing countries. Similarly, the early 1990s were a time of privatisation and post-privatisation energy regulations. At present, we have rather a backlash against these privatisations and the original high expectations for independent regulators to deliver efficient and competitive markets and energy security have become much more muted. The investments entered in the low-price and low-point-of-the-cycle times are being questioned by governments situated on – possibly and arguably – the peak of the resource industries’ cycle.
Environmental challenges then identified are still with us, though the overarching issue is now not only the localised environmental problems (which persist, for example in the Niger Delta, Lake Maracaibo and elsewhere), but also the global challenge of the contribution of energy industries to climate change. Nuclear industry, the unwanted energy industry of the past, is now having a revival, both in terms of energy security and as the one major energy producer that does not produce CO2 emissions. The focus in the coming decade will be on the potential of the energy industries in helping to create constructive solutions in a context of national and international regulations, competitive markets and clearly established property and contract rights functioning effectively under the ‘rule of law’. The interaction between business (private or state-owned) and the state will continue to raise difficult questions, for example with respect to the transparency of the financial relationship between companies and the state or the inclusion of indigenous and local communities in the decision-making processes.
The march towards global markets and the global nature of the oil and gas industry, as well as, to some extent, electricity industries, has continued. We see throughout the world standardised model contracts, contracting practice, legal standards and international systems of – largely arbitral – adjudication, both through commercial and investment treaty (and Energy Charter Treaty)-based arbitrations.
It is our aim to address the full geographical scope and diversity of the energy sector, to encompass a worldwide community of professionals. This is not an easy task: the centre of energy expertise – commercial, legal, technical, intellectual and academic – has traditionally been in the energy producing countries of the West. As the centres both of energy production and even, in the future, of energy consumption, move to the producing and large consuming countries (foremost China and India), professionals in these emerging economies will have to acquire a proper weight and voice in global media such as the JWELB. We will therefore have to try to manage both resistance from one side and reluctance from the other. It is not only a matter of transferring expertise, but also of the creation of a global community of energy professionals.
The journal has two impressive sponsors: (i) Oxford University Press to guarantee rigorous quality control and (ii) the AIPN, a most dynamic and enterprising professional association of petroleum negotiators, to provide a solid grounding in and link to professional practice in the oil, gas and energy industries. We have also, under the chairmanship of Tim Martin, the driving force behind the process leading to the JWELB, put together an outstanding Editorial Board. We will continue to develop and fine-tune the content to enhance the quality, scope and diversity of this new energy venture.
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