CEPMLP Dundee : AIPN Study on Unitization published mid-2005 (2)

 

 

17/12/2005

 

A study on international unitization appears in mid-2005 upon the initiative of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), and was funded by a grant from it. The printed article is indicated as representing not necessarily the opinion of the association.

 

The AIPN study on unitization is the result of the search work performed within the framework of a joint project between Houston co-authors and Dundee co-authors.

The Houston authors are Jacqueline Lang Weaver of the University of Houston Law Center and David F. Asmus of Baker Botts. Its Dundee co-authors bring together a team of the Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law & Policy (CEPMLP), led by Thomas Wälde, and James G. Ross of Ross Petroleum Limited. Project manager was Elizabeth Bastida of CEPMLP. Other Dundee authors are Salim Mahmud and Adaeze Ifesi.

 

The joint work came out and is available under the full title 'International Unitization of Oil and Gas Fields : the Legal Framework of International Law, National Law, and Private Contracts'(2005). It is a text of 140 pages divided into 9 Sections.

The Houston authors were responsible fo Sections 2 through 5, more especially devoted to comparative law. The Dundee co-authors were responsible for Sections 6 through 8, more especially devoted to public international law.

 

On an academic level, the AIPN study deals with the multi-layered legal framework of unitization as between States - international - and points out ultimately a customary rule of current international law requiring a global and rigid obligation to negotiate.
A special focus is given to unitization as a 'fundamental  principle' (page 139), however the joint article does not deemed the unitization to have the legal status of a rule of international customary law 'yet' (ibid.).

 

In march 2005, Jean-Pierre Bouvet as author of L'Unité de Gisement (1997 thesis & 2004 printed book) was honoured to receive an express demand from Thomas Wälde of the CEPMLP for a paper review of the AIPN Final Draft. A short notice was done on the matter within a few brief days, and headed 'Some Observations, regarding the AIPN Draft' (march 2005), delivered in march to Thomas Wälde and Elizabeth Bastida.