The International Legal Structure of Petroleum Exploration

Whatever may be said of lawyers in general, those who have been involved in oil industry matters have for the most part, been imaginative people. They frequently have had to deal with problems with which the law as originally formulated is not familiar, and, just as the industry itself functions on the fringes of the physical sciences, as it does, for example, in the North Sea, oil lawyers often work on the fringes of legal science. They have had to invent contractual structures where originally there has been little or no relevant law (for example, the early Middle East Concessions), or alternatively, to invent new concepts to meet new situations — production — and profit-sharing arrangements, joint venture arrangements, risk-sharing agreements, technical service contracts and so on. Petroleum law has to be as dynamic as the oil industry itself. It simply cannot lag behind.