Cross-Border Oil and Gas Transactions in Private International Law: Concept, Types, and Features of Regulation

The paper proposes to refer to cross-border oil and gas transactions as contracts mediating relations in the field of international circulation of hydrocarbons. These include all transactions complicated by a foreign element (foreign entity, object, legal fact) and concluded regarding the exploration, development, processing, transfer, transportation of oil and gas as a commodity in the course of entrepreneurial and investment activities. Based on the Russian and foreign doctrine of private international law, the author examines the most common transactions in the industry, analyzes their features, and also proposes a basic classification of contractual structures. In the absence of a wide range of international treaties governing cross-border oil and gas transactions, the author concludes that the conflict of laws method of determining the applicable law is dominant. The importance of non-state regulators lex petrolea is noted, capable of complementing, but not replacing, national legal regulation.

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