This thesis establishes the link between law, democratic governance and the institutional capacity needed for maximum control of hydrocarbon resources by the producer state, with the emphasis particularly on Ghana. The discoveries of hydrocarbon resources under the territorial waters and continental shelf of Ghana has set in motion a review of the pre-existing petroleum legislative framework in the country. The review is aimed at meeting the challenges of the nascent oil and gas industry taking into account modern trends adopted in the management of these resources. Prior to the discoveries, the national oil company, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) performed the role of commercial participation as well as monitoring and regulation of the industry on behalf of the Ministry of Energy. The GNPC also performed policy advisory functions. The position of the GNPC then could aptly be described as a classic case of conflict of interest. The enactment of the Petroleum Commission Act of Ghana, 2011 (Act 821) has, however, redefined the role of GNPC, as the upstream regulatory role is now performed by the Petroleum Commission in conjunction with allied agencies leaving the national oil company to concentrate on commercial activities. The central goal of the thesis is to analyse the extent to which the present regulatory regime related to the present Petroleum Commission Act suffers from the conflict of interest it was actually designed to resolve and to examine the means available to tackle these conflict of interest challenges drawing lessons where appropriate from mature hydrocarbon producing countries such as Norway, the UK and the USA. It is recognised in this thesis that no state can effectively develop its hydrocarbon resources unless it operates a democratic system of governance that promotes the rule of law, checks and balances, and independence of state institutions. It is, therefore, concluded in this thesis that the reformation of the Petroleum Commission itself in terms of the enabling Act and the internal culture and vii innovations within the Commission holds the key to the insulation of the Commission against conflict of interest risks. It is also concluded that constitutional amendments and statutory interventions that touch on Ghana's democratic governance framework with the aim of strengthening the Commission as an independent public agency are ways of tackling the conflict of interest challenges affecting the Commission. Consequently, proposals are made for reform.

Thesis (LLM. (Development and Management Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / In terms of the previous mining legislation in South Africa, mineral rights were held privately and in some instances by the state. The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) now vests all mineral rights in the state. Through the transitional provisions included in the MPRDA, mining companies can convert their existing ‘old order’ rights to prospect and/or mine (previously granted under the now repealed Minerals Act) to the ‘new order’ rights introduced by the MPRDA. The purpose of the MPRDA is to ensure the sustainable utilisation of South Africa’s mineral and petroleum resources within a national environmental framework policy which primarily protects sensitive environments and the interests of affected communities, organisations and individuals, while promoting socio-economic development.

Abstract not available

The settlement of the maritime boundary disputes between China and Japan in the East China Sea, and between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea, is politically deadlocked. While diplomatic settlement efforts have been ongoing for the past several decades, neither side in each case appears prepared to back down from its respective maritime claims. Bilateral consultations and negotiations have been unable to prevent occasional flare-ups and, as tensions remain significantly high, it may not be long before one of the not infrequent confrontations spirals out of control. The existing status quo in each case is unstable and does not favour either side, both from the perceptive of contaminating bilateral relations as a whole, but also to the extent that it holds hostage the multiple benefits that could otherwise be generated from the exploitation of the seabed energy resources in the contested waters. Indeed, while important discoveries of commercial hydrocarbon accumulations have been made, and in fact, some of them are currently being developed in the peripheries of the East China Sea and the Aegean, the full mineral potential of the contested areas remain unproven and unrealised due to the ongoing maritime and territorial conflicts. That being the case, the debate surrounding these two conflicts has progressed to the point where there is an urgent need for a meaningful discussion on finding a practical way forward. It is the purpose of the present thesis to address this need, first, by undertaking a detailed analysis of these disputes on the basis of the legal rules and principles of international law and; second, by critically evaluating possible institutional designs of interstate cooperation on the exploitation of offshore oil and gas resources in disputed areas. This thesis considers that because of the near-impossibility of settling the maritime and territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the Aegean, at least in the short term, and the remote possibility of meaningfully utilising the resources in the given areas while these conflicts persist, provisional interstate cooperation in the form of joint development constitutes the best alternative course of action for disputing states to coordinate the exploration and exploitation of resources without having resorted previously to boundary delimitation settlement. On the basis of the above analysis, this thesis discusses the prospect of realising joint development regimes in the East China Sea and the Aegean and their appropriate institutional design in the light of the legal, historical, political, and geographical characteristics of the disputes in question. The overall aim of the present study is to discern useful guidelines that can be used to inform and support diplomatic discussions on bilateral cooperation over disputed seabed energy resources by addressing three key objectives: - Better understanding of the longstanding East China Sea and Aegean maritime boundary disputes under the rules of the public international law of the sea, as developed to date having regard to international jurisprudence and state practice. - Conceptualisation and better understanding of the legal characteristics and functional benefits of joint development regimes. - Critical evaluation of variations in the design of joint development regimes having regard to successful or unsuccessful precedents in the practice of states.

The African continent is endowed with vast natural resources of minerals, such as cobalt, diamonds, gold, bauxite, iron, platinum, silver, uranium and mineral oil. Oil is unequally distributed in the continent, with some countries, such as Cameroon, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and South Africa, being particularly well endowed. These natural resources can help accelerate development on the continent, especially in Gabon and South Africa if used strategically. This dissertation gives an overview of the international instruments, which play a key role in petroleum legislation and development. At the global level, the international legal instruments related to the permanent sovereignty over natural resources (PSNR), such as the 1962 Resolution 1803 (XVII) on Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources indicates that States have the rights to exploit freely national resources and wealth, use and dispose their natural resources for the realisation of their economic development in accordance with their national interest. The PSNR must be exercised in line with indigenous peoples’ rights and the respect of rules concerning the expropriation. At the African level, with regard to the right to the State to exploit freely natural resources, the African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 1981 has similar provisions as the Resolution 1803. The African (Banjul) Charter specifies that no peoples can be deprived of the right to dispose their natural resources. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is tasked to interpret the African (Banjul) Charter. The Resolution on Human Rights-Based Approach to Natural Resources and Governance has also indicated principles in relation to the governance of natural resources. At the regional level, the Constitutive Treaty of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CAEMC) of 1994 and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Treaty of 1992 do not provide explicit provisions relative to the PSNR and the management of natural resources. Therefore, it is important to examine if at the national level, the domestic instruments of both States deal with the PSNR.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:27:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PedroLMS_DISSERT.pdf: 1243404 bytes, checksum: a66886d7bd50af4f3d588abf9d909100 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-10 / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte / The demands brought by a society doomed to the constant production of global risks, which whose effects are not immediately noticed effects are not perceived immediately, claim from the Law a new Theory about the Risk, that would offer a broad environmental protection, at the same time it would still be compatible with the idea of economic efficiency, required by the Modern Industry. The expansion of the methods and technologies regarding the exploitation and production of oil causes the constant expansion of the exploitable boundaries, especially in ultra-deep waters with the Pre-salt layer, in Brazil, or the still incipient research about the polymetallic nodules and other mineral sources in international waters, like the Atl?ntico Sudoeste, by the Programme on Ocean Science in Relation do Non Living Resources (OSNLR), a global study performed in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, from UNESCO (IOC UNESCO) and also with the Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS). Thus, we aim to analyze the correlation, and possible collisions between the right to a balanced environment and the free exercise of economic activity and the occurrence of environmental damages from the perspective of the exploitation activities of oil and other natural resources in international waters, specifically in the Area, from the constitutional principle of sustainable development and its legitimacy by the environmental international protection. Therefore, this study also aims to evaluate the legal framework for exploration and production of oil in international waters, particularly in the Area, and appraise how the constitutional instruments and mechanisms for environmental protection can impact on the international environmental protection system in order to ensure the present and future generations an ecologically balanced environment, laid down in Article 225 of the Brazilian Constitution, even with so many risks posed by the activities of exploitation and production of oil in international waters. In the meantime, we intend to also intend to investigate the possibility of future liability for environmental damage in order to ensure that constitutional principle and, consequently, and try to define the concept of environmental damage and its implications on the constitutional principle of environmental protection. Given all that was in summary, this work aims to contribute to the evolution of the new Theory of Environmental Risk, turning the law into something more than a punitive or corrective element in this society, but into a legal risk management, that may be triggered even before the consolidation of the damage / As exig?ncias requeridas por uma Sociedade fadada ? produ??o constante de riscos globais, cujos efeitos n?o s?o percebidos imediatamente, exigem do Direito uma nova Teoria do Risco que ofere?a uma prote??o ambiental mais completa, e da mesma forma seja compat?vel com os ideais de efici?ncia econ?mica requeridos pela Ind?stria moderna. Com a expans?o dos m?todos e tecnologias no que diz respeito ? explora??o e produ??o de petr?leo, h? tamb?m a constante amplia??o das fronteiras explor?veis, notadamente em ?guas ultra-profundas com a Camada Pr?-Sal, no Brasil, ou as ainda incipientes pesquisas de n?dulos polimet?licos e outros recursos minerais em ?guas internacionais, na ?rea, a exemplo do Atl?ntico Sudoeste pelo Programme on Ocean Science in Relation to Non Living Resources (OSNLR), um estudo global compartilhado com a Intergovernamental Oceanographic Commission, da UNESCO (IOC UNESCO) e com a Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS). Dessa maneira, almeja-se analisar a correla??o existente, e as eventuais colis?es, entre o direito ao meio ambiente equilibrado e o livre exerc?cio da atividade econ?mica, bem como a ocorr?ncia de dano ambiental na perspectiva das atividades de explora??o de petr?leo e de outros recursos naturais em ?guas internacionais, especificamente na ?rea, sob a luz do princ?pio constitucional do desenvolvimento sustent?vel e sua legitima??o pela tutela internacional do meio ambiente. Assim, pretende tamb?m o presente trabalho avaliar o regime jur?dico da explora??o e produ??o de petr?leo em ?guas internacionais, notadamente na ?rea, e avaliar, nesse contexto, como podem os instrumentos e mecanismos constitucionais de prote??o ambiental imiscuir-se na esfera de internacional prote??o ao meio ambiente como forma de garantir ?s presentes e futuras gera??es um meio ambiente ecologicamente equilibrado, previsto no artigo 225 da Constitui??o Federal, mesmo diante de tantos riscos apresentados pela atividade de explora??o e produ??o de petr?leo em ?guas internacionais. Nesse ?nterim, pretende-se, ainda, investigar a possibilidade de responsabiliza??o futura do dano ambiental como forma de garantir esse postulado constitucional e, para tanto, ambiciona-se delimitar o conceito de dano ambiental e suas implica??es diante do princ?pio constitucional da prote??o ao meio ambiente. Diante de tudo o que fora exposto, pretende este trabalho contribuir para a evolu??o da nova Teoria do Risco Ambiental, transformando o Direito em algo mais que um elemento corretivo ou punitivo nessa sociedade, mas que seja um instrumento jur?dico de gest?o de riscos, podendo ser acionado antes mesmo da consolida??o do dano

The resource curse is a defining feature of the African content. Despite vast resource wealth, Africa remains the poorest and most underdeveloped continent in the world. The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the primary laws regulating of oil and gas exploration and product activities in Angola, Nigeria and South Africa in order to determine their effectiveness in protecting the continent's depleting petroleum resources. Different regulatory models apply to Angola, following the Norwegian carried-interest model, Nigeria, where a British discretionary model has been retained, an a South africa, where a unique model has been developed. The comparison is conducted by analysing and comparing these different regulatory systems in terms of legal frameworks; the legal nature of the regulatory systems; ownership of the oil and gas resources; legal nature of licenses; organisational or institutional structures; fiscal systems; local communities benefits from these proceeds of oil and gas resources; local content; state/government participation arrangements; and environmental challenges. The study evaluates the effectiveness of these regimes by examining the extent to which they recognise and enforce state ownership of he oil and gas resourcs in situ; recognise and enforce the doctrine of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (PSNR); protect the environment; how they provide for institutional capacities for the management of resources; and the protection of local communities from exploitation and abuse by recognising their rights to benefit from revenues derived from these resources. An overall assessment of the three systems reveals that there is no ideal model for oil and gas regulation in Africa. The Norwegian model might well be considered an ideal model if it was applied with care and correctly in Angola. The study hopes to gain practical importance for the proper regulationof the oil and gas industries' upstream activities in Africa and assist governments of the selected jurisdictions in their policy revisions, as some recommendations are made. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

The resource curse is a defining feature of the African content. Despite vast resource wealth, Africa remains the poorest and most underdeveloped continent in the world. The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the primary laws regulating of oil and gas exploration and product activities in Angola, Nigeria and South Africa in order to determine their effectiveness in protecting the continent's depleting petroleum resources. Different regulatory models apply to Angola, following the Norwegian carried-interest model, Nigeria, where a British discretionary model has been retained, an a South africa, where a unique model has been developed. The comparison is conducted by analysing and comparing these different regulatory systems in terms of legal frameworks; the legal nature of the regulatory systems; ownership of the oil and gas resources; legal nature of licenses; organisational or institutional structures; fiscal systems; local communities benefits from these proceeds of oil and gas resources; local content; state/government participation arrangements; and environmental challenges. The study evaluates the effectiveness of these regimes by examining the extent to which they recognise and enforce state ownership of he oil and gas resourcs in situ; recognise and enforce the doctrine of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (PSNR); protect the environment; how they provide for institutional capacities for the management of resources; and the protection of local communities from exploitation and abuse by recognising their rights to benefit from revenues derived from these resources. An overall assessment of the three systems reveals that there is no ideal model for oil and gas regulation in Africa. The Norwegian model might well be considered an ideal model if it was applied with care and correctly in Angola. The study hopes to gain practical importance for the proper regulationof the oil and gas industries' upstream activities in Africa and assist governments of the selected jurisdictions in their policy revisions, as some recommendations are made. / Economics / LLD.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished