ABSTRACT
Increasing government returns is the goal of all oil-producing countries. Therefore, there is intensive competition in negotiating oil and gas contracts throughout the world. This chapter considers the variety of current oil and gas contractual frameworks utilised in the global industry such as the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), Joint Venture (JV) agreement, service contract, and buy-back contract as well as current oil and gas contracts in Iran. These contractual forms are examined by taking into consideration that the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of the classic concession contract (CCC) and new concession contract (NCC) have been considered in previous chapters. This analysis in this chapter links to main questions 2, 3 and 4.
The previous chapters provided a critique of the CCC in comparison to the NCC through an analysis of the history, contractual terms and national approaches adopted by developed and developing nations. It was argued that the NCC appears to better serve the national interests of oil rich nations such as Iran. Before undertaking a detailed analysis of relevant Iranian oil and gas regimes, this chapter compares the strengths and weaknesses of the NCC in relation to these other contractual forms.
