Showing posts with label Globe Law and Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Globe Law and Business. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

A tailored guide to minerals and mining

Mining and quarrying together with oil & gas prospection complete the extractive industries landscape. Minerals have myriad uses in several key sectors of the world economy. Specifically in the oil & gas world, minerals used in the drilling process (e.g. - barytes, bentonites and frac sands) are key components of the hydrocarbon extraction processes.
 
Within this global setting, exploration, logistics and allied businesses are frequently impacted by constantly evolving commercial, legal, health and safety and cross-jurisdictional due diligence scenarios. Furthermore, professionals in the business as well as corporate project sponsors also need to keep abreast of technical and scientific matters ahead of a project feasibility study.
 
The book – Minerals and Mining: A Practical Global Guide – not only seeks to address an information gap in sector but also hopes to mitigate the information overload in this day and age. This succinct handy guide of just under 300 pages dwells on key legal and commercial concerns of the minerals and mining world. Various aspects of the subject at hand are examined by industry professionals via 19 detailed chapters.
 
Each chapter has been authored by jurisdictional experts ranging from Argentina to Russia  who work for some of the most recognisable brands in the legal and advisory business – including, but not limited to Allen & Overy, Norton Rose, SNR Denton and KPMG.
 
Topics include regulations, agreements, tariffs on minerals and mining; legal processes concerning  licences, concessions, production sharing and mining development agreements; financing; mining management and operating facets and last but not the least - the sale and purchase of mining assets. Additionally, mineral trading, environmental protection, social responsibility, accounting and taxation in various jurisdictions have also been examined.
 
The treatment of Latin American nations – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru – stands out for its veracity. However, it is the detailed chapters on emerging scenarios in Africa that sealed the deal for the Oilholic. As with works of this nature, consulting editor Per Vestergaard Pedersen of Lett Law Firm has done a commendable job of knitting this book of experts together. He has also authored an informative chapter on Greenland; a jurisdiction where mining activities have grown exponentially between 2002 and 2012.
 
On the whole, as expected the book is aimed at professionals with a mid-tier and upwards knowledge of the sector. The Oilholic believes it would make a handy and informative reference guide for legal practitioners and financiers. Executives at advisory firms, banks, engineering consultants and mining, shale, oilfield drilling project EPC contractors would appreciate it as well.
 
© Gaurav Sharma 2012. Photo: Front Cover – Minerals and Mining: A Practical Global Guide © Globe Law and Business

Friday, March 02, 2012

An apt legal book for a complex LNG business!

The LNG business has evolved more over the last ten years than it ever did over the preceding five decades. From a point in time in history when energy majors considered finding gas a disappointment during exploration and production drives to the present multijurisdictional nature of the LNG business; the transformation has been truly unique. All the while, challenges posed by the low price of natural gas, gas-oil price differential, overcapacity in some markets and the perceived US shale gas bonanza lurk in the backdrop. Inevitably, disputes arise and many end up in court.

Currently, in its second edition, the book Liquefied Natural Gas: The Law and Business of LNG, a compendium of thoughts from authors with a legal background, attempts to address the information appetite for legal, regulatory, political and practical elements of the LNG chain. This edition of just fewer than 300 pages split by fourteen chapters – each of which has been authored by a legal industry expert – is a handy reference guide.

Structuring and financing of LNG projects, LNG trading, sale and purchase agreements, shipping, FLNG, import terminals have all been examined and in some detail. Two brilliant chapters specifically dwell on the natural gas price reopeners vis-à-vis English law and Shale gas. Content of this book should sit happily on any legal expert’s bookshelf, especially those involved in the due diligence for LNG projects and allied infrastructure including import and export terminals.

It would be unfair to pick a few favourites as the whole volume is a thoroughly good read, but if asked which ones the Oilholic particularly liked, then they would be Matthew Griffiths’ chapter on Floating LNG, David Gardner’s on LNG Shipping and Paul Griffin’s introduction to the whole volume. The latter beautifully sums up the evolving nature of the LNG business (and indeed the publisher’s commercial reason for bringing out a second edition).

As a regional business has slowly evolved or quickly morphed – depending on your point of view – into a truly global one, it is also perceived as a minefield for disputes, more so in an era of resource nationalism. In such a setting, this book more than fulfils its pragmatic purpose for legal professionals whether you are a private practitioner or one attached to a commercial establishment ranging from utilities to banking.

As with a specialist title of this nature, you will need a mid to high level of industry knowledge to fully appreciate the book, should you have a non-legal remit within the energy business. While envisaged as a written work aimed at legal professionals and industry experts, it is the Oilholic's considered viewpoint that it would be well worth the while of law and energy business students and academics to glance at this title too.

© Gaurav Sharma 2012. Photo: Front Cover (Second Edition) – Liquefied Natural Gas: The Law and Business of LNG © Globe Law and Business.