As of late this year [1], the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy announced that it has issued deadlines for the submission of renewable energy application documents, etc. based on the FIT Act in FY 2017. Upon submission of these applications, etc. they will be reviewed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), however, every year, the review process tends to be stalled because of the large number of applications submitted at the end of the fiscal year ...
In its bill, Extended Environmental Crime Provisions, from earlier this year, the government has proposed extending the scope of offences for environmental crime committed in conjunction with waste management. The proposal means that all waste management that can cause significant pollution, which is harmful to human health, animals or plants or that can cause other significant environmental nuisance is to be punishable. The penalty for the crime is a fine or imprisonment for up to two years ...
Mexico maintains a minimum strategic storage inventory of crude oil and refined oil products, such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, to guarantee market supply for a determined period of time. Under Article 80 Section II of the Hydrocarbons Law, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) has the authority to issue public policies to determine the required strategic storage volumes ...
On December 7, 2017, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) announced the first bidding process for the financing, installation, maintenance, management, and operation of the Baja California Electric System interconnection with the National Grid (“National Grid”). This is the first power transmission project allowing private participation in power transmission lines in Mexico. The estimated investment will be US$1.1 billion ...
The draft laws implementing AMLD 4 set out strict rules to allow for protection against improper access to the information on BOs. At the of 2017, the Luxembourg Parliament published two draft laws to implement new transparency measures provided by Directive 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (“AMLD 4”) ...
As part of the implementation of the Mexican energy reform of 2013, several new regulations and administrative guidelines affecting the hydrocarbons and power industries were issued during November 2017. These are of particular importance to oil and gas producers, midstream companies and power generators, traders and others looking to invest or expand operations in Mexico’s dynamic energy sector. I. Hydrocarbons November 8, 2017 ...
With less than 30 days to go before the new MiFID II regime will be rolled out, funds and management companies/AIFM are increasingly concerned as to how they will be impacted: product governance inducements and payment for research increased client information requirements complex and non-complex products classification How will you be impacted by the new regime? We can help you to get ready! At Arendt, we have built up significant expertise in assisting clients
The Romanian Government has recently approved a draft law on mining activities that is intended to replace the existing law. In order to be enacted, the draft law needs to pass the Parliament test, which means that it will not come into force this year. In addition, the draft can suffer many changes in the parliamentary proceeding ...
In a significant victory for Dinsmore’s attorneys and their clients, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia upheld the continuing viability of subjacent support waivers in coal severance deeds in West Virginia. A copy of the decision, released Nov. 16, 2017, is available here. These were consolidated appeals that required the Court to interpret various provisions of the West Virginia Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act (WVSCMRA) ...
International financial records recently stolen from two offshore services firms and 19 corporate registries maintained by governments were leaked to journalists and their details subsequently published around the world. But beyond the hype, however, we find no intelligent inferences of legal significance in the reporting. For example, the media draws attention to a United States Cabinet member's offshore financial transactions but does not allege that his shipping stake was illegal ...
Californians diverting water should take notice of new measurement and reporting requirements with quickly approaching deadlines. Water right holders diverting between 10 and 100 acre-feet per year have until January 1, 2018, to either (1) install and maintain a measurement device, (2) employ a measurement method capable of measuring the rate of diversion, or (3) submit an alternative compliance plan ...
IRS Announcement 2017-15 provides relief to employees who have been adversely affected by the recent wildfires in Northern California by allowing them to take loans or distributions from retirement plans to alleviate hardships caused by the wildfires. The Announcement also provides relief from verification procedures required under retirement plans with respect to loans and hardship distributions ...
An Important Israeli Court Decision for Dual-Listed Companies: The Liability for Breaches of Reporting Obligations by Dual-Listed Companies Is Governed by the Securities Laws of the Foreign Trading Jurisdiction. In 2017 the Tel Aviv District Court (Economic Division, Judge Kabub) issued a decision in Cohen v. Tower Semiconductor Ltd. et al., C.A ...
On November 13, 2017, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published the Outage Scheduling Guidelines (Manual de Programación de Salidas) (“Guidelines”), establishing the principles of calculation, instructions, rules and procedures that Market Participants, Transporters and Distributors shall observe to schedule their outages and obtain the corresponding authorizations from CENACE; as well as the criteria that CENACE must follow to schedule mid-term outages an
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) announced on November 9, 2017 that it was adding two widely used perfluorinated chemicals to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause reproductive toxicity: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) ...
On November 2, 2017, the State Water Resources Control Board ("State Water Board") published a notice of a proposed water conservation regulation that would permanently prohibit individuals, businesses, and cities, among others, from engaging in certain "wasteful" water practices. The regulation would be part of a new chapter in the California Code of Regulations entitled "Conservation and the Prevention of Waste and Unreasonable Use." See Cal. Code Regs. tit ...
In August 2016, we reviewed publicly available data for a group of 58 E&P companies and predicted how they would fare under the leverage test that had, at the time, recently been introduced by the OCC.Based on that review, we predicted that, in 2016, over 91 percent of the companies reviewed would be non-passing credits under the OCC’s leverage test. The average leverage ratio of the E&P companies reviewed in 2016 was 6.0x ...
During the months of September and October 2017, new regulations and administrative guidelines in the Mexican energy sector were issued. These are of particular importance to oil and gas producers, midstream companies, power generators, traders, developers and others looking to invest or expand operations in Mexico’s dynamic energy sector. I. Hydrocarbons September 5, 2017. NOM-167-SEMARNAT-2017 ...
Contractual negotiations for ships and offshore units commonly involve commercial, legal, and technical teams negotiating different parts of the contract. It is however crucial that before the contract is signed, it is read as a whole to ensure consistency in a party’s obligations throughout the contract. The English Supreme Court’s judgment in MT Højgaard A/S v. E ...
If your estate plan was put in place more than 3 years ago, the plan is likely designed to save estate taxes at the sacrifice of income tax benefits. Estate tax is no longer a concern for married couples owning less than $11 million of assets. We recommend reviewing your estate plan to confirm that it has the flexibility to adapt to tax law changes and to secure income tax benefits ...
Following the collapse of oil prices – from their peak of an average of $112 per barrel to their lowest point of $28 per barrel - a significant number of developments became commercially unviable. During the lowest period, oil prices were substantially lower than the breakeven price of most new developments ...
On September 18, 2017, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos) (“CNH”) called an international public bid for the selection of a partner for Pemex Exploración y Producción (“Pemex”) to pursue exploration and production activities in the Nobilis-Maximino field, located in deep waters in the Perdido Belt in the Gulf of Mexico ...
The Mexican government announced on September 28, 2017 the first bid of Round 3. This will be the sixteenth upstream bid round in Mexico since the enactment of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 3 ...
