Action: On August 20, 2014, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Risk Management, Financial Assurance and Loss Prevention.1 In a news release announcing the ANPR, BOEM described the ANPR as instituting a “dialogue” with industry and others on how to improve its risk management program by “modernizing” its current regulations, which are approximately 20 years old.Comments on the ANPR are due October 20, 2014 ...
The Polish Parliament is working on a bill known as the “Landscape Act,” which is intended to introduce effective mechanisms for protecting the landscape. But an unintended consequence could be to block the construction of aerial masts, power lines and wind turbines, rather than merely regulate their location. The Sejm is currently working on a bill proposed by the President of Poland entitled the Act Amending Certain Acts to Strengthen Tools for Protection of the Landscape ...
This morning, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) filed a proposed interpretive rule (the “Interpretive Rule”) with the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office implementing, in part, the recent Aboveground Storage Tank Act (the “AST Act”), which was enacted in response to the January 9, 2014 event that contaminated the water supply of approximately 300,000 West Virginia residents across nine counties ...
The Energy Law is to permit industrial users to obtain certificates of origin and present them for redemption for only a portion of the electricity they purchase. But the future of this support mechanism has been called into question. The rule introduced by the 26 July 2013 act amending Poland’s Energy Law limits the obligation imposed on industrial users to support the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) and high-efficiency cogeneration (CHP) ...
The Law 1450 of 2011 by means of which it was issued the National Development Plan for the period 2011-2014 provided in its article 112 the creation of a Single Registry of Marketers of Minerals ("RUCOM" by its acronyms in Spanish), which is managed by the National Mining Agency ("ANM" by its acronyms in Spanish) in order to control the marketing of minerals in Colombia ...
Based on a recent decision in West Virginia’s 3rd Judicial Circuit, which includes Doddridge, Pleasants and Ritchie counties, the use of litigation in the form of partition suits may be more problematic than it otherwise has been for oil and gas operators attempting to acquire property interests to create efficient drilling units for their planned wells. The Court’s decision (described below) denied a mineral interest owner’s request to partition by sale under W. Va. Code § 37-4-1 et seq ...
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPR”) on September 24, 2014 seeking comments on improving safety for operations related to helicopters, helidecks and aviation fuel systems on fixed offshore facilities. Comments on the ANPR are due November 24, 2014. The ANPR was issued just days after BSEE and the U.S ...
Offsite drilling is becoming increasing prevalent in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. Consequently, many in the industry were closely following a dispute between two neighboring operators in the Eagle Ford Shale area in which one operator opposed a neighboring operator’s plans to use offsite drilling. On October 29, 2014, the San Antonio Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiff lease owner, Lightning Oil Co ...
It has long been known that Greenland possesses vast amounts of mineral resources. But due to climate changes, resulting in a rapid meltdown of ice caps in the Arctic regions, it is now getting easier to discover and exploit the mineral resources. The costs of exploring and exploiting minerals continue to decrease, and many experts believe that Greenland will become the next frontier within the mining industry ...
On December 2, 2014, the Yukon Supreme Court struck down the Yukon government’s Peel watershed regional land use plan because of the government’s failure to follow the process for developing that plan under final agreements (modern treaties) with the Na-Cho Nyak Dun, Tr’ondek Hwech’in and Vuntut Gwichin First Nations ...
Action: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued a final rule increasing the limit of liability for damages under the Oil Pollution Act to $133.65 million. BOEM’s Final Rule: On December 12, 2014, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a final rule that, effective January 12, 2015, will increase from $75 million to $133 ...
The Head of the National Agency for Food and Drug Control (BPOM) has issued Regulation No. 11 of 2014 on The Procedure for the Certification of Good Manufacturing Practices, ensuring compliance with the applicable standards for processed food. Regulation 11 has been in force since 5 August 2014 ...
As part of the implementation of the Energy Reform, the Mexican Government has selected certain areas and fields out of Round One which will be tendered for private industry participation in hydrocarbon exploration and production projects. Round One comprises 109 blocks for exploration and 60 blocks for production, and includes new areas of different sizes and types of resources, including: (i) deep-water; (ii) shallow-water; and (iii) on-shore fields ...
Oil markets have fallen significantly since the latest round of borrowing base redeterminations in September and October. The next scheduled round of redeterminations is set for March. Expectations are that there will be substantial downward pressure on producers’ borrowing bases. Some reductions could trigger mandatory principal amortization which would have serious consequences for highly leveraged oil and gas companies ...
Policy & Law: What is the government policy and legislative framework for the electricity sector? Securing energy supply, competitive energy prices and meeting the European Union’s common energy and climate goals are core elements of policy in the Finnish electricity sector ...
The Brazilian Ministry for Mines and Energy has issued Ordinance No. 653, which outlines the procedures for the A-5 Power Bid to be held on April 30, 2015. The bid will auction Regulated Market Energy Commercialization Contracts (CCEAR) to be negotiated on two fronts: (i) Quantity for hydroelectric power plants, and (ii) Availability for coal-fired plants, natural gas-fired combined cycle plants and biomass ...
On January 15th, Resolution DGA N° 3,438 was published. It contains a list of water rights subject to the payment of a fine for lack of use. The fine must be paid during the month of March, 2015. The term to contest such resolution is 30 days, as counted from the date of publishing. To review the list of water rights affected by the payment of fines for non-use click here ...
You can’t open up the paper these days without news of declining oil prices and fears of uncertainty for the oil and gas industry. As part of Haynes and Boone’s alert series on this topic, we continue our review, this time focusing on the contango spread and how market participants are responding. It seems like there is a sprint taking place to lock in the benefits of the current contango spread ...
The Texas Supreme Court recently declined to reach a question of significant interest to energy companies and landowners—whether deep subsurface wastewater migration can give rise to trespass liability when the wastewater crosses lease lines. See Envt’l Processing Sys., L.C. v. FPL Farming Ltd., No. 12-0905 (Tex. Feb. 6, 2015) ...
Under Regulation No. 122/M-IND/PER/12/2014 on Delegation of Authority to Grant Industrial Business Licenses to the Head of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board, the MOT has delegated its authority to issue certain licenses to BKPM. Business licenses delegated consist: 1. Industrial Business License and/or Expansion Licenses as follows: a. alcoholic beverages industry; b. valuable paper industry; c. weapons and ammunition industry; d ...
Prior articles in our series demonstratedways to stretch a borrowing base and how to address defaults on oil and gasloans. If a producer ultimately finds itself with a shrunken borrowing base andlimited liquidity, the producer in turn might not be able to pay balances dueto its contractors. An unpaid contractor may be able to file a mechanic’s andmaterialman’s (“M&M”) lien on the producer’s mineral property ...
The new Myanmar Electricity Law was enacted by the Myanmar Parliament on October 27 last year, replacing the old Electricity Law of 1984. The old electricity law was enacted during Myanmar’s socialist period and lacked the legal framework to include private sector participation in power projects and independent power producers ...
The new Myanmar Electricity Law was enacted by the Myanmar Parliament on October 27 last year, replacing the old Electricity Law of 1984. The old electricity law was enacted during Myanmar’s socialist period and lacked the legal framework to include private sector participation in power projects and independent power producers ...
On March 1st, 2015, the federal Minister of Finance, Joe Oliver, and the federal Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford, announced important new measures to support Canada’s mining industry in a speech at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2015 Convention ...
In an opinion that should give pause to mineral lessors, the Texas Supreme Court revisited the scope of the duty that an executive rights holder owes a non-executive, holding that a lessor’s negotiation of an above-market bonus (for itself) and below-market royalty (shared with the non-executive) may give rise to liability to the non-executive.KCM Financial LLC v. Bradshaw, No. 13-0199, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 220, --- S.W.3d --- (Tex. Mar. 6, 2015) ...