Introduction
From their very inception, oil agreements/contracts have embodied dynamic processes between states, as sovereign owners or guarantors/regulators of rights to a country’s petroleum wealth, and individuals/oil-companies that contract to develop this wealth. They are living documents, which respond to their special location (local/regional/international) as well as the varied dimensions of society (social, economic, political, and environmental), in which they are situated. Contracts are also interactive; they drive societal responses as well.
Today’s column briefly portrays how Guyana-type production sharing agreements (PSAs) have responded to these societal forces.
Cost recovery
Responding to concerns about how