Live Webinar: "UK MER in its International Context"
12:00 p.m. BST (UTC +1) Thursday, July 30, 2020 - The webinar will last 2 hours (inclusive of Q&A)
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Uisdean Vass, Head of Oil & Gas, Ledingham Chalmers
Tina Soliman Hunter, Professor of Energy and Resources Law, University of Aberdeen
Keith Hall, Professor of Energy Law, Louisiana State University
Moderator: Jim Christie, Principal, Decide Wisely
All are invited to join AIPN for this live webinar organized by the Europe Chapter (Aberdeen section).
In 2014, the landmark Wood Review called for a new system of offshore petroleum regulation in the UKCS which we loosely refer to as “Maximising Economic Recovery” (MER). There is no “official definition” of MER but it can be summed up best by saying that licensees, operators and infrastructure owners are obligated to maximise economic recovery of UK petroleum not only from their own licences and assets but from across the UKCS. MER has been enacted into law through certain provisions of the Infrastructure Act of 2015 and the Energy Act of 2016. The latter act also provided the legal basis for the creation of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), the new UKCS petroleum regulator. The substantive “guts” of MER are however, principally to be found in a 2016 regulation composed of 34 Paragraphs called the MER Strategy. The OGA has this year held a public consultation on proposals to revise the MER Strategy, and this consultation closes on 29 July.
Given that the UK MER is ambitious and so new and evolving, we want to take the opportunity to summarise how UK MER actually works to a worldwide AIPN and industry audience and to compare these workings with the advanced petroleum regimes of Norway, Australia and the USA. A lot of useful thinking over a long period has been done on the very issues addressed by MER in these important comparator regimes. This analysis will allow us to put UK MER in its appropriate international context. American colleagues will know that the acronym “MER” has a long history in the USA as “Maximum Efficient Rate”.
After Jim Christie has introduced the subject and speakers, Uisdean Vass will synthesize the key points of UK MER, followed by Professor Soliman Hunter who will highlight the differences in maximizing petroleum recovery in Australia and Norway, drawing contrasts with the UK and providing fresh perspectives on each of these jurisdictions' approaches. Professor Hall will summarize the important aspects of U.S. law relevant to maximizing economic recovery.
Speakers will present until 1:20 p.m. then answer questions from the audience until 2:00 p.m.
Registration is complimentary for members and $5 for non-members. Please register at the link to the right. After registering, additional details will be provided via email on how to access the live webinar.
Special thanks to webinar sponsors:
