This book analyzes the development policies behind the evolution of various arrangements for international petroleum exploitation. By studying examples of the principal categories of petroleum arrangements in four representative developing countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil and China), this study examines in particular the issues of recent trends and new directions in contractual development and environmental sustainability that are reflected in both the structure and substance of the modern petroleum contracts that have emerged since the 1950s. Modern petroleum contracts are generally able to achieve a greater commerciality and mutuality of interests, but they have failed to produce a necessary balance between resources extraction and environmental sustainability. The future direction for petroleum agreements is that they must explicitly recognize the inherent interdependence of commercial viability and sustainable development.

"This book addresses aspects of international law relating to petroleum contracts, examining oil and gas agreements between states and private companies and their intersection with rules of international law...The book covers topics such as the nature of international petroleum contracts, petroleum agreements as state contracts, issues of contract stability, the development of bilateral investment treaties, natural resource cycles, political risks and the specific petroleum policies of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the International Development Association."--

The book addresses the topic of a contractual balance between host state and foreign investor interests, which is highly desired for a mutually beneficial development of an international petroleum production project. While identifying the notion, types and ways for investments into such projects, this work enumerates and explains the respective interests of the parties involved. The study systematically examines the structure of a basic petroleum agreement and its specific provisions used to protect the balance of interests. It also evaluates the fundamental legal differences of the classical international petroleum contract models. By comparing subsoil and investment legislations in all five countries of the Central Asian region, i.e. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (with a separate attention devoted to the first state), this research elucidates legal investment climates created by these recipient countries for foreign investors wishing to inject funds in their petroleum production industries.