Default provision in decommissioning phase in joint operating agreements

The end of an oil field does not mean the end of operating costs for the companies involved in the project and One of the most costly stages of any oil project is the decommissioning. This step is basically costly and without economic income for oil companies, considering that it is the last step in implementing an oil project and this has led to oil companies in many cases to default their obligations at this stage. The Joint Operating Agreement is the major legal framework under which oil companies will implement this stage in partnership. Examining the current approaches in the oil industry worldwide and surveying the disadvantages of them and finally providing practical suggestions to prevent breaches of obligations are the topics that will be study in this article. The result is that improving the efficiency and modifying some of the current mechanisms is a more appropriate way other than creating a new approach to this problem.