Expertise
Energy, Power & Clean Energy
Oil and gas service contracts and subcontracts, power plant and IPP arrangements, and the emerging solar and clean energy projects, for operators, developers, contractors and suppliers.
The energy sector is where much of the foreign investment in Iraq is, and its contracts have a logic of their own. The oil and gas service contracts with the Ministry of Oil and the regional operating companies, the power plant and IPP arrangements with the Ministry of Electricity, and the chain of EPC, drilling, workover and service subcontracts beneath them are governed by Iraqi law and by ministry practice that is not written anywhere. Our lawyers have worked in this sector since the preparation of the First Licensing Round in 2008 and under the parallel regime of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and we advise on what the operator can pass down to a subcontractor and what it cannot, on local content and Iraqi employment obligations, on the cost-recovery and tax treatment of services, and on the permits, passes and clearances the field requires.
Power and clean energy are a growing part of the practice. Iraq's gas-to-power and solar programmes, the independent power producer and power purchase arrangements with the Ministry of Electricity, and the provincial and investment-licence routes for solar farms raise questions of land, licensing, tariff, grid connection and guarantee that we work through with developers, lenders and contractors.
We also act for the companies in the second and third tier, the drilling, engineering, logistics and catering contractors who often carry the compliance risk in practice: registration, the tax and social security regime applicable to the project, work permits and passes for their staff, and disputes with the prime contractor or the operator over payment, variations and termination.
Typical matters
- Subcontracts under oil and gas service contracts; EPC, EPCC, O&M, drilling and workover agreements
- Operator audit and cost-recovery issues as they affect contractors
- Local content and Iraqi hiring ratios
- IPP, PPA and investment-licence structuring for power plants and solar farms
- Permits, passes and clearances in the southern fields and the KRG
- Termination and claims under energy sector contracts
- Tax and withholding treatment of transfers of interest and cross-border consideration