::: RUSENERGYLAW Journal ::: #1'2005

RusEnergyLaw JOURNAL • Archive/1'2005

Pavel Bakoulev and Jonathan Cahn
2004 Changes in Russian Oil and Gas Legislation

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Irina Paliashvili
Improving the Conditions for Enterprise Development and the Investment Climate for Domestic and International Investors in Ukraine

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Saule Akhmetova
Legal Environment for Service Companies

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

William Tompson
Russia's Power Sector Reform: Creating Robust Competition or a Potemkin Market? (Part I)

.PDF version /Free Access/ .HTML version /Free Access/

Andrei Konoplyanik
The Energy Charter Treaty: Dispute Resolution Machanisms and the Yukos Case

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Russia
Recent Court Rulings Support Taxpayers in VAT Set-Off Dispute
Land Re-Classification Law Finally Comes Into Effect
Requirement to Notarize Mortgage Agreements Abolished
Amendments to Joint Stock Company Law Proposed
Legislative Alert: Amendments to Joint Stock Company Law Proposed
Chapter 31 of the RF Tax Code "Land Tax"
New Schedule of Customs Clearance

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Kazakhstan

Law of the RK "On Tribunal Courts"
Law of the RK "On International Commercial Arbitration"

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Ukraine

Resolution No. 482: Should it Stay or Should it Go?
Ukrainian Companies Required to Confirm Registration Details

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Belarus

Priority for Debt Repayment Changed

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Uzbekistan

Annual Changes to Taxation Regime Enacted

.PDF version /For Subscribers Only/

Oil-Gas-Energy Law Intelligence service
Table of Contents (Volume 2, issue #05, published December 2004 (updated January 2005)

.PDF version /Free Access/

STOCKHOLM ARBITRATION DAYS 2005
Investment Arbitration and the Energy Charter Treaty
(Conference 9 and 10 June 2005 Stockholm, Sweden)

.PDF version /Free Access/

GOTO CURRENT YEAR ISSUES

EDITORIAL

Dr. Andrei A.Konoplyanik, Deputy Secretary General, Energy Charter Secretariat

Dear Colleagues,

Recently we have witnessed a number of integration processes within Eurasia whose core element is energy cooperation and in all of which Russia has been actively participating. Russia is in the process of accession to WTO, building a "common economic spa- ce" with EU, establishing common economic spaces within the CIS such as a five-member Euro-Asian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and a four-member Unified Eco- nomic Space (UES). Being in the process of developing the above-mentioned "common spaces", Russia, since 1994, is already a member of the Energy Charter "common energy space" (the latter is comprised of 51 Eurasian states, including all EU countries, Russia and all CIS states; its scope includes the whole energy sector "value chain" – from exploration and production of primary energy resources to end-uses of energy; it covers investment, trade, energy transit and energy efficiency including related environmental concerns; and it sets forth the common standard for investment and trade protection and promo- tion within states at different levels of economic development and varying energy market develop- ment stages).

The "common spaces" demand common rules to be unified on the same common basis. The composition of those Eurasian-based "common economic spaces" is different but all of their future member-states are the members of the Energy Charter Treaty. The trade regime of the ECT is based on the WTO rules. The ECT is an integral part of the international law system since 1998. That is why the Energy Charter rules are quite appropriate as the common legal basis for all four "common spaces" in the energy sphere. That is why ECT is so important for Russia.

Russia is already a major energy supplier to Europe but over time, the European Union will become increasingly dependent on energy imports from Russia, particularly of natural gas. Russia will increase its energy supplies to Asia, thus heavily investing in the development of new energy infrastructure in the Eastern part of the country and in the Asian states-importers of Russian energy resources. That is why Russia – even at a time of high prices for its energy exports – needs huge investment in order to maintain and develop effectively its energy resources and increase efficiency of energy utilization. This investment will come mostly from international capital markets – either through Russian or international energy companies. The risks of such multi-billion-dollar energy investments, both in Russia and abroad, will be rather high (especially compared with other industries), and the ECT is the only multilateral Treaty that provides the highest available (as of today) level of investment protection, first of all from non-commercial risks, to the investors of its member-states.

That is why I would like to attract the attention of the readers of the RusEnergy Law Journal to the forthcoming conference on “Investment arbitration and the Energy Charter Treaty” to be jointly organized by the Energy Charter Secretariat and the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and to be held in Stockholm on June 9-10, 2005.