Petroleum Contracts offered Under the Legislation of the Republic of Cameroon
The Republic of Cameroon offers the following petroleum contracts under its legislation:
Concessions:
These are granted for hydrocarbon mining titles consisting of exploration permits and, where applicable, exploitation concessions. They must be entered into before the grant of a hydrocarbon exploration permit. Production sharing contract: In a production sharing contract, the Government seeks the services of a holder to carry out exploration within a certain area on its behalf exclusively, and to carry out exploitation in the event of a discovery of a commercially exploitable hydrocarbon field. The holder is responsible for the financing of petroleum operations. Risk service contract: A risk service contract confers exclusive hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation rights within a specified area on a qualified person, who assumes all the financial risk. The authorization is usually granted after a tender offering petroleum blocks for a competitive bid. In some cases, the State may directly award blocks without a tender process. There is no statutory timeline within which the State must grant applications for petroleum exploration and exploitation authorizations. In practice, the process usually takes about six months if the application file is properly deposited. If different authorizations are issued in respect of different stages of development (e.g., exploration appraisal or production arrangements), you will need to specify those authorizations and briefly summarize the most important (standard) terms (such as term/duration, scope of rights, expenditure obligations). The Petroleum Code provides for five upstream petroleum authorizations or permits:
Prospection authorization: A prospection authorization can be granted to a legal or natural person. It is a permit that confers on its holder/operator the non-exclusive right to carry out preliminary prospecting rights in a particular field covered by a petroleum contract. The Petroleum Code specifically states that it does not amount to a petroleum mining title and is equally not transferable. It is granted by the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (MINMITD) after technical advice and opinion from SNH. The fact that it is granted on a specific area covered by a petroleum contract does not mean that it confers on its holder the right to enter a petroleum contract or obtain a petroleum mining permit.
Exploration authorization:
Provisional Exploitation Authorization:
Exploitation authorization:
in our next edition, we shall provide you with details of the above authorizations
You can also visit our webpage for more legal news at https://lnkd.in/eTRBM6-S
Exploration authorization:
Provisional Exploitation Authorization:
Exploitation authorization:
in our next edition, we shall provide you with details of the above authorizations
You can also visit our webpage for more legal news at https://lnkd.in/eTRBM6-S