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Abstract
Accidents can and do happen. In the upstream oil and gas sector, this has been graphically illustrated by the recent spate of disasters involving exploration and production infrastructure including: the ongoing mud flow disaster in East Java, Indonesia, the October 2007 collision in the Gulf of Mexico of a jack-up rig with an offshore production platform and, in a chilling echo of the Piper Alpha disaster, the November 2007 fire on board the Thistle Alpha platform in the UK North Sea. This article looks at some of the liability allocation mechanisms in upstream project contracts, which commonly come into play when disaster strikes, and instances where such mechanisms have been considered by the courts.
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Toby Hewitt
Toby Hewitt is a Consultant with Herbert Smith LLP, international law firm, based in Singapore. Until recently, the author was in-house counsel to Santos’ Indonesian business, based in Jakarta. He is qualified to practise as a solicitor in England and Wales and in Victoria, Australia, and can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].