Independent Regulatory Agencies in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

This article is exploratory in nature and it is multidisciplinary in its approach and follows on from the literature on regulation from Public Policy, Economic Analysis of Law and Law and explores the establishment of independent regulatory agencies as the main Competent Authorities in the regulation of the oil and gas industry, particularly in the upstream. Furthermore, the article explores the other models in which the regulation of the upstream is done by the Ministries of Oil/Energy and the National Oil Company.

This article explores the problems with the three models and examines examples of independent regulatory agencies in different jurisdictions. The jurisdictions under analysis in this article were not randomly chosen and illustrate some of the relevant issues about the establishment of independent regulatory agencies by exploring key jurisdictions, which established agencies as the Competent Authorities to regulate the oil and gas industry and abandoned the other two institutional alternatives. The article also looks at some of the challenges of the adoption of independent regulatory agencies from a comparative perspective.

Keywords: Energy Law, Oil and Gas Law, Independent Regulatory Agency, Agencification, Regulatory Capture, Isomorphic Mimicry, Legal Transplant