國際石油探勘開發合約研究

Abstract

石油為現代人類社會不可或缺之自然資源，亦是支持世界各國經濟發展之重要支柱。在石油產業中，石油探勘開發能掌握石油來源、獲得巨大利潤，具有不可取代之重要性。然而，由於石油在地理上分佈不平均，以及資源國政府在人才、技術、設備、資金及風險分擔上之需求，外國石油公司與資源國政府合作成為不可避免之趨勢。在國際石油探勘開發合作中，國際石油探勘開發合約扮演舉足輕重之角色，它不僅是外國石油公司在資源國進行石油探勘開發活動之法律依據，更是外國石油公司與資源國政府間之權利義務關係規範。為了建立國際石油探勘開發合約之基礎知識架構、避免口耳傳承產生之資訊誤差、幫助石油公司進行國際石油探勘開發合作投資評估等目的，本論文將深入研究國際石油探勘開發合約，瞭解各種合約類型與石油收入分配之差異，期望為我國石油探勘開發業界略盡棉薄之力。 典型國際石油探勘開發合約包含：礦費稅收制合約、產量分成合約及風險服務合約，此三種合約之差異表現於各自之石油收入分配條款以及外國石油公司取得之對價類型。然而，隨著時代演變與資源國政府間之交流激盪，現今國際石油探勘開發合約已朝向混合型合約發展，各資源國政府得混合各種典型國際石油探勘開發合約之條款，創造出屬於各資源國之國際石油探勘開發合約。在國際石油探勘開發合約條款中，一般可區分為基礎條款與經濟條款，本論文將針對富有特色之條款加以介紹，例如：礦區使用費、成本回收限制與利潤油比例等等。 同時，為了瞭解投資標的國家之合約架構，本論文將以我國國家石油公司目前已經投資、計畫投資或評估投資之資源國作為實證對象，針對各該資源國政府公告之國際石油探勘開發合約範本或投資條件中與石油收入分配有關之條款深入研究，並且在相同之石油礦區假設條件下，實際演算石油收入在資源國政府與外國石油公司間之分配，最後量化外國石油公司獲得之石油收入，進而分析比較在各資源國進行石油探勘開發投資之結果，以期透過實證研究與分析，提供關於國際石油探勘開發投資之建議，進而尋求未來國際石油探勘開發合作之方向。

Petroleum as the natural resource that constitutes an integral part of modern human society is in fact an important pillar supporting the economic development of countries around the world. In the petroleum industry, due to the control over the source of petroleum and the huge profits brought about, the petroleum exploration and development activities have acquired irreplaceable importance. However, because of the uneven geographical distribution of petroleum, as well as the demand for talent, technology, equipment, funding and risk sharing by those resource-rich countries, cooperation between foreign petroleum companies and those resource-rich countries has become an inevitable trend. In international petroleum exploration and development cooperation, relevant agreements have played major roles, since they not only constitute the legal basis for foreign petroleum companies to engage in petroleum exploration and development activities in resource-rich countries, but also stipulate the rights and obligations between the foreign petroleum companies and local governments. In order to establish the fundamental framework of international petroleum exploration and development agreements, avoid errors arisen from word of mouth, and help petroleum companies to carry out investment appraisal of the international petroleum exploration and development cooperation, the author, in this thesis, conducts in-depth investigations on international petroleum exploration and development agreements and explores the differences between a variety of agreement types and petroleum income distributions, in expectations that this thesis may help the industry of petroleum exploration and development.

Typical agreements for international petroleum exploration and development cooperation include the following: royalty and tax agreements, production sharing contracts and risk service contracts. The differences of the three agreements are manifested in their respective terms of petroleum income distribution and the corresponding prices obtained by foreign petroleum companies. However, as time went by, there has been intensive communication between petroleum-rich countries, whereas agreements for international petroleum exploration and development activities has been developed towards hybrid agreements, where petroleum-rich countries may choose the terms available, mix them in the agreements for petroleum exploration and development activities and create agreements on their own. The terms of international petroleum exploration and development agreements are generally divided into basic terms and economic terms. In this thesis, I will introduce those distinctive terms like “royalty,” “cost recovery limits” and “percentage of profit petroleum.”

Meanwhile, in order to understand the contractual framework of the investment target countries, I will take those petroleum-rich countries where our national petroleum company has invested, plans to invest or evaluates to invest as empirical objects, and conduct in-depth investigations on relevant terms of petroleum income distributions in contract templates and investment conditions for international petroleum exploration and development activities. In the meantime, under the same assumptions of petroleum mining area, I will conduct actual calculation of the petroleum income distributions between the petroleum-rich countries and foreign petroleum companies and finally quantify the petroleum revenues that foreign petroleum companies obtain to further analyze and compare the results of investment in international petroleum exploration and development cooperation in all of the petroleum-rich countries. I hope that the outcome could offer recommendations on the investment of international petroleum exploration and development cooperation through empirical research and analysis, and therefore, help look for the direction of future cooperation in the international petroleum exploration and development activities.