DOI: 10.7256/2454-0595.2017.11.24247

Abstract: The topicality of the research issue consists, firstly, in the need to study the system and structure of administrative and legal regulation and management of subsoil use in the Islamic Republic of Iran; secondly, in the formation of a new direction of development of the administrative law science – administrative law of foreign countries; thirdly, in the use of Iranian models of legal regulation of subsoil use for the development of Russian legislative instruments; fourthly, in concretization of the activities of Iranian subsoil using organizations for the elaboration of interaction with Russian oil and gas companies; finally, in the need to define the participants of Iran’s oil activities and their functions for the detection of sectors of foreign participation and the possibility of Russia’s participation in Iran’s oil activities. The research subject is the legal regime of granting of the right to use mineral resources in Iran. The authors give special attention to the occurrence, changing and cessation of the legal status of the participants of oil activities. The authors analyze the subject composition of subsoil users on Iran’s territory and in waters, including trans-border deposits. The authors consider particular functions of each of the participants of oil activities and describe geographical areas of their oil activities. The article considers the structure of the key participants of Iran’s oil activities and a brief review of each oil and gas company. The research methodology is based on general scientific methods (dialectical, comparison, analysis synthesis, analogy, deduction, induction, etc.) and specific research methods (formal-logical, dogmatic, the method of interpretation of law, comparative-legal method, the method of state legal modeling, historical-legal method, system method, the method of forecast, etc.). The scientific novelty of the study consists, firstly, in the description of the model of normative regulation of subsoil use management in the Islamic Republic of Iran via the network of affiliated persons of the National Iranian Oil Company; secondly, in the publication of materials, which have been previously published only in Farsi, about the structure of Iranian oil and gas companies and the functions of their departments; thirdly, in the definition of the range of Iranian users of mineral resources for the purpose of including Russian entities after the lifting of international sanctions against Iran; fourthly, in forecasting the development of the Iranian model of subsoil use due to the influence of hydrocarbon extraction in this state on the formation of global oil and gas prices. Their level is used for currency earnest forecasting in the Russian budget. The authors come to the following conclusions: 1. The status of a participant of Iran’s oil activities in Iran is regulated by law and belongs to the National Iranian Oil Company; 2. Other entities acquire this status via concluding an Iranian oil contract with the National Iranian Oil Company; 3. The participants of Iran’s oil activities are the persons affiliated with the National Iranian Oil Company via oil contracts; 4. The Iranian Ministry of Petroleum is actually not a participant of oil activities, though the Iranian Parliament has adopted new legal norms, which vest it with the authorities to manage mineral resources, license and conclude oil contracts; 5. The National Iranian Oil Company and the affiliated companies are responsible for subsoil use management and subsoil use in Iran; 6. The participants of oil activities in Iran are divided into the residents of Iran and foreign legal entities; 7. The change of the status of the subsoil user of the residents is carried out in administrative order; 8. The change of the status of participants of oil activities of foreign legal entities, including investors, is regulated by the provisions of oil contracts; 9. Assignment of a contractual obligation by a foreign entity is not allowed without a consent of an ordering customer; 10. Cessation of the status of a participant of oil activities is performed by the consent of the parties to the oil contract or unilaterally in case the contractor infringes the contract if it is covered by the contract, or due to force majeure events covered by the contract; 11. The contractual system of subsoil use in Iran is gradually transforming into the administrative one. 

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0595.2017.6.23440

Abstract: The research subject is the legal regime of granting the right to use subsurface resources in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Special attention is given to classification of petroleum contracts and transformation of their essential conditions in the historical dynamics with regard to different types of petroleum contracts. The authors consider upstream contracts, downstream contracts, oil and gas trade contracts and the procedure of their drawing up, agreeing, concluding and approving. The study reflects the content of objective operation contracts as a specific type of petroleum contracts and their main categories: concession, investment, production and service contracts. The authors reveal the content of new-generation Iranian petroleum contracts (IPC). The research methodology is based on general scientific methods (dialectics, comparison, analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, induction, etc.) and specific methods (formal-logical, dogmatic, formal-legal, and the method of interpretation of law), the comparative-legal method, the method of state-legal modeling, the historical-legal and system methods, prognostication, etc. The authors come to the following conclusions: firstly, Iranian subsurface resources are made allowable for use on the basis of a petroleum contract; secondly, the procedure of making subsurface resources allowable for use is a formalized procedure of concluding petroleum contracts; thirdly, the access to subsurface resources in Iran is possible only subject to agreed conditions of a petroleum contract, based on a standard project, with the Government of Iran and the Iranian Economic Council and final approval by the Ministry of petroleum upon indirect agreeing of the conditions of subsurface resources use with the Parliament of Iran; fourthly, the Parliament of Iran indirectly agrees upon the conclusion of petroleum contracts and each stage of their performance (petroleum operations) by means of regulation of incomes and expenditures of petroleum activities in the laws “On annual budget”; fifthly, the legal regime of subsurface resources use in the Islamic Republic of Iran is in a transitive state, and legislation on natural resources is a complex sector, which combines the interests of public and private companies in the context of growing public influence in this sphere; sixthly, Iran is planning a gradual transformation from agreement-based system of subsurface resources use to a licensing or a mixed system, from an indirect procedure of making subsurface resources allowable for use by foreign investors to a direct procedure, which would be realized without the involvement of the National Iranian Oil Company. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the fact that it considers the reasons for and the procedure of making Iranian subsurface resources allowable for use and the state-legal mechanism of subsurface resources use management including the checks and balances model in realization of the sovereign right of Iran to use subsurface resources within its water area and state territory.