E&P International Arbitration (Washington)-The international oil and gas industry has serious objections about the international arbitration provisions contained in the most recent draft US model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Those concerns are magnified because of an apparent intention by some policy advisors in the US Defense and Justice Departments to weaken these important investment provisions across the board. The Department of Justice has proposed to limit, or even eliminate, requirements for investor-state arbitration in bilateral and/or multilateral US investment and trade agreements. For example, and more specifically with regard to the proposed model BIT, investor-state arbitration requirements would apparently not apply to existing investment agreements which affect areas of greatest concern to drilling contractors working abroad and to international E&P activities generally: natural resources or other assets controlled by foreign governments and their national oil companies.
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