Skip to content
← Sectors

Oil & Gas

Regulatory disputes in gas distribution and pipelines; LNG contracts; energy insurance.

Overview

Solaris Legal acts for city gas distribution entities, pipeline entities, liquefied natural gas (LNG) companies and industrial gas consumers across the oil and gas sector, with much of the work in city gas distribution. The work covers authorisation, tariff and enforcement matters, disputes between operators, and challenges to the regulatory framework. The firm appears before the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL), the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. Contractual disputes under long-term gas contracts, and energy insurance claims for insurers and reinsurers, are handled in arbitration and litigation.

The legal framework

The statutory base comprises the Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act 1948, the Petroleum Act 1934, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules 1959 and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board Act 2006. Under the 2006 Act, the Board authorises entities to lay and operate city gas distribution networks and pipelines, fixes transportation tariffs, and frames and enforces regulations; appeals from its orders lie to the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. Challenges to the framework itself proceed by writ before the High Courts and the Supreme Court, while disputes under production sharing and revenue sharing contracts and long-term gas sale agreements ordinarily proceed in arbitration.

Scope

  • Challenges to the vires of PNGRB regulations before the High Courts and the Supreme Court, including on network tariff, compression charges, exclusivity periods and pre-determined penalties.
  • Appeals before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity concerning the bifurcation of geographical areas and the grant of authorisation over bifurcated parts to different entities.
  • Proceedings on whether captive self-use pipelines require authorisation or fall within PNGRB jurisdiction where a common carrier pipeline authorisation already exists.
  • Disputes on the application of PNGRB-fixed transportation tariff to an operator's own gas and to gas moved under swapping mechanisms, including retrospective demands.
  • Enforcement proceedings before the PNGRB and APTEL, including show cause notices, penalties, requirements to provide performance bank guarantees and cancellation of authorisations.
  • Disputes between city gas distribution entities over overlapping authorisations and geographical areas, including applications for cancellation of authorisation.
  • Take or pay and force majeure disputes under long-term gas sale and purchase agreements and LNG contracts, in arbitration and at the notice and negotiation stage.
  • Writ petitions on the timely grant of State permissions for laying city gas distribution networks, including the establishment of single-window permission systems.
  • Litigation before the High Courts and the Supreme Court on the allocation of domestically produced natural gas to the city gas distribution sector.
  • Energy insurance and reinsurance claims arising from refineries, undersea pipelines and offshore equipment, and recovery actions against engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors for defects in refinery process units.