The Settlement of Investment Disputes in the Energy Sector

Abstract

That international investment in the energy sector accounts for a vast percentage of global investments, and, as a consequence, that disputes in energy sector constitute one of the largest portfolio of international commercial and investment disputes is beyond doubt. Disputes relating to the energy sector may occur between two States, two private parties and a private party and a State. In the latter scenario, the dispute may also be subdivided into disputes relating to an investment by a foreign company in a State and commercial contract-based. disputes between a foreign company and a State. Because of the focus of this book, disputes between a company in a State of which the company has the nationality, hence purely national disputes and disputes between two private parties will not be discussed here. Similarly, inter-State disputes in the energy sector, which are very often related to territorial and maritime boundaries in which oil and gas fields have been located, will not be discussed here. Although in those cases the underlying dispute may be one between a (potential) investor and a foreign State, the actual dispute is one that involves only the relations between two States, and thus falls out of the scope of this chapter. It should be pointed out however that those inter-State disputes in the energy sector regularly occur, such as the recent dispute between Russia and Ukraine in 2009 in relation to gas transit. This chapter will rather focus on investment disputes between foreign investors and host States.

Keywords: investment arbitration, dispute settlement, energy investments