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Production sharing agreement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Production sharing agreement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Production sharing agreements (PSAs) are a common type of contract signed between a government and a
resource extraction company (or group of companies) concerning how much of the resource (usually oil)
extracted from the country each will receive. -- Production sharing agreements were first used in Bolivia in the
early 1950s, although their first implementation similar to today's was in Indonesia in the 1960s.[1] Today they
are often used in the Middle East and Central Asia. In production sharing agreements the country's government
awards the execution of exploration and production activities to an oil company. The oil company bears the
mineral and financial risk of the initiative and explores, develops and ultimately produces the field as required.
When successful, the company is permitted to use the money from produced oil to recover capital and
operational expenditures, known as "cost oil". The remaining money is known as "profit oil", and is split between
the government and the company, typically at a rate of about 80% for the government, 20% for the company. In
some production sharing agreements, changes in international oil prices or production rate can affect the
company's share of production.
Production sharing agreements can be beneficial to governments of countries that lack the expertise and/or
capital to develop their resources and wish to attract foreign companies to do so. They can be very profitable
agreements for the oil companies involved, but often involve considerable risk.

Contents
1 Risk sharing contracts
1.1 Framework for Marginal Fields Risk Service Contracts
2 Further reading
3 See also
4 References

Risk sharing contracts

First implemented in Malaysia, the risk sharing contracts (RSC) departs from the production sharing contract
(PSC) first introduced in 1976 and most recently revised last year as the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) PSC
which ramps up recovery rate from 26% to 40%. As a performance-based agreement, it is developed in
Malaysia for the Malaysian people and private partners to both benefit from successfully and viably monetizing
these marginal fields. At the Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics' Production Optimisation Week
Asia Forum in Malaysia on 27 July 2011, Finance Deputy Minister YB. Sen. Dato' Ir. Donald Lim Siang Chai
expounded that the trail-blazing RSC calls for optimal delivery of production targets and allows for knowledge
transfer from joint ventures between foreign and local players in the development of Malaysias 106 marginal
fields, which cumulatively contain 580 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in todays high-demand, lowresource energy market.[2]

Framework for Marginal Fields Risk Service Contracts

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Performance-based agreements like the Berantai RSC have a tighter focus on production and recovery rates as
compared with production sharing contracts favoured by oil majors. This emphasis on optimising production
capacities in marginal fields can be extended to contracts governing recovery of main oilfields in an industry of
rapidly depleting resources. Currently, Petronas recovery factor is about 26 per cent for main oilfields, which
can be further improved with optimised production techniques and knowledge exchange.[3]
Marginal Fields are located within a producing block and its main product is oil;
The IOC provides technical, financial, managerial or commercial services to the state from exploration
through production;
Risk service contracts the IOC bears all the exploration costs;
Petronas retains ownership of oil;
The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is estimated at between 7 20% subject to terms and conditions
more attractive ROI than a PSC regime;
Contractor receives fee payment commencing from first production and throughout the duration of the
contract
Fee is subject to taxes but to incentivise investment in marginal fields Malaysia has reduced tax for from
38% to 25%, to improve commercial viability of investment projects;
According to think tank, Arc Media Global, while efficient, the RSC is essentially a contract that significantly
increases an operators risks of exposure.

Further reading
OGEL 1 (2005) - Production-Sharing Contracts (http://www.ogel.org/journal-browse-issues-toc.asp?
key=16), special issue Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence
OGEL 4 (2010) - Development and Host Government Granting Instruments
(http://www.ogel.org/journal-browse-issues-toc.asp?key=39), special issue Oil, Gas & Energy Law
Intelligence

See also
Oil and gas agreements

References
1. The Concept of Production Sharing
(http://www.rulg.com/documents/The_Concept_of_Production_Sharing.htm)
2. DEPUTY MINISTER YB. SEN. DATO IR. DONALD LIM SIANG CHAI, "Opening Speech by DEPUTY
MINISTER YB. SEN. DATO IR. DONALD LIM SIANG CHAI" (http://www.thinkenergy.org/newsite/index.php/articles/11-oil-and-gas/32-opening-speech-by-deputy-minister-yb-sen-dato-irdonald-lim-siang-chai), Opening Ceremony Speech, Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics, July 27,
2011.
3. "Risk Service Contract Framework" (http://worldvest-ap.com/index.php/marginal-field-investmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_sharing_agreement

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opportunities/risk-service-contract-framework/), web, Worldvest Asia Pacific, 2012.

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