Oil and Gas Contracts in a Year of Rising Disputes: What 2026 Is Telling Us
2026 is shaping up to be a heavy year for oil and gas dispute resolution — and the disputes aren't scattered across random corners of the industry. They're concentrated in exactly the areas this book was built to cover.
Three fronts are driving the increase
Industry arbitration forecasts for the year point to three areas of rising conflict. Decommissioning is the biggest one: cost and liability allocation disputes are expected to grow as more offshore facilities reach end of life, with the North Sea alone representing a decommissioning opportunity valued at more than £20 billion over the next decade. LNG pricing and delivery disputes are also climbing, as market volatility pushes buyers to seek price adjustments or cancel cargoes. And sanctions-related claims tied to the ongoing restrictions on Russian oil continue to generate disputes over contract interpretation and breach.
None of these are abstract legal debates. They are, respectively, decommissioning obligations, LNG sales contracts, and dispute resolution clauses — three of the core chapters in Oil and Gas Contracts: Principles and Practice (4th Edition), edited by Peter Roberts and published by Sweet & Maxwell.
Why a full-lifecycle reference matters right now
What makes this volume useful in the current environment isn't that it predicts disputes — it's that it maps the entire contractual chain those disputes move through. Licensing and host government agreements. Joint operating agreements and unitisation structures. LNG sales and shipping contracts. Pipeline transportation agreements. Decommissioning and security arrangements. And finally, the governing law, jurisdiction, and arbitration mechanisms parties turn to when something breaks down.
For a lawyer or in-house counsel who might be reviewing a decommissioning security agreement one month and an LNG offtake dispute the next, that continuity is the point. One reference across the full lifecycle, instead of assembling precedent from five different sources under time pressure.
Who this is built for
Energy sector lawyers, in-house counsel at oil and gas companies, international arbitration practitioners, and academic law libraries building out international petroleum and energy law collections will find this a natural core acquisition — particularly given how active decommissioning and LNG disputes are expected to be through the rest of the year.
Explore our full Energy Collection or our Law Collection for related institutional titles, or browse our current selection of Oil & Gas titles.
Q&A
Q: What does Oil and Gas Contracts: Principles and Practice cover?
A: It covers the full lifecycle of a petroleum project's contractual arrangements — licensing, host government agreements, joint operating agreements, LNG sales and shipping, pipeline transportation, project finance, decommissioning, and dispute resolution.
Q: Who is the editor of this book?
A: Peter Roberts is the General Editor, with the 4th Edition published by Sweet & Maxwell.
Q: Is this book relevant to decommissioning disputes specifically?
A: Yes. It includes a dedicated treatment of decommissioning and security arrangements, one of the fastest-growing areas of oil and gas dispute activity in 2026.
Q: Does it cover LNG contracts?
A: Yes. LNG regasification project structures and oil and gas sales contracts are addressed in detail, including term-by-term commentary relevant to pricing and delivery disputes.
Q: Where can I buy Oil and Gas Contracts: Principles and Practice?
A: It's available now at CLNZ Books, with worldwide shipping included in the price: https://clnzbooks.com/products/oil-gas-contracts-principles-practice