Regulating oil and gas operations in Indonesian waters: international and domestic legal perspectives on offshore installations and tanker

Author: Muhammad Taufan

Taufan, Muhammad, 2017 Regulating oil and gas operations in Indonesian waters: international and domestic legal perspectives on offshore installations and tanker, Flinders University, Flinders Law School

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Abstract

Offshore oil and gas activities involving offshore installations and tankers represent two crucial energy operations: production and transportation. These activities encompass safety and security, navigation and the removal of offshore structures, and potentially risk human health, livelihoods and the marine environment, from collisions and oil spills. It is therefore imperative for international and domestic legal regimes to provide clear and thorough regulations for offshore oil and gas installations and tankers.

This thesis examines laws and regulations on offshore oil and gas installations and tanker operations in Indonesian waters and proposes strategies to improve the legal regimes. It analyses the major Indonesian national maritime and ocean-related affairs laws and regulations: Law No. 32 of 2014 on the Sea, Law No. 17 of 2008 on Shipping and Government Regulation No. 5 of 2010 concerning Navigation. It also considers regulations, and analyses the shortcomings of the legal frameworks, before suggesting options for reform.

This thesis provides a general overview of international and regional legal frameworks for offshore installations and tanker operations in order to set the context for the analysis of the Indonesian legal regime and reform options. Key international frameworks reviewed include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic and MoU on ASEAN Cooperation Mechanism for Joint Oil Spill Preparedness and Response. The thesis also makes observations on the development of the international legal frameworks and state practices that govern offshore installations and tanker operations.

This thesis makes an original contribution to scholarship by analysing Indonesian law on offshore installations and tanker operations, a task that few scholars have attempted, as well as by discussing the development of the legal frameworks and by suggesting strategies to improve international and domestic laws on offshore installations and tankers. The thesis concludes that current international and domestic legal frameworks for offshore installations are inadequate and inconsistent, and that it is necessary to enhance the implementation of global conventions on tankers. To remedy these deficits, this thesis suggests a number of approaches that should be considered, in order to improve the international and domestic legal frameworks for offshore installations and tankers.

Keywords: offshore installations, law of the sea, indonesian law, tankers, oil and gas

Subject: Law thesis

Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2017
School: Flinders Law School
Supervisor: Hossein Esmaeili