MOFCOM Approval on Sino-Foreign Petroleum Contracts
MOFCOM Approval for Sino-Foreign Cooperative Petroleum Contracts
in China No Longer Required
Last week on May 15, 2013, China's State Council published a
decision to further eliminate certain administrative examination
and approval
items«国务院关于取消和下放一批行政审批项目等事项的决定»(2013)
(the "Decision"). According to the Decision, certain
items (including projects, activities, organizations and other
similar matters) which previously required central government
approval now no longer require such approval.
What this means for foreign oil companies
("IOCs") is that approval from the
Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") for
contracts such as petroleum agreements, production sharing
contracts, etc. ("Petroleum Contracts")
is no longer required. This has the potential of reducing the
number of days spent on future transactions by up to 40 days
(previously, this was the number of days needed to obtain MOFCOM
approval for such projects).
