Faculty Online Seminar – “Force Majeure: COVID-19 and the Energy Sector in Asia”

The COVID-19 outbreak has put the global economy to a halt, resulting in a significant reduction in the demand for energy. At the same time, a price war between the major oil suppliers triggered a collapse of the price of oil. The unexpected drop in energy demand and prices presents important challenges for the financial position of the energy industry, in particular high cost producers, and the economy of net energy exporting economies. It also is likely to impact on the implementation of energy contracts, with energy buyers seeking to renegotiate price and volume conditions, and possibly invoke force majeure to temporarily avoid their contractual obligations. In the gas sector, the COVID-19 crisis can be expected to increase the relevance for buyers of gas exchanges, instead of long-term purchases of fixed volumes at oil-indexed prices, disrupt global supply chains and impact on the realization of new infrastructure projects. With a focus on the Asian energy markets, this seminar proposes to examine the challenges that reduced volume and prices present for the energy industry, the implementation of energy contracts and the regulation of energy markets more generally.

For the biographies of all speakers, please click here.