Under Construction: A Close Examination of Recent Construction Law Developments and Their Impact on the Oil and Gas Industry

This article surveys recent construction-related case law pertaining to the oil and gas sector, and examines how these decisions impact the law of bonding, tendering, liens, and arbitration. The authors review jurisprudence, legislation, and contractual language in these areas, and provide a critical analysis of the law in order to suggest improvements and anticipate future innovations. The authors also provide practical advice regarding mechanisms that owners, contractors, and subcontractors can employ to protect themselves from risks and uncertainties in contemporary construction law, with a view to avoiding disputes and if necessary, resolving them. This article serves both as an illustration of the structure of contemporary construction law as-built, and as a blueprint for those aspects of the law that are still under construction.