Central Asia has emerged as potentially the most important new hydrocarbon province in decades. Among the countries whose natural resources are now the focus of world attention, Kazakhstan is very much in the front rank. The scale and strategic importance of its reserves mean that it is set to become one of the key players in the global market. Realising that potential depends on many factors, not least its legal treatment of the oil and gas industry. The contributors to this volume consider the various dimensions of that legal treatment, including investment and contractual issues, dispute settlement, transport and refining, environmental issues, and taxation. The importance of the international context for Kazakhstan¿s domestic law is a key feature of this book, as is a concern with identifying existing problems and suggesting the most fruitful direction for reform. The book will be of interest to practitioners and academics working in the specific field as well as in the more general area of legal relations between the oil and gas industry and transition economies.

Ilias Bantekas is Reader in Law at the University of Westminster, London, UK. He has written widely in the field of international law and won the International Committee of the Red Cross Paul Reuter prize in 2000. Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School (2003-04).

John Paterson is Reader in Law at the University of Westminster, London, UK. He has written on the regulation of the oil and gas industry and acts as a consultant to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.

Maidan Suleimenov is Professor of Law at the Kazakh State Academy of Law and Adilet Higher Law School, Almaty, Kazakhstan. He was directly involved in Kazakhstan¿s accession to the Energy Charter Treaty and has also been responsible for legislative drafting in the field.