Publication Note

The book “Energy Law, Taxation and International Arbitration”, authored by founding partner Oliveira Sitoe, addresses a subject that is as recent and relevant as it is urgent, particularly in light of the growing dynamics of investment in Mozambique’s energy sector and the legal, economic, fiscal, and institutional challenges arising therefrom.

The relevance of this work is reflected, among other matters, in the following fundamental issues:

(i) the multitude of investments currently underway in the country, which have mobilised substantial volumes of financial capital and created new challenges for the national legal framework;

(ii) the constitutional and international legal imperatives relating to local content, particularly the need to balance the promotion of national participation with compliance with international quality standards for the goods and services to be supplied;

(iii) the inevitable debate surrounding the contractual and tax models to be adopted in the energy sector, with particular attention to the production-sharing regime, regarded as a possible option aimed at advancing the principle of intertemporal justice;

(iv) the security challenges in Cabo Delgado Province, examined within the context of what the author describes as the Mozambican “Oil Era”, seeking to understand the relationship between natural resources, security, development, and sovereignty;

(v) the formulation of the proposal for a “Sovereign Reserve”, as an alternative to the Westernised concept of a “Sovereign Wealth Fund”, with a view to accommodating the specificities of the upstream phase and advancing the principle of Intergenerational Justice;

(vi) the role of international arbitration and the controversial debate surrounding the possible “waiver of Mozambican jurisdictional sovereignty”, particularly in the context of major international investments in the energy sector;

(vii) the proposal for the creation of an “International Sovereign Fund”, conceived as an instrument aimed at giving greater practical effect to United Nations Resolutions No. 1803 and 3171 concerning Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, as well as to the objectives of the Paris Agreement, thereby seeking to contribute to the reduction of poverty levels in countries of the so-called “Third World”, which are particularly affected by the economic and environmental impacts of production and consumption models based predominantly on fossil fuels in developed countries;

(viii) the indispensable role of academia in formulating concrete solutions to national challenges, with particular emphasis on issues relating to energy transition, diversification of the energy mix, sustainability, and the rational utilisation of natural resources.

Ultimately, “Energy Law, Taxation and International Arbitration” explores these and other issues of significant importance to Mozambique and to the broader international debate on energy, natural resources, taxation, sovereignty, and development.

More than a legal analysis of the energy sector, this work seeks to serve as an academic contribution to the reflection on the present and, above all, the future of Mozambique’s natural resources, placing at the centre of the debate the need to reconcile investment, sovereignty, economic development, fiscal justice, environmental sustainability, and justice between generations.