Articles, videos, podcasts, online learning modules

This is a collection of resources dealing with legal disputes and drilling training which I have created over many years. There are also some general interest topics.

Articles

EU attacks on investors rights The European Commission with the cooperation of the Court of Justice of the European Union continues their crusade against investors' rights. This is done by eliminating access of investors to an independent arbitral tribunal and by making arbitral or Energy Charter Treaty awards impossible to enforce within the EU. This article was published in The Journal of World Energy Law & Business in October 2024. If the link doesn't give you access to the full article on the Journal website, click here.

Expert Witnesses; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly LinkedIn article. After over 20 appointments as a Drilling expert witness, I found that most of the experts acting for the other party were not independent and twisted their reports to suit the case of their appointing party, sometimes to a ridiculous extent. This deceives counsel for their party into not understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the case. A good expert on the other side will make the case unravel. There are signs that any lawyer should recognise, even without subject matter expertise. If you prefer a pdf file that can be downloaded, click here.

The Unbreakable Law There is one law that is regarded as being impossible to break, no matter how clever your lawyer or physicist. The Second Law of Thermodynamics governs every process using energy, from the cells in your body, devices like your refrigerator, stars, black holes and the Universe. It's a concept that traditionally is very hard to understand but I employed my skills as an expert witness to take something complex and make it simpler for non-expert people to grasp. Reading this should modify (improve) your brain!

Prof. Doug Jones 2025 CIArb Annual Lecture - Diversity of Expertise in Arbitration Professor Jones examines how non-lawyer arbitrators can greatly benefit the arbitral process. Historically, arbitrators were rarely lawyers. Industry experts would arbitrate disputes using their expert knowledge of the matters in dispute to quickly and efficiently resolve disputes. It's evolved into an almost complete take-over by lawyers who then tend to default to courtroom procedures rather than conducting the arbitration in the most efficient way.

The Historical Background of Commercial Arbitration. An article written by Professor Earl Wolaver in 1934, published by the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. The document explores the historical development, practices and legal principles of arbitration, especially in commercial and merchant contexts.

USD v Gold: Interim Judgment The US Dollar has lost over 99% of its value since it was first minted in 1792. The start of that loss occurred since President Roosevelt took gold coins out of circulation in 1933, greatly exacerbated when President Nixon completely abandoned the Gold standard in 1971. The implication is that the US Dollar, like Sterling, Euros and all modern central bank issued currencies do not fulful all 3 of the essential functions of money. They are a unit of account and a medium of exchange but they are not a store of value as inflation eats away at value. The UK government targets an inflation rate of 2% which means that 18% value is lost over 10 years and 50% is lost over 34 years.

Does a Full House tribunal trump 3 of a kind for cost effective arbitrations? This is an article that was published on the website of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in November 2020. It compares the usual 3 lawyer tribunal with no technical expertise in the dispute subject matter with a diverse tribunal which includes technical as well as legal expertise.

Windfall Taxes - Ex Post Facto laws UK governments of both flavours have passed laws with retrospective effect to impose so-called Windfall Taxes. This short article examines the folly of passing ex post facto laws, destroying trust in our laws and sending investors elsewhere. It includes the only known reference to the Emperor Caligula in English constitutional commentaries.

Costime in Arbitration Albert Einstein showed that Space and Time don't exist independently of each other. There is only Spacetime, a 4 dimensional framework of existance. We might draw an analogy with Costime in arbitration; cost and time don't exist independently either. This short article examines ways to reduce Costime in arbitrations. Controlling Costime is easily within the power of the parties and it is in their interests to do so.

Which diversity benefits parties in Arbitration? Diversity gets a lot of attention nowadays. But there is a diversity of diversities; which ones positively influence the process of arbitration? A short article of just over 2 pages.

Queen Mary University arbitration surveys 2006-2025 analysis. This summarises important findings of successive QMU surveys on international arbitrtion.

Oilfield Dispute Boards An article posted on LinkedIn about the history of dispute boards and how they might apply to oilfield projects. If you prefer a pdf file that can be downloaded, click here.

Videos, Audio files

Videos are on my YouTube channel.

Creating a Drilling expert report This 18 minute video explains my workflow to produce a Drilling Expert Report and compares it with the process to produce a Drilling Incident Investigation report. The inputs and outputs differ but the forensic analysis of the incident is the same.

Listen to the slightly edited audio from the video:

International arbitration clauses This video examines the case of Westbridge Ventures v Anupam Mittal. The legal seat of the arbitration (Lex Fora) was not specified, which led to huge problems.

Listen to the slightly edited audio from the video:

Drilling related Online learning modules

eLearning modules for legal, insurance and other professionals involved in Drilling related disputes. Also Drilling technical subjects for Drilling professionals. All are free to take. All are designed to take up to 30 minutes. You can view a short video showing how to navigate here.

These might not work in Firefox. Please try another browser if it doesn't load. Ditto with an iPad.

Please send an email to steve@drilling-expert.legal if you want to take any or all of these free lessons. I only ask you to do this once. You can use this same email for any bug reports. This is only to allow me to understand how many people use these lessons, rather than having to set up a log-in facility.

Basic well control theory (BWC)

There are 4 modules covering hydrostatic pressures, how a well is drilled with a surface BOP, kick causes, initial response, basic calculations.

Drilling Cost Reduction (DCR)

Anyone involved in planning and drilling wells. Drilling engineers, superintendents, logistics etc. There are currently 12 modules dealing with reducing drilling costs. See feedback from the first course delegate.