ROLE OF CONTRACTS IN ESCAPING THE RESOURCE CURSE – AN EVALUATION OF THE QATAR APPROACH

Abstract

The resource curse is a persistent dilemma in the oil and gas sector in which a country possesses abundant natural resources, particularly oil and gas, yet fails to translate this wealth into sustainable development. Hence, many nations with substantial petroleum revenues struggle to capitalize on their resources. The main objective of this L.L.M. Thesis was to explore how Qatar addressed the risk of the resource curse in its contractual frameworks. Using a historical and doctrinal approach, this study analyzed the evolution of contractual frameworks in Qatar during the concession era, nationalization phase, and global integration period. It offers a critical analysis of early concession agreements, production sharing agreements, joint ventures, and joint operating agreements. This analysis is based on the three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. It demonstrates the contribution of early concession agreements to the resource curse and that they did not provide essential protections in all three sustainability domains. A shift to production sharing agreements led to increased fiscal resilience, greater national control, and stronger institutional capacity. The later adoption of joint ventures further strengthened state participation and control over oil and gas operations. This thesis demonstrates how environmental requirements, cost oil limits, local content clauses, and other provisions enabled Qatar to reduce the resource curse. Finally, its findings point to significant gaps that continue to affect Qatar’s contractual frameworks, such as weak social sustainability provisions, vague enforcement mechanisms for environmental obligations, and low transparency in joint ventures. Therefore, while recent petroleum contracts are much better aligned with sustainability requirements than early concession agreements, they should be further modified to promote all three sustainability pillars. The results of the study support future research on how contractual frameworks can support the efforts of resource-rich countries to escape the resource curse.

Date of Award	2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	HBKU College of Law