IMPLICATIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENT SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURAL RESOURCES: WITH REFLECTION TO THE INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS FOR THE EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN TANZANIA’S OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Abstract

This article discusses the primacy of the international fundamental principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources on legal framework perspective. The study focuses on the implications emanated from the application and development of the international principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the rich- resource countries with specific focus to the investment agreements of Oil and Gas industry in Tanzania. 

Despite of political independence achievements of numerous rich-resource countries from their colonial masters after the end of Second World War (WWII), numerous rich-resource countries asserted the principle of sovereignty over natural resource emerged with association to the right of self-determination. The newly independent States considered the colonial investment agreements as a threat to their permanent sovereignty over natural resources because those agreements granted excessive areas of land for long period to a single company without giving the host States adequate authority to control the activities of the natural resources

The application of the principle of sovereignty over natural resources transformed the appropriate direction of the oil and gas producing countries towards gaining the powers and control of their own oil and gas resources In this vein, the resource rich-countries proclaimed the right to control and manage their resources by revisiting the investment agreements for the purpose of ensuring the benefits and profits accrued from the resources to be used to raise the living standard of their people and facilitate development in their own respective countries.       

This study scrutinizes a notable part of the significant implications of the international principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources in the light of investment agreements relating to oil and gas in Tanzania. In the course of discussion, the article examines the reflection of the investment agreements in the course of exploitation of natural wealth and resources in Tanzania’s Oil and Gas Industry and thoroughly discusses the genesis and development of the concept of permanent sovereignty over natural resources through legal and diplomatic forums of the United Nations.