Study On Implicit Commercial Risk Of International Petroleum Geophysical Service Contract

Petroleum geophysical services project is the project provided by the geophysical services companies as Contractor to the oil companies as Client based on the specific geophysical services contract. While though there may be a certain degree of risk researches and studies on geophysical services contract by domestic or oversea scholars, most of them are focus on the general risk, political risk, etc., but very limited researches on the hidden and implicit contract risks, or the relevant prevention and control measures based on the natural characteristics of the international petroleum geophysical services contract. From the practice point of view, the hidden risk provisions of the petroleum geophysical services contract, normally have the greater impact on the level of operating profit margin and success. This paper attempts to studies on the international petroleum geophysical contract based on its own characteristics, summaries and to assess its inherent hidden and implicit risks and their relevant adverse commercial consequences and impacts, and then tries to propose the prevention and control strategies and measures to the petroleum geophysical services company with real cases study and analysis.This paper introduces t the characteristics and the concept of petroleum geophysical services contracts, industrial development and the trend of risk transferring from the oil companies as clients to the contractor, and then studies and analyzes the potential hidden risks as wells as relevant risk resources and origin on the elements of international geophysical contract, such as the clients credit, force majeure, standby, security, taxes, permits, subcontracting, reimbursement, local community affairs, early termination, etc. It also included the cases study for analyzing and evaluating each specific risk points, based on petroleum geophysical services industry practice, and proposes certain measures that may be taken to deal with the risks of the contracts. This paper also introduced the framework and detail concepts of establishing a feasible prevention and control systems for potential hidden risks of geophysical contract.