A joint venture is an agreement between two or more undertakings or parties to do business together or to set up an undertaking or undertaking in which the parties jointly finance and assume the risk. In the oil industry, it is common to have a joint venture between the host country and the international oil group. This is done so that both sides participate in oil exploration and prospecting in the country. The OJA is indeed one of the most important agreements on the exploitation of oil and gas resources. The JOA should represent a merger of the divergent interests of the respective parts of the OJA. However, the burden of paying cash calls resulted in the federal government not benefiting from all the benefits of the JOA. The Petroleum Act should be amended to allow the federal government`s advisory parties to the existing JOA to enter into an IJV (Incorporated Joint Venture) agreement similar to the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) model, in particular the JOA which addresses the issue of default in the event of a cash appeal. Fifty percent of future JOAs are expected to be IIJVs, similar to the NLNG model. Article 2.2.1 of the Nigerian OJA provides that «the operator shall conduct all joint operations in good faith and good faith, in accordance with good industry practice, and the applicable rules shall apply to all operations of this Agreement». [12] Therefore, the operator is required to carry out the operations in a «proper and appropriate» manner. However, the operator is discharged, except in cases of «gross negligence or premeditation». The JOA also provides for the resignation, abolition and replacement of an operator. «A non-exclusive risk party may at any time choose to participate in a single-risk enterprise by paying the single risk party an amount corresponding to its share in the cumulative costs and expenses of the only risky transaction incurred at the time of this election, increased by 200% (return penalty).

The penalty of readmission shall be paid in whole or in part in cash in the currency in which the costs of risk are incurred, in kind or in both, as mutually agreed between the parties. After the above-mentioned election and payment, these actions will be implemented as joint actions. In accordance with Article 2.2(1)[14], the operator has significant powers in the way in which joint actions should be consulted. Article 2.2.1 provides that «the operator shall carry out all joint operations in good faith and good faith, in accordance with good industry practice, and that the applicable provisions shall apply to all operations of this Agreement». The JOA can also be defined as the private agreement that «divides» the joint and several liabilities imposed by the conditions of the licence (as issued by the State concerned) and governs the relations, obligations and rights between the JV`s partners. An JOA covers many aspects of partner investment and is generally designed to last the entire life of the investment, from exploration to production. . . .