| Summary: | Objective: to conduct a comprehensive legal analysis of the development of shared oil and gas fields of Iran and neighboring countries.Methods: general scientific method of dialectical cognition, historical-legal, system-structural, comparative-legal, formal-logical and other specific scientific methods of cognition.Results: shared natural resources are resources that, in their natural state, without human intervention, extend beyond the land or sea borders of one state and fall within the jurisdiction of another state. Although the international law formally recognizes the sovereign right of states to use natural resources located in the shelf zone with respect to the legal regulation of the use of natural resources shared by two or more states, there are gaps and contradictions in the law. This, in turn, leads to excessive consumption of resources, unfair competition between the states, and causes serious damage to the field itself. Today, Iran is one of the main owners of oil and gas reserves in the world and in the recent years has made huge investments to their exploration and development. Iran has about 28 fields shared with neighboring countries, and other states over the past twenty years have begun to actively invest and conduct extensive production of these fields unilaterally. Therefore, legal regulation of the shared fields development and investments in the oil and gas sector is of particular importance.Scientific novelty: the article for the first time formulates the rules of joint use of natural resources common to two or more states. Rule one: the obligation to cooperate in order to reach an agreement on the exploration and development of shared natural reservoirs of oil and gas, even if such cooperation does not necessarily lead to the joint exploitation of these resources. Rule two: in the absence of such an agreement, the unilateral use of the shared reservoir should be avoided.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific activities and in the consideration of issues related to the legal regulation of shared oil and gas fields.
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