LNG 가격 재협상에 관한 법적 연구

Recently, there have been a growing trend among asian buyers with pursuing price renegotiations to lower the price of liquified natural gas(LNG). However, unlike many other asian countries, South Korea, a major LNG importer, is not actively pursuing price renegotiations. Recognizing the need to improve such situation, this paper focused on examining the possible legal basis that buyers may use to demand price renegotiations with regard to the LNG long-term sales agreements. Especially, the price-reopening clause, the hardship clause, and the principle of change of circumstances under the governing law of a contract were examined as the major legal basis of demanding the price renegotiations. Each of the legal basis mentioned above may have their own defects. For example, the contractual provisions such as the price-reopening clause or the hardship clause can be used only if they exist in an agreement. And even if they exist, they may not be able to be utilized in a specific situation because the requirements for its application are not satisfied. The principle of change of circumstances may be used as a ground to demand price renegotiation if the governing law of the agreement recognizes the principle. However, the laws which are most commonly used as the governing law of an LNG sales agreements are the law of England and the law of New York State, and such common law jurisdictions almost never recognize the principle of change of circumstances. The laws of many of the Islamic countries such as Qatar recognize the principle of change of circumstances, but the practical possibility of its application as the governing law is not very high. After reviewing all of the possible legal basis for the price renegotiation on the long-term LNG sales agreements, this paper concluded that the price re-opening clause is the best ground to demand price renegotiation and explored several issues to be considered to better draft the provision.