This chapter examines the main features of the ad hoc approach to energy governance focusing on its most representative historical application, the joint development of oil and gas. After a discussion of the failed attempts by the UN International Law Commission to develop principles governing shared oil and gas resources, it analyses in detail the structure, content and legal issues presented by agreements for the joint development of hydrocarbon deposits. It then moves to their proximate context, namely the principles applicable to the exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits in disputed and undelimited areas.

Groundwater extraction has emerged as a major concern at a global scale. The race to the bottom refers to the practice of drilling deeper to reach ever-deepening water tables. Much attention is given to the threat of reduced access to groundwater, but less attention is given to the irreparable damage to the aquifer due to excessive development. There are several international agreements regarding aquifers, but none refer to storage volumes available in the aquifer. But the potential storage available in aquifer systems could have great value in the future. Unitization explicitly includes governance of storage spaces. By design, unitization seeks to conserve collectively held resources. Elinor Ostrom’s work on common pool resources sought similar outcomes and has similar theoretical foundations. Many of the same policies adopted or proposed for groundwater have similar allegories in the history of oil and gas regulation. These regulations proved ineffective for oil and gas, and unitization closed the policy gap. Because of these similarities, the issues that the oil and gas industry resolved historically with unitization agreements could also address the issues facing today’s aquifers.