Priego Brito & Guzmán Juárez Attorneys at Law

Social Impact Solutions

We promote projects with a social and environmental focus for sustainable development.

Land contracting

The vision of our services is to manage and continuously improve the social, environmental and legal situation related to the operation, payment of rights and contracting of land to be used for projects in the hydrocarbon sector. These are developed with 3 approaches:

Social or Environmental Intelligence. Cabinet and Field Management:

  • Due diligence of surface occupancy contracts.
  • Due diligence of socio-environmental claims.
  • Social Impact Assessment.
  • Implementation of the Socio-environmental Attention System.

Judicial Services. Procedural and corrective:

  • Judicial Validation of Contract.
  • Legal Hydrocarbon Easement.
  • Remedies and means of appeal.

Contractual. Legal negotiation:

  • Management of passage permissions.
  • Identification of operating surfaces.
    Legal negotiation.
  • Alternative agreement mechanisms.

Due diligence on surface occupancy contracts

Our Due Diligence has the following scope: 

  • Identification of rights holders.
  • The status of the Surface Occupancy Contracts COS Pemex is complicated.
  • To know the legality, modality, validity, parts and area covered in the COS is essential to start operations with certainty.

Due diligence of socio-environmental claims

Like COS, claims are part of the inheritance left by Pemex in the oil fields, particularly in the southeast of Mexico. Therefore, when entering a contractual area, it is essential to identify and determine, through practical and scientific methods, whether the claims and payment of social or environmental liabilities are justified or not.

Data classification:

  • A file is compiled for each claimant identifying: concept, validity, frequency, amount and origin of the claim.
  • Field and cabinet identification.
  • Dictamination.

This deliverable allows us to acquire information for the Socio-environmental Attention System.

Community liaison and complaint handling

In the oil fields it is very common for communities and landowners to claim damages or damages to their property from the companies, often blocking access to the fields or demanding payment of amounts that do not correspond to the damages. The claims are generally not backed up by facts or reliable evidence.

As a result of the above, we have experts and qualified appraisers in various fields for the valuation of damages.

We also provide management and personalized daily care in the community to maintain healthy relationships, offer quality attention to the parties related to your project and prevent nonconformities or adverse events. Daily reports are prepared and sent to the client.

Management of passage permissions

Energy sector projects, which by their nature require portions of land to operate, start with the management of right-of-way permits.

Being courteous, acting professionally and having the experience to gain access to the properties to carry out the first studies is fundamental.
This is the first formal and interactive approach between the company and the people who hold title to the land.

We have personnel with more than 16 years of experience, successfully obtaining the passage to the land. Depending on the characteristics of the project, the scope of the permit will be adjusted..

Social impact intelligence

Social intelligence is a phase of inquiry, research and data collection, where we identify relevant aspects, conditions and prevailing actors, considering religious, cultural, family, criminal, labor and union nuances, authorities, political or partisan affiliation, land regime, economy and claims and expectations of the stakeholders themselves.

Social Impact Assessment:

  • Risk identification and dispute prevention, as well as systematization and improvement of decision-making processes.
  • Evaluation of social perception and consensus building.
  • Diagnosis of indigenous peoples in terms of Convention 169 and the Nagoya Protocol.
  • Equator Principles compliance management.
  • Social Impact Assessment for renewable or conventional energy projects.

Legal negotiation

Background. In terms of Article 100 of the Hydrocarbons Law, in order to use the lands where projects are intended to be developed, oil operators or other hydrocarbon sector project developers must carry out a transparent, informed negotiation and contracting process in accordance with the applicable regulations.

Our negotiation is carried out with a legal support that verifies compliance of the entire negotiation and contracting procedure with the owner; we also determine the legal certainty of the ownership of the property, capacity of the contracting party, registry history and other factors that serve as a filter to carry out a contracting in accordance with the applicable regulations.

We have the know-how and proven by years of practice, we are pioneers in PVC. We have developed instruments, procedures and methodology specific and tropicalized to the variables of southeastern Mexico.

Legal hydrocarbon easement

What is a legal hydrocarbon easement?

In terms of the LH... It shall include the right of transit of persons; the right of transportation, conduction and storage of construction materials, vehicles, machinery and goods of all kinds; the right of construction, installation or maintenance of the infrastructure or performance of works and works necessary for the adequate development and surveillance of the activities covered by virtue of a Contract.

Proceeds in cases where 180 days have passed since the notice of interest and there is no openness to negotiate with the owner.

Unions

The complexity and dangerousness of the union situation is well known in the industry. We are characterized by having expert, sensitive and qualified personnel to deal with the problem, always supported by lawyers, as well as professionals in other disciplines.

At times it may be a legal figure, at others a socio-criminal phenomenon, it is necessary to have the elements and capacity to differentiate.

Daily experience has allowed us to accumulate valuable knowledge, important intelligence, and at the same time, we have developed skills, techniques and dexterity for the management and control of relations with these groups and related eventualities.

Our procedures are based on IFC International Finance Corporation Performance Standards, industry best practices, as well as current state and federal legislation.

Judicial validation of PVC contract

Background. In terms of Article 105 of the Hydrocarbons Law, contracts entered into with land holders must be qualified as legal by an authority; such authority must issue a resolution declaring the contract entered into between the land holders and the oil operators or project developers of the hydrocarbons sector to be valid.

We started with studies on the subject since 2014. In Tabasco during 2016, we presented the first promotions for the judicial validation of contracts on private land and since 2017 we have been articulating the contracting of social property, to date we have validated in both modalities dozens of contracts, we have numerous success stories and satisfied customers, who operate today safely. We are supported by experience through legal analysis and procedural practice.

Preparation and submission of the contract validation request:

  • Management of certified copies of evidence.
  • Integration of the file with transfers.

Publication of Edicts:

  • We manage the publication of the edicts in a local newspaper or place edicts in more visible places in the corresponding ejido.
  • We attend hearings in agrarian matters.

Sentence:

  • Once the Edicts have been published or posted. The judge has 15 days to rule on the validity or inappropriateness of the contract signed between the land holder and the holder of the hydrocarbon project.
  • Enrollment.

Additional: Topography

The Surfaces and Facilities of the Contract Areas must be identified and delimited, spatially and legally.

It is important to be certain that the actions carried out correspond to the geographic space delimited in the Contracts or Permits to develop activities in the Hydrocarbons sector.

In addition, these studies serve as the basis for interacting and negotiating with land titles, especially for calculating legal considerations.

  • Preliminary surface analysis.
  • Survey and geographic location.
  • Preparation of drawings according to the terms of reference provided by the client.
    Cadastral surveys.

Do you need expert legal advice? Contact us today and secure your legal peace of mind!

At Priego Brito & Guzmán Juárez we are here to help you. Whether you are facing a legal challenge or seeking prevention and legal solutions, our professional team is ready to offer you personalized support and effective results.

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