Oil & Gas

The global oil and gas industry is a dynamic business, with challenges that require a solutions-based approach. Our Chambers ranked international Oil and Gas team understands the unique legal, commercial and technical aspects of the industry. We draw from that in-depth understanding to provide our clients with effective and cost-efficient representation.

Deep Industry Knowledge

Our lawyers have a proven track record counseling clients across the key areas of the oil and gas value chain, including upstream (conventional and unconventional resources), midstream, downstream, LNG, oilfield services and infrastructure. We call on our resources to provide comprehensive legal advice, including with respect to mergers and acquisitions, joint venture arrangements, resource exploration, production and development projects, infrastructure projects, financings, restructurings, trading, competition issues, compliance issues/investigations, and disputes. Our knowledge and competence is grounded in our extensive collective experience working within the oil and gas industry, in-house and for international law firms.

We have in-depth experience with all aspects of the oil and gas industry and the interplay between the major industry contracts, including:

Granting instruments, including leases, concession agreements, licenses, production sharing contracts and risk sharing contracts
Joint ventures, including joint operating agreements, joint development/exploration agreements, joint study and bidding agreements, and unitization and unit operating agreements
Mergers and acquisitions, including corporate and asset sales, farm-ins and farm-outs, asset swaps, and royalty granting instruments
Commodity sale and purchase agreements, including for crude oil, natural gas and LNG sales, including spot, term and master sales arrangements
Derivatives and hedging agreements, including for crude oil, natural gas and other commodities, as well as restructuring and termination of those agreements and related disputes
Gathering, processing, pipeline, storage and transportation agreements
Drilling and service contracts
LNG project development
Decommissioning arrangements
Equity and debt securities issuances for public and private companies at all stages; master limited partnerships, including formation, tax planning, structuring, asset contributions and conflicts committee representations
Restructurings, including in- and out-of-court restructurings, amendments, waivers, forbearances, debt-to-equity conversions, consensual and non-consensual foreclosures, swap terminations, bankruptcy filings, and bankruptcy litigation.

Our clients include integrated oil companies, independent exploration and production companies, governments, state-owned entities, national oil companies, LNG project developers, financial institutions, private equity funds, master limited partnerships, pipeline companies, and oilfield services and equipment companies, among others.

Our extensive experience in different jurisdictions, and with different companies and governments, combined with our insights into market developments and trends, means we provide our clients with pragmatic and commercially focused legal solutions for even the most difficult problems.

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A Global Presence

Our global platform offers clients a distinctive combination of local insight and global reach. With offices and team members in key markets around the world, our Oil and Gas team has represented clients in a wide variety of cutting-edge matters in every major energy region, including the United States, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. The strategic location of our oil and gas team members in international energy hubs ensures we provide seamless service to our clients, wherever they may be.

In emerging markets, we regularly provide counsel on issues such as regulatory reform, capacity building, host and intra-government agreements, local content, CSR/ESG, and compliance. In established jurisdictions, we use our in-depth knowledge of the regulatory environment to provide counsel on issues such as regulatory compliance, standard form agreements, third-party access rights and issues relevant to end-of-life assets, including decommissioning security and transition ownership structures.

An Integrated Approach

Our skill set goes beyond the immediate operational aspects of the oil and gas industry. We know industries evolve, and our clients include not only traditional oil and gas industry participants but also new entrants.

We draw on our capabilities across a wide range of disciplines to provide integrated solutions that meet our clients’ needs. This includes complex project finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate reorganizations, private equity, capital markets, regulatory, environmental, competition, and dispute resolution matters.

Engagements

ConocoPhillips on the $1.2 billion disposition of its interest in the Seaway Crude Pipeline.

Golar LNG on the development of a floating liquefied natural gas export project located 20 km off the coast of Cameroon. This is Africa’s first maritime LNG project.

Zarubezhneft on the acquisition of an interest in the Kharyaga field in Russia and the first transfer of operatorship in the Russian Federation.

A major national oil and gas company in the disposition of its operated upstream oil and gas assets in the Marcellus to EQT, and also in the acquisition of an additional 13 percent interest in its upstream oil and gas joint venture with Repsol in the Eagle Ford.

Snam SpA on the acquisition of an interest in the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline from Greece through Albania to Italy. This is a strategic transaction for Snam in the Southern Gas Corridor that will commercialize Caspian reserves.

An international oil company in a $394 million divestiture of Marcellus shale assets and related joint venture and development arrangements.

Tullow Ghana on arrangements for the sale and transportation of Ghana gas from a number of offshore fields (associated and nonassociated gas fields) allows the commercialization of vital native gas resources for power production in Ghana.

Storengy on various legal and regulatory matters associated with the Stublach underground fast-cycle gas storage facility, the newest U.K. gas storage facility and one of the largest salt cavity storage facilities in the U.K.

Newfield Exploration Company in the nearly $900 million divestiture of its Malaysian exploration and production business, comprising interests in nine offshore blocks.