Oil and gas

The oil and gas sector is ever changing. Security of supply, climate change, fluctuating and divergent oil and gas prices, new technologies, the liberation of energy markets and access to new resources are all current and topical issues.

In particular, the number of parties and contracts means that projects can become very complicated. Advice is needed across a whole range of contracts and issues to take oil and gas from an underground resource to customers often in different countries.

Our service

We are a full service law firm advising across the whole range of corporate, contract, finance, property, planning and environmental, tax, employment, procurement, competition and regulatory issues that may arise on your oil and gas project.

We offer a broad range of services across the full spectrum of oil and gas projects including:

• upstream and downstream acquisitions and disposals
• exploration projects
• pipelines
• infrastructure (including terminals)
• project financing and security arrangements
• joint venture and consortium agreements
• oil and gas sales and transportation agreements
• joint well agreements, third party well logging agreements, seismic agreements, joint study agreements, confidentiality agreements
• service agreements including drilling services, vessel services, aircraft services, geophysical data services, personnel services and lifting agreements
• decommissioning of facilities
• regulatory issues
• health and safety and competition issues

Our experience

Our team has advised extensively for over 50 years in the oil and gas sector including major upstream oil and gas acquisitions, cross country pipelines and gas storage developments.

We also have significant experience in advising oil and gas clients from emerging markets on numerous acquisitions and disposals particularly in the CIS and have advised many clients on their oil and gas IPOs in the UK.

Our experience includes:

• Advising on the establishment of the UK-Interconnector joint venture which was established by a consortium of international energy companies including ConocoPhillips, E.ON Ruhrgas, Total, Distrigaz, Gazprom, BP, International Power and Amerada Hess.
• Advising the individual and consortia promoters of some 25 cross-country pipelines connecting power stations to the National Pipeline System. Our clients have included BP, British Gas, Burmah, Esso, ICI, PowerGen, Shell and Q8.
• Advising Idemitsu on their acquisition of a substantial participating interest in North Sea production licenses, which involved drafting and negotiating Farm In Agreements, Joint Operating Agreements and other relevant documents.
• Advising Kazakhstan oil giant KazMunaiGas for a number of years on their general corporate work and corporate governance advice including mergers and acquisitions.
• Advising Idemitsu Kosan, Japan’s third largest oil refiner, on its acquisition of Petro Summit UK which owns an interest in 17 North Sea oil licences from Sumitomo Corporation.
• Advising on a joint venture with JNR relating to the exploitation of oil and gas reserves
  in Ukraine.