Exploration & Production

Our experience across the world’s major onshore and offshore hydrocarbon and mining jurisdictions is extensive. We have worked alongside in-house company teams in the traditional role of outside counsel and have played the role of ‘in-house counsel’ for a number of smaller companies. We advise on a wide range of areas, including negotiations with host governments and business partners, over some of the most advanced types of agreements, including:  

• the preparation of project documents,
• due diligence,
• procurement of licenses and operating permits,
• government approval processes, and
• resolution of problems with state agencies and contractual partners.

Representative Exploration & Production Experience

• Advising an independent oil company operating solely within Kazakhstan in connection with its sale to a major foreign state oil company in a transaction valued in excess of USD 4.18 billion;
• Representing the operators of the pioneering Karachaganak oil and gas condensate project in Kazakhstan from the time of the earliest negotiations in 1991;
• Representing the Caspian Consortium, and the successive operating entities of the world-class Kashagan offshore project in Kazakhstan, continuously since 1995;
• Representing an Italian consortium in the acquisition of USD 5.83 billion stake in gas producing assets located in the Yamal-Nenets Region of the Russian Federation;
• Advising a North American mining company in relation to its uranium mining exploration and production joint venture in Kazakhstan, including in respect of subsoil licensing, production quotas and sales agreements;
• Acting as counsel to a private US company in its sale to a major international oil company in a USD 275 million cash merger transaction in the Khanty-Mansiisk Region of Russia (Western Siberia) and subsequent restructuring of the acquired business;
• Assisting a UAE-based investment group in a strategy to acquire the assets of a Russian oil company in the Yamal-Nenets region via bankruptcy proceedings with an innovative automatic transfer of the subsoil rights to the acquirer;
• Advising an international oil company in the preparation and negotiation of one of the first offshore production sharing agreements in Turkmenistan;
• Acting for a client in connection with the purchase of company holding interests in the marginal oil fields programme in Nigeria; and,
• Advising in relation to an existing Product Sharing Contract in Equatorial Guinea.