Oil & Gas

Deep Industry Knowledge & Understanding

Latham's Oil & Gas Industry team provides practical and creative advice to clients throughout the oil and gas value chain, from the wellhead to refining and petrochemicals. The firm has a diverse team of lawyers based in the major commercial, financial and regulatory centers around the United States, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Latham’s Oil & Gas Industry team works across borders and practice areas counseling clients on the following:

• Oil and gas transactions
• Complex M&A
• Private equity
• Capital markets
• Finance
• Project development
• Regulatory
• Tax
• Environmental
• Litigation matters

Serving All Aspects of the Oil & Gas Sector

The firm advises many of the world’s leading oil and gas exploration, development and production companies, oil field services and equipment companies, master limited partnerships and downstream chemicals and fuels divisions and companies. Latham's lawyers also represent financial institutions, private equity firms and government entities active in the sector. The team’s regulatory lawyers have detailed knowledge and expertise with respect to all aspects of the energy value chain and regularly practice before government and regulatory agencies in various jurisdictions.

Over the decades, advising clients in more than 70 countries worldwide, Latham has developed a genuine global oil and gas group that advises top corporate, sovereign and financial participants in the sector.

The firm is committed to the global oil and gas industry and building long-term relationships rather than one-off deal opportunities. Latham is regularly called upon by clients to support them in “firsts” for their companies — step-out and strategic transactions and major regulatory and litigation matters of the highest importance.

Latham's oil and gas lawyers are experienced in handling the myriad of legal and business issues across key areas such as:

• Exploration and Production
  • Conventional
  • Unconventional (shale, coal-bed methane, heavy oil, tar sands)
  • Offshore (shelf, deep, ultra-deep)
  • Onshore
•  Midstream
  • Gathering and Storage
  • Transportation
  • Processing
• Downstream
  • Refining
  • Marketing
  • Petrochemicals and chemicals
  • Trading and Derivatives
  • Storage
  • Alternative Fuels
• Services
  • Oilfield
  • Marine
  • Technology solutions
  • IT solutions
• LNG, LPG and NGLs
• Infrastructure

Latham has extensive cross-practice expertise, including:

• Oil & gas transactions, including production sharing contracts, licenses, technical evaluation agreements, confidentiality agreements, joint bidding agreements, farmout agreements, participation agreements, exploration agreements, purchase and sale agreements, joint operating agreements, drilling contracts and service contracts
• All forms of conventional and structured financing, including Islamic, asset and reserve-based lending, production payments, royalty trusts, etc.
• Capital markets – debt, equity and derivatives
• Commodity trading- physical and derivative
• Construction counseling and dispute resolution
• Employment and labor
• Engineering, procurement and construction contracts
• Environmental counseling and litigation
• Export credit agency experience
• Joint ventures
• Intellectual property development, commercialization litigation and protection and liability
• Mergers & acquisitions at the corporate and asset level
• International dispute resolution, including border investment contract and treaty disputes and multi-party actions with private parties and sovereigns
• Litigation in various jurisdictions
• Master limited partnerships
• Oil & gas reserve-based financing
• Infrastructure development and host government contracts – grants of rights, stability, etc.
• Private equity investment and finance
• Project development and finance across the value chain
• Regulatory proceedings and consultation with regulatory and political bodies
• Shipping support to the oil & gas and extractive industries
• Tax structuring and compliance
• White collar, anti-corruption, sanctions
• Internal investigations, board counseling, crisis management and control
• Counseling sovereign and private sector oil and gas industry clients

Some of the recent high-profile engagements on which Latham lawyers have been involved include:

• The US$3.9 billion sale of Rosetta Resources to Noble Energy
• The US$55.8 billion pending acquisition by Energy Transfer Equity of The Williams Companies
• The US$18 billion acquisition by Energy Transfer Partners of Regency Energy Partners
• The US$225 million initial public offering of PennTex Midstream Partners, LP
• The US$280 million sale by PetroQuest Energy of a majority interest in its Woodford and Mississippian Lime assets
• Financing of the Mozambique LNG Project for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. The initial LNG Project will consist of two LNG trains and will be one of the largest projects ever implemented in Africa