International Oil & Gas Law, Contracts, and Negotiations, Parts 1 & 2

JENNIFER JOSEFSON is a partner at King & Spalding, based in its Moscow office. She specializes in transactions in the oil and gas, energy and natural resources sectors, supporting clients on their international projects including M&A and joint venture arrangements, joint operating agreements (JOAs), PSA matters, concessions, supply contracts, oilfield service agreements, power purchase agreements, and international arbitration in the subsoil and energy sectors. Ms Josefson has advised a broad range of companies on their investments in the energy sector in Russia and the CIS, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She is ranked as one of the top energy and natural resource lawyers by Chambers Global, PLC Which Lawyer, and the Who’s Who of International Oil and Gas Lawyers. She has held both officer and director positions with the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and was its first regional director of the CIS Chapter from 2004 to 2008. She graduated from Baylor University (B.A.), University of Texas School of Law (J.D.) and the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Science (Masters of Law). She is admitted to the State Bar of Texas and to the roll of solicitors of England and Wales.

JUSTIN STOLTE, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP , Houston, TX

ELISABETH ELJURI is Chief Negotiator and Chief Legal Counsel for Sierra Oil and Gas, a private-equity backed company with assets in the Gulf of Mexico. She is based in Houston and Mexico City. Formerly, she was Head of Latin America for the global firm Norton Rose Fulbright, where she focused on corporate and transactional work involving high-end sophisticated transactions for major energy companies as well as international dispute work related to energy, projects, and infrastructure. Over the past two decades she has been regularly advising oil and gas producers and service companies engaged in transactions across the region. She has worked in the energy business in Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Argentina, Guyana, and other Latin American countries. She has been particularly active in the Mexican energy sector over the past 15 years. Major deals she has handled include acquisitions of hydrocarbon companies and producing areas, upstream contract negotiations, a crude oil storage and ship loading project, and several of the world’s largest gas injection projects. She has extensive experience in profit/production sharing agreements, JOAs, JSBAs, farmouts, gas licenses, and upstream joint venture companies, as well as midstream and downstream related and major projects. On the dispute side, she frequently acts as counsel in international arbitrations, including ICC and ICSID procedures. She has also been retained as an independent expert in international arbitrations and court proceedings and has spoken and published extensively in the area of energy and resources investment disputes and investment treaty law as well as political risk management in such industries. Elisabeth is a Past President of the AIPN. She is actively committed to legal education, is a co-chair and instructor of the International Oil and Gas Short Courses held in Houston every year, and also presents courses on subjects of interest for the energy community upon her client’s request. Chambers ranks Elisabeth in Band 1 for the entire Latin America region, and Star Individual for Venezuela. For a number of years now, Who’s Who in Oil and Gas has selected Elisabeth as one of the top 10 energy practitioners worldwide. Elisabeth received her law degree from Universidad Católica and an LLM from Harvard Law School. She is both a civil law and a common law lawyer (admitted in New York and Venezuela).

JOHN P. BOWMAN is a Partner with King & Spalding LLP in Houston, where he is engaged in an arbitration and litigation practice representing primarily international oil companies and service companies in a wide range of commercial and investment disputes. Increasingly, he is called upon to assist IOCs and international NOCs design and evaluate stabilization, choice of law, and dispute resolution provisions in upstream and project agreements with host governments and NOCs. His article on Risk Mitigation in International Petroleum Contracts was recently accepted for publication by the Georgetown Journal of International Law. He was chosen by the Institute for Energy Law to receive its Lifetime Achievement in Energy Litigation Award, given to one energy litigator each year whose achievements “have won the admiration of his or her peers,” at its annual energy litigation conference in November 2017. John served as President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (2014 – 2015) [the only disputes lawyer so honored] and is a former member of the governing Council of the Texas State Bar Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section (2013 – 2016). He was awarded the AIPN Education Award for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, its Legacy Award for 2012-2013, and its President’s Award 2015-2016.  John teaches International Energy Arbitration at Georgetown University Law Center and is an Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, Dundee, Scotland. The Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission recognized John for his contribution to education concerning the Panama Convention at its conference in Panama City celebrating the Convention’s 40th Anniversary in May 2015. In 2002 he received the national Burton Award for Legal Achievement for his article on The Panama Convention and Its Implementation under the Federal Arbitration Act, published by Columbia University in The American Review of International Arbitration and subsequently published as a book by Kluwer. He received his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1980, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Kansas Law Review. In April 2018 he received the University of Kansas School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award. 

CAROLINA AZEREDO GUERRA is a Senior Legal Counsel with Shell in Houston, with more than fifteen years of experience in the oil and gas industry. She has experience in handling the full hydrocarbon exploration life-cycle (conventional and unconventional) and associated transactional work across various international jurisdictions. Her work experience includes new country-entries, Farmout Agreements, Purchase and Sale Agreements and Joint Operating Agreements (JOAs). She provides legal management to asset owners, and works as leading negotiator with host governments, National Oil Companies (NOC’s), International Oil Companies (IOC’s) and small independents. Her jurisdiction responsibilities include working with many countries around the globe, with strong focus in Latin America. Carolina is admitted to the New York (USA) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Bar, and also a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). She has a law degree from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro and a LL.M. degree from the University of Houston, and is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

MILES PRILLAMAN is an attorney with Exxon Mobil Corporation, currently serving the ExxonMobil Development Company in Houston. He works primarily with upstream oil and gas matters. Mr. Prillaman started with Exxon Corporation in Houston in 1986, and subsequently worked in Midland, Texas; Florham Park, New Jersey; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; returning to Houston in 2000. Mr. Prillaman is a member of the American Petroleum Institute’s Subcommittee for Exploration and Production Law and is a former officer and director of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.

DAVID SWEENEY is a partner in the oil and gas group of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Over the past 11 years, he has advised on mergers and acquisitions with an aggregate value of over $65 billion, energy finance transactions with an aggregate value of over $3 billion, and numerous operational matters spanning the entire hydrocarbon value chain in over 30 countries. He has served as Vice President, Legal and General Counsel of an independent exploration and production company with interests in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, West Africa, and the Ukraine and Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of a subsidiary of an integrated energy company with geographic responsibilities including Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Romania. Mr. Sweeney is a frequent author and speaker on oil and gas topics. His written works include a comprehensive book on world-wide joint operating agreements and a number of book chapters and scholarly articles. 

BEN H. WELMAKER, JR., is an attorney at law in Houston who represents oil and gas companies in international and U.S. oil and gas transactions. He has drafted and negotiated numerous oil and gas exploration and production agreements including purchase and sale agreements, farmout agreements, confidentiality agreements, operating agreements, accounting procedures, joint bidding agreements, production sharing contracts, concession contracts, master service agreements, drilling contracts and drilling rig purchase and sale agreements. He has also represented oil and gas companies in drafting natural gas purchase and sale and transportation agreements. He has made a number of presentations on AIPN contract topics including JOA Default Issues – Texas Law (a review of the lien and default provisions of the AIPN 2012 Model International Joint Operating Agreement compared to the A.A.P.L. Form 610-Model Form Operating Agreement – 1989 under Texas law) at the AIPN 2016 Model Contracts Workshop, Banff, Alberta, Canada; June 28, 2016. Mr. Welmaker co-chaired the AIPN committees that prepared the revised 2004 AIPN Model Form International Accounting Procedure, the revised 2007 AIPN Model Form Confidentiality Agreement, the revised 2012 AIPN Model Form International Accounting Procedure and the 2012 AIPN Model Form International Unit Accounting Procedure. He holds a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law and is admitted to the State Bar of Texas and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He is also fluent in Spanish.

ELISABETH ELJURI is Chief Negotiator and Chief Legal Counsel for Sierra Oil and Gas, a private-equity backed company with assets in the Gulf of Mexico. She is based in Houston and Mexico City. Formerly, she was Head of Latin America for the global firm Norton Rose Fulbright, where she focused on corporate and transactional work involving high-end sophisticated transactions for major energy companies as well as international dispute work related to energy, projects, and infrastructure. Over the past two decades she has been regularly advising oil and gas producers and service companies engaged in transactions across the region. She has worked in the energy business in Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Argentina, Guyana, and other Latin American countries. She has been particularly active in the Mexican energy sector over the past 15 years. Major deals she has handled include acquisitions of hydrocarbon companies and producing areas, upstream contract negotiations, a crude oil storage and ship loading project, and several of the world’s largest gas injection projects. She has extensive experience in profit/production sharing agreements, JOAs, JSBAs, farmouts, gas licenses, and upstream joint venture companies, as well as midstream and downstream related and major projects. On the dispute side, she frequently acts as counsel in international arbitrations, including ICC and ICSID procedures. She has also been retained as an independent expert in international arbitrations and court proceedings and has spoken and published extensively in the area of energy and resources investment disputes and investment treaty law as well as political risk management in such industries. Elisabeth is a Past President of the AIPN. She is actively committed to legal education, is a co-chair and instructor of the International Oil and Gas Short Courses held in Houston every year, and also presents courses on subjects of interest for the energy community upon her client’s request. Chambers ranks Elisabeth in Band 1 for the entire Latin America region, and Star Individual for Venezuela. For a number of years now, Who’s Who in Oil and Gas has selected Elisabeth as one of the top 10 energy practitioners worldwide. Elisabeth received her law degree from Universidad Católica and an LLM from Harvard Law School. She is both a civil law and a common law lawyer (admitted in New York and Venezuela).

MICHAEL P. DARDEN is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Houston, Texas. His practice focuses on international and U.S. oil and gas ventures (including LNG, deep-water and unconventional resource development projects); international and U.S. infrastructure projects; asset acquisitions and divestitures; and energy-based financings (including project financings, reserve-based loans, and production payments). Mr. Darden has worked extensively on petroleum projects both within and outside the U.S., in all regions of the world. He has been involved in petroleum projects at all stages, working with governments, operators, industry partners, contractors, suppliers, lenders and insurers. He is the author of the Monograph entitled Legal Research Checklist for International Petroleum Operations published by the American Bar Association, as well as numerous papers that have been published or that he has presented at various seminars and conferences. He has been an instructor at the International Energy Law, Contracts and Negotiations Short Course co-sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the Institute for Energy Law and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, for each year of its existence. Mr. Darden is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, in which he has served as an officer, director and committee chairman, was co-chair of the committee that developed the model form international farmout agreement, and is co-chair of the committee that is revising the model form international farmout agreement.

DAVID F. ASMUS is co-head of the energy practice at Sidley Austin LLP. His experience ranges from shale and other unconventional resources, to deep water offshore developments, and from liquefied natural gas (LNG) to petrochemicals and refining. His work includes project development and finance (such as government investment agreements, joint venture and shareholder arrangements, unitizations, engineering, procurement and construction contracts, feedstock supply and product offtake arrangements, and project finance documentation), and acquisition and divestitures (including both negotiated and auction sales, exchanges and other non-cash transactions, and production payments and other off-balance sheet funding vehicles).  He has handled some of the world’s most challenging and innovative projects in these fields. Mr. Asmus has served as the president, the secretary, and a member of the board of directors of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), chaired the AIPN/ACCA committee that revised the Model Form International Operating Agreement in 1995, and co-chaired and served as lead drafter for the AIPN 2006 Model Form International Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement. Mr. Asmus is also a past Chair of the Institute for Energy Law.

STEVEN P. OTILLAR is a partner with White and Case LLP in Houston. He has been representing clients in the development, finance, acquisition, and divestiture of domestic and international energy projects for over 2019 years, with a particular emphasis on upstream projects in emerging markets. He counsels clients on obtaining rights to develop oil and gas projects around the world, as well as gas and liquid pipelines, wind, solar, and natural gas power projects. He regularly negotiates and structures a variety of investment vehicles – including joint ventures, joint operating agreements, participation agreements, farm-in/farm-out agreements, shareholder agreements, alliance agreements, teaming agreements, and joint bidding agreements – relating to the development of major energy and infrastructure projects. Mr. Otillar also represents clients with the underlying tender, construction, engineering, and procurement documentation for onshore and offshore energy projects. He is a former chair of the HBA International Section and member of the executive committee of the Texas Bar International Section. He is the former Director of the US Region of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, and currently serves on the Executive Committee, as Vice President of Education and is President-Elect of the organization. Mr. Otillar serves on the Executive Committee of the Institute of Energy Law, serving on the Strategic Planning Committee and as Co-Chair of the Membership Committee. He is also an editor of the Oil, Gas & Energy Law Journal. Mr. Otillar received his B.A. cum laude, with honors, from Southwestern University in 1992 and his J.D. cum laude and Order of the Coif from University of Houston Law Center in 1995. Prior to joining Akin Gump, he was a partner at a leading international law firm. Mr. Otillar is ranked by Chambers & Partners for Latin American Finance, and as a leading lawyer in Projects & Energy by the Legal 500 Latin America and a leading lawyer in Energy by the Legal 500. He has been selected as Expert Guides to the World’s Leading Energy Lawyers, and a Best of the Best in Energy. Who’s Who legal selected him as one of the worlds’ leading oil and gas lawyers.

FRANK CASCIO has represented clients in oil and gas and other energy related matters for over forty-six years. His current practice is limited to acting as advisory counsel on transactional matters, expert witness/arbitration consultations and teaching courses on international transactional documents and negotiations. After a short stint in academia, Mr. Cascio began his career in the oil business working in-house at Exxon Company, USA, primarily in domestic upstream projects. While working for Primary Fuels in 1984, he embarked to Accra, Ghana to negotiate his first PSC. It was not the ideal destination to begin a new phase of his career. But the challenge of working internationally was seductive and since that time his practice has been composed almost entirely of international upstream energy transactions. After more than twenty years of working in-house, he transitioned to a law firm and joined Jackson Walker LLP in Houston. In April 2001, he and Jim Barnes established Barnes & Cascio, LLP, a boutique law firm that limited its practice solely to international upstream transactional energy projects for a select client base. He frequently functioned as in-house general counsel on projects and his work almost always included first-chair negotiations. Barnes & Cascio ceased operations in mid-2015 following the retirement of Mr. Barnes. His geographical focus area is the Pacific Rim, primarily China, and most of the oil producing countries of sub-Saharan West Africa, but primarily Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. Mr. Cascio is a New Orleans native and received a BA in History from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University.

D. MARIE WAGNER is an International Energy Lawyer and Consultant in Houston and Corporate Fellow Faculty with the University of Houston – Downtown MBA Program. Formerly, she was Senior Counsel-International with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, where she was responsible for counseling her clients on a wide variety of upstream international transactional, operational and compliance matters, and for drafting and negotiating acquisition, divestiture, farmin, farmout, joint bidding, joint operating, lifting, production sharing/concession and unitization agreements in connection with Anadarko’s exploration, development and operations projects in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Her recent focus was on West Africa.  Prior experience includes serving as Senior Counsel International with El Paso Energy Corporation and as General Counsel of a Vivendi subsidiary in Paris. Ms. Wagner began her legal career as an associate with Bracewell & Giuliani in Houston. She earned her B.A. in Foreign Affairs (Middle East Studies) from the University of Virginia where she graduated with High Distinction, and her J.D. from the University of Maryland, where she served as Editor in Chief of the Maryland Journal of International Law and Trade and as President of the International Law Society. She also holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois. She designed the curriculum for and taught a multi-disciplinary course on Global Energy Transactions as an Adjunct/Extended Faculty (with MBA and Geoscience faculty) at the University of Texas School of Law. Ms. Wagner also has taught as an adjunct at the University of Houston School of Law.  She currently serves as a Director of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.   She is admitted to the bar in Texas and Washington, D.C. and as a Solicitor in England and Wales.

JOHN P. BOWMAN is a Partner with King & Spalding LLP in Houston, where he is engaged in an arbitration and litigation practice representing primarily international oil companies and service companies in a wide range of commercial and investment disputes. Increasingly, he is called upon to assist IOCs and international NOCs design and evaluate stabilization, choice of law, and dispute resolution provisions in upstream and project agreements with host governments and NOCs. His article on Risk Mitigation in International Petroleum Contracts was recently accepted for publication by the Georgetown Journal of International Law. He was chosen by the Institute for Energy Law to receive its Lifetime Achievement in Energy Litigation Award, given to one energy litigator each year whose achievements “have won the admiration of his or her peers,” at its annual energy litigation conference in November 2017. John served as President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (2014 – 2015) [the only disputes lawyer so honored] and is a former member of the governing Council of the Texas State Bar Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section (2013 – 2016). He was awarded the AIPN Education Award for 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, its Legacy Award for 2012-2013, and its President’s Award 2015-2016.  John teaches International Energy Arbitration at Georgetown University Law Center and is an Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, Dundee, Scotland. The Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission recognized John for his contribution to education concerning the Panama Convention at its conference in Panama City celebrating the Convention’s 40th Anniversary in May 2015. In 2002 he received the national Burton Award for Legal Achievement for his article on The Panama Convention and Its Implementation under the Federal Arbitration Act, published by Columbia University in The American Review of International Arbitration and subsequently published as a book by Kluwer. He received his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1980, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Kansas Law Review. In April 2018 he received the University of Kansas School of Law’s Distinguished Alumni Award. 

HARRY W. SULLIVAN, JR., is an International Energy Attorney based in Dallas, Texas, where he is an Adjunct Professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law and at Texas A&M School of Law. He also works for Kosmos Energy in their West Africa exploration activities. His previous experience includes fourteen years as Senior Counsel-International in the International E&P Legal Group of ConocoPhillips, Of Counsel with Thompson & Knight LLP, fifteen years as Chief Counsel-International and Senior Counsel for Atlantic Richfield Company and five years as Senior Counsel for Sun Oil Company. Mr. Sullivan has a J.D. degree from Louisiana State University School of Law and an LL.M. degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in the states of Louisiana and Texas and before the Supreme Court of the United States, and he is Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law in Texas. He is also admitted as a Solicitor in England and Wales. His practice and experience focuses on the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry, both in the U.S.A. and internationally, in more than 25 different countries. 

ELISABETH ELJURI is Chief Negotiator and Chief Legal Counsel for Sierra Oil and Gas, a private-equity backed company with assets in the Gulf of Mexico. She is based in Houston and Mexico City. Formerly, she was Head of Latin America for the global firm Norton Rose Fulbright, where she focused on corporate and transactional work involving high-end sophisticated transactions for major energy companies as well as international dispute work related to energy, projects, and infrastructure. Over the past two decades she has been regularly advising oil and gas producers and service companies engaged in transactions across the region. She has worked in the energy business in Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Argentina, Guyana, and other Latin American countries. She has been particularly active in the Mexican energy sector over the past 15 years. Major deals she has handled include acquisitions of hydrocarbon companies and producing areas, upstream contract negotiations, a crude oil storage and ship loading project, and several of the world’s largest gas injection projects. She has extensive experience in profit/production sharing agreements, JOAs, JSBAs, farmouts, gas licenses, and upstream joint venture companies, as well as midstream and downstream related and major projects. On the dispute side, she frequently acts as counsel in international arbitrations, including ICC and ICSID procedures. She has also been retained as an independent expert in international arbitrations and court proceedings and has spoken and published extensively in the area of energy and resources investment disputes and investment treaty law as well as political risk management in such industries. Elisabeth is a Past President of the AIPN. She is actively committed to legal education, is a co-chair and instructor of the International Oil and Gas Short Courses held in Houston every year, and also presents courses on subjects of interest for the energy community upon her client’s request. Chambers ranks Elisabeth in Band 1 for the entire Latin America region, and Star Individual for Venezuela. For a number of years now, Who’s Who in Oil and Gas has selected Elisabeth as one of the top 10 energy practitioners worldwide. Elisabeth received her law degree from Universidad Católica and an LLM from Harvard Law School. She is both a civil law and a common law lawyer (admitted in New York and Venezuela).

ANDREW MELSHEIMER is a Partner in Thompson & Knight’s International Energy Practice Group where he concentrates his practice on international oil and gas-related transactions, strategic commercial and business advice on cross-border transactions and investment projects, and dispute resolution matters. His experience includes acquisitions, divestments, trades, and mergers; exploration, development, and production matters; and anti-corruption (FCPA) and economic trade sanctions. Andrew’s dispute-related matters have been before federal and state courts in Louisiana, Texas, and New York as well as domestic and international arbitration panels. Andrew also has in-house experience through his secondment to an international energy company, where his responsibilities included handling issues related to host-government contracts, joint operating agreements, and unitization agreements. He received a J.D. and Bachelor of Civil Law from Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center; a Master of International Business Studies from the University of South Carolina; and a B.S. in International Trade and Finance from Louisiana State University. Andrew is the past Chair of the International Law Section of the Texas State Bar, a Board Member for the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators as well as a member of the organization’s Farmout Agreement Revision Drafting Committee and Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement Model Form Committee, an Advisory Board Member for the Institute for International and Comparative Law at CAIL, and an Advisory Board Member for the Institute of Transnational Arbitration. His accolades include being named a “Recommended Attorney” for Energy Transactions: Oil and Gas by The Legal 500 US 2017 as well as among D Magazine’s 2017 “Best Lawyers in Dallas” for Energy & Natural Resources.

ANDREW MELSHEIMER is a Partner in Thompson & Knight’s International Energy Practice Group where he concentrates his practice on international oil and gas-related transactions, strategic commercial and business advice on cross-border transactions and investment projects, and dispute resolution matters. His experience includes acquisitions, divestments, trades, and mergers; exploration, development, and production matters; and anti-corruption (FCPA) and economic trade sanctions. Andrew’s dispute-related matters have been before federal and state courts in Louisiana, Texas, and New York as well as domestic and international arbitration panels. Andrew also has in-house experience through his secondment to an international energy company, where his responsibilities included handling issues related to host-government contracts, joint operating agreements, and unitization agreements. He received a J.D. and Bachelor of Civil Law from Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center; a Master of International Business Studies from the University of South Carolina; and a B.S. in International Trade and Finance from Louisiana State University. Andrew is the past Chair of the International Law Section of the Texas State Bar, a Board Member for the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators as well as a member of the organization’s Farmout Agreement Revision Drafting Committee and Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement Model Form Committee, an Advisory Board Member for the Institute for International and Comparative Law at CAIL, and an Advisory Board Member for the Institute of Transnational Arbitration. His accolades include being named a “Recommended Attorney” for Energy Transactions: Oil and Gas by The Legal 500 US 2017 as well as among D Magazine’s 2017 “Best Lawyers in Dallas” for Energy & Natural Resources.

JUSTIN STUHLDREHER is an Associate General Counsel with BHP Billiton Petroleum in Houston, Texas.  He has spent his entire career spanning over 37 years in in-house positions in the petroleum industry, beginning his career in Philadelphia with Gulf Oil Corporation in 1978, working in downstream, marine, and supply and trading, as well as West Africa offshore E & P projects; joining Amoco Corporation in Chicago in 1984 following the Chevron-Gulf merger, where he has held a number of positions in support of Amoco’s upstream business providing the legal support for projects in a number of countries, including, the UK, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, China, the USSR, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Egypt, Italy, Trinidad & Tobago and Papua New Guinea.  Following the acquisition of Amoco Corporation by BP plc. In January 1999, he relocated from Houston to BP’s Sunbury, UK office to manage legal support for upstream projects primarily in Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Norwegian North Sea areas.  He has had extensive experience negotiating and drafting major transactional agreements, including production sharing agreements, joint operating agreements, farm-in and farm-out agreements, area of mutual interest agreements, joint bidding agreements, drilling contracts, sale and purchase agreements for legal entities and asset acquisitions and divestments.  Mr. Stuhldreher was one of the lead attorneys in the negotiation of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli production sharing contract in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, including leading the effort to analyze and mitigate risks associated with the unsettled maritime boundary situation in the Caspian following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Mr. Stuhldreher retired from BP at the end of 2010 following completion of the negotiations pertaining to the establishment of the joint venture and governance structure related to the Rumaila Field redevelopment project involving BP, PetroChina and the Southern Oil Company of Iraq.  Mr. Stuhldreher joined BHP Billiton in January 2011 and immediately supported BHPB’s acquisition of the Fayetteville unconventional assets from Chesapeake, as well as the acquisition of Petrohawk Energy Corporation, a publicly traded company with assets and operations in the Permian, Eagle Ford and Haynesville unconventional shale development areas. He is currently an Associate General Counsel primarily responsible for major transactions, including various acquisitions and divestments for BHPB’s petroleum business in various countries, including the UK, Australia, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.  He is a member of the International Bar Association, the Maritime Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas and the State Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Mr. Stuhldreher received his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Notre Dame in 1978 and his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Villanova in 1974.

TERRY TODD recently retired to Nashville, Tennessee following a career involving both technical and business assignments with domestic and international companies pursuing global O&G activities. He started as a Research Geophysicist with Shell and Gulf (1973-80) and continued as an Exploration Geophysicist/Manager for Gulf and Elf Aquitaine USA (1980-91). He then moved on to pursue global Business Development for Elf Aquitaine and Total (Paris, 1991-2006; 2014-15) and Newfield (2006-9). His focus areas were Africa, the Middle East, the FSU and Asia. He finished his career with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists as Director, Global Relations (2009-14). He continues to have an active interest in global business development and technical advancements in the petroleum industry. Terry has worked on teams drafting AIPN Model Contracts; co-chaired the Lifting Agreement drafting committee and Model Form Workshops in Italy; and developed and presented both the Lifting Agreement and the Seismic Contracts Sections for the International O&G Law Course. Terry has also been very active in the globalization of the AIPN. With the support of the AIPN and companies involved in global operations, he helped create a regional AIPN chapter covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Former Soviet Union, and promoted the growth of regional chapters in Asia, Australia, and Latin America. Terry served several years on the Board of AIPN, and was AIPN President in 2002-2003. As Director, Global Relations with the SEG, he used his background in the geosciences, petroleum E&P, business, and volunteer work to help SEG serve a global membership, create and manage offices in China and the Middle East, develop collaboration opportunities with other societies and O&G companies, and reach out to practitioners in E&P, mining, near surface, and other areas of geophysics. Terry holds a BS degree in Mathematics & Physics from the University of Toronto (1969), and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1973).

FRANK CASCIO has represented clients in oil and gas and other energy related matters for over forty-six years. His current practice is limited to acting as advisory counsel on transactional matters, expert witness/arbitration consultations and teaching courses on international transactional documents and negotiations. After a short stint in academia, Mr. Cascio began his career in the oil business working in-house at Exxon Company, USA, primarily in domestic upstream projects. While working for Primary Fuels in 1984, he embarked to Accra, Ghana to negotiate his first PSC. It was not the ideal destination to begin a new phase of his career. But the challenge of working internationally was seductive and since that time his practice has been composed almost entirely of international upstream energy transactions. After more than twenty years of working in-house, he transitioned to a law firm and joined Jackson Walker LLP in Houston. In April 2001, he and Jim Barnes established Barnes & Cascio, LLP, a boutique law firm that limited its practice solely to international upstream transactional energy projects for a select client base. He frequently functioned as in-house general counsel on projects and his work almost always included first-chair negotiations. Barnes & Cascio ceased operations in mid-2015 following the retirement of Mr. Barnes. His geographical focus area is the Pacific Rim, primarily China, and most of the oil producing countries of sub-Saharan West Africa, but primarily Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. Mr. Cascio is a New Orleans native and received a BA in History from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University.

KEVIN SHAW is a partner in the firm of Mayer Brown LLP in both its Houston and Los Angeles offices. His practice emphasizes transactions involving energy projects and companies, as well as the mining industry. He practices in the Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California offices of the firm. He began his legal career with Shell Oil Company in its Western Exploration and Production division, in Houston, Texas. In the 1980’s, he practiced in Denver, Colorado. In addition to other articles, Mr. Shaw has presented papers at special and annual institutes of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and is currently the California Oil & Gas reporter for its quarterly Mineral Law Newsletter. He received his B.A. in 1976 from the University of Texas and his J.D. in 1980 from the University of Houston. He is admitted to practice in the States of California, Colorado and Texas. He is a member of the American Bar Association, State Bar of California, Colorado Bar Association and State Bar of Texas. He has served as the President of the Denver Association of Oil and Gas Title Lawyers (1986-87), and the Southern California Chairman of the Natural Resources Subsection of the State Bar of California (1994-1997).

FRANK CASCIO has represented clients in oil and gas and other energy related matters for over forty-six years. His current practice is limited to acting as advisory counsel on transactional matters, expert witness/arbitration consultations and teaching courses on international transactional documents and negotiations. After a short stint in academia, Mr. Cascio began his career in the oil business working in-house at Exxon Company, USA, primarily in domestic upstream projects. While working for Primary Fuels in 1984, he embarked to Accra, Ghana to negotiate his first PSC. It was not the ideal destination to begin a new phase of his career. But the challenge of working internationally was seductive and since that time his practice has been composed almost entirely of international upstream energy transactions. After more than twenty years of working in-house, he transitioned to a law firm and joined Jackson Walker LLP in Houston. In April 2001, he and Jim Barnes established Barnes & Cascio, LLP, a boutique law firm that limited its practice solely to international upstream transactional energy projects for a select client base. He frequently functioned as in-house general counsel on projects and his work almost always included first-chair negotiations. Barnes & Cascio ceased operations in mid-2015 following the retirement of Mr. Barnes. His geographical focus area is the Pacific Rim, primarily China, and most of the oil producing countries of sub-Saharan West Africa, but primarily Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. Mr. Cascio is a New Orleans native and received a BA in History from the University of New Orleans and a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana State University.

D. MARIE WAGNER is an International Energy Lawyer and Consultant in Houston and Corporate Fellow Faculty with the University of Houston – Downtown MBA Program. Formerly, she was Senior Counsel-International with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, where she was responsible for counseling her clients on a wide variety of upstream international transactional, operational and compliance matters, and for drafting and negotiating acquisition, divestiture, farmin, farmout, joint bidding, joint operating, lifting, production sharing/concession and unitization agreements in connection with Anadarko’s exploration, development and operations projects in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Her recent focus was on West Africa.  Prior experience includes serving as Senior Counsel International with El Paso Energy Corporation and as General Counsel of a Vivendi subsidiary in Paris. Ms. Wagner began her legal career as an associate with Bracewell & Giuliani in Houston. She earned her B.A. in Foreign Affairs (Middle East Studies) from the University of Virginia where she graduated with High Distinction, and her J.D. from the University of Maryland, where she served as Editor in Chief of the Maryland Journal of International Law and Trade and as President of the International Law Society. She also holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois. She designed the curriculum for and taught a multi-disciplinary course on Global Energy Transactions as an Adjunct/Extended Faculty (with MBA and Geoscience faculty) at the University of Texas School of Law. Ms. Wagner also has taught as an adjunct at the University of Houston School of Law.  She currently serves as a Director of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.   She is admitted to the bar in Texas and Washington, D.C. and as a Solicitor in England and Wales.

WILLIAM W. PUGH is with the Houston office of Liskow & Lewis. He handles complex maritime and energy-related matters for oil and gas producers and other Texas, Louisiana and Gulf region businesses, including contract disputes, insurance disputes and energy transactions. He has earned a reputation for responsiveness, an ability to translate complicated concepts and for having extensive, pioneering experience analyzing, drafting and reviewing sophisticated energy-related contracts and insurance, indemnity and other contract issues. His practice includes master service agreements, onshore and offshore drilling contracts, charters, flight service agreements, onshore and offshore construction contracts and other maritime and energy-related agreements. He has also helped international and domestic corporations integrate their contracts internally and following mergers or assignment of contracts (such as drilling contracts). Bill was managing partner of the firm’s Houston office and served several terms on Liskow’ s Board of Directors. He now serves as the Team Leader of the Houston office’s Maritime, Oilfield and Insurance Section. He is admitted to practice in Lousiana and Texas. Bill received his J.D from Louisiana State University in 979, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Lousiana Law Review and Order of the Coif. He was Law Clerk to the Honorable Albert Tate, Jr., Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Louisiana, and Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 1979 -1980. Bill has been listed in "The Best Lawyers in America," 2005–2018.

OWEN L. ANDERSON began teaching full time at the University of Texas School of Law in January 2016, serving as a Professor at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law & Business, where he has taught as a part-time secondee since 2008. He is the Eugene Kuntz Chair Emeritus in Law in Oil, Gas & Natural Resources and the George Lynn Cross Research Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. He continues to regularly teach at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney. Professor Anderson has lectured at numerous other universities and venues on six continents and throughout the United States. He has authored over 100 articles. He is a co-author of International Petroleum Transactions, Hemingway Oil and Gas Law and Taxation, Cases and Materials on Oil & Gas Law, and A Student’s Guide to Estates in Land and Future Interests. He a co-author of the supplements to Kuntz on Oil and Gas Law, and editor in chief of the Texas Title Standards. He serves on the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for Energy Law, Faculty Adviser to the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas and Energy Law, the Editorial Advisory Board of the Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Journal (ONE J), and on the Executive Committee of the Journal of World Energy Law and Business. He is a member of the Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota bars; a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, where he serves as form and style editor of AIPN Model Contracts; a life member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; a member of the American Law Institute; an honorary trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation; and a trustee of the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation. He is an arbitrator and consultant on oil and gas law and policy.

GWENDOLYN JARAMILLO is a partner with Foley Hoag LLP, based in San Antonio, Texas and deputy chair of the firm’s International Business practice group. Her diversified international practice encompasses transactional, trade, general corporate, and public advocacy concerns. She advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on cross-border acquisitions and establishment of international operations. Gwendolyn is also a member of Foley Hoag’s Corporate Social Responsibility practice group. In this role, she advises multinational companies regarding the development and implementation of CSR strategies, policies, and procedures, as well as compliance with emerging legal and regulatory requirements. In the area of foreign trade, Gwendolyn advises clients regarding compliance with U.S. export regulations and sanctions programs, including product classifications, development of compliance programs, compliance audits, and compliance with OFAC regulations. Her work often involves counseling private sector and country government clients on governmental advocacy strategies aimed at trade and other issues involving the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government. Beyond her international work, Gwendolyn provides assistance to private, public, and non-profit companies on general corporate matters.

TOUFIC P. NASSIF is the Director of Commercial Development for VAALCO Energy Inc. responsible for the company’s business development, negotiations and government relations. Mr. Nassif joined VAALCO in 2016 and has been working since with its CEO and management team to advance their business in West Africa, primarily in Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Angola. Prior to his current position he was the President and CEO of Sonde Resources Corp. responsible for the company oil and gas business in Canada and North Africa. Prior to Joining Sonde, he held the position of VP and Commercial Director for BP Libya where he lead the negotiation for the landmark exploration deal that was signed with the Libyan NOC in 2007, the largest exploration deal in BP’s history and the largest ever awarded by Libya. Prior to his role in Libya Toufic was the Director of Negotiations for BP North Africa where he worked on the business development and the growth agenda (new ventures) for BP in Libya and Algeria.  Toufic served as a director for BP Exploration North Africa and BP Exploration Libya Ltd from 1999-2010 and also held the position of Senior Advisor for E&P Business Development for BP Plc from 2007-2010. Prior to his move to London in 1999, Toufic was the Director of Commercial Development for the Exploration and Production Sector of Amoco Corporation, responsible for identifying, developing and establishing new business ventures in North Africa and the Middle East. Toufic held in 2004-2005 the office of the president of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). He has more than 38 years in the energy business with comprehensive experience in business development, negotiations and commercial activities in North Africa, West Africa, and Middle East as well as extensive experience in commercial petroleum operations and oil and gas project management.

EDUARDO G. PEREIRA has been active in the oil and gas industry for over 10 years and is an international expert on joint operating agreements. He has oil and gas practical experience in over 40 jurisdictions covering America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Dr. Pereira concluded his doctoral thesis on oil and gas joint ventures at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland). He conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (University of Oxford, UK) and another postdoctoral research at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (University of Oslo, Norway). He is a professor of natural resources and energy law as a full-time, part-time, adjunct and/or visiting scholar in a number of leading academic institutions around the world. He is also a managing editor for the African Journal on Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law and an associate editor of OGEL. He is also the author and editor of several leading oil and gas textbooks. Further information about his profile and publications can be found at www.eduardogpereira.com 

FELIPE ALICE is a partner in the Houston office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, and a member of its Corporate and Business Transactions Practice. Mr. Alice focuses his practice on local and international energy transactions and infrastructure projects covering energy, finance and corporate issues involving complex contracts, corporate restructuring, and project finance. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Alice was a foreign legal advisor at an international law firm, where he focused on local and international energy and infrastructure projects. Mr. Alice earned his LL.M. in international law from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. He earned a specialization in international law 2001 and his LL.B. in 1999, both from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Mr. Alice is admitted to practice in Texas, Brazil, New York, and in England and Wales as a Solicitor. Portuguese is his first language, and he is fluent in English and Spanish.

ANDREW B. DERMAN is a Partner in Thompson & Knight’s Dallas office and serves as the Firm’s International Energy Practice Leader as well as Chairman of Thompson & Knight Global Energy Services, LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of the Firm that provides technical, economic, and commercial advisory services to the energy sector. With a concentration on oil and gas investment projects and cross-border transactions, he focuses on providing legal and commercial support in connection with acquisitions, divestments, trades, and mergers; strategic commercial and business advice; large infrastructure projects; nationalization/expropriation; anti-corruption  and sanction advice; unitizations; boundary disputes; exploration, development, and production operations; production sharing contracts; negotiations; and dispute resolution. Mr. Derman has assisted clients in more than 50 countries on six continents and offers clients a comprehensive understanding of oil and gas activities through experience in a broad spectrum of countries and companies. Prior to joining Thompson & Knight, he served as in-house counsel and later an executive for a large international oil and gas company for nearly 20 years. His practice is equally divided between providing clients with traditional legal representation (contract negotiation and drafting) and business development/commercial counseling (the identification and capture of oil and gas opportunities). Mr. Derman is admitted to practice in Texas and New York, and he is Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He received a J.D. from Temple University Law School in 1978, a B.A. from New York University in 1974, and he attended the Insead Advanced Management Program in Fontainebleau, France in 1991. Mr. Derman’s accolades include being named among the “Leaders in Their Field” by Chambers Global and Chambers USA by Chambers & Partners as well as to The Best Lawyers in America® by Woodward/White Inc. and Texas Super Lawyers® by Thomson Reuters. 

WILLIAM M. KATZ, JR., is a partner at Thompson & Knight LLP in Dallas, where he specializes in complex arbitration and litigation matters, with a focus on the oil and gas industry. He has represented clients in ICC, ICDR, and AAA arbitrations involving a variety of contracts, including joint operating agreements, purchase and sale agreements, farmout agreements, development agreements, and partnership agreements. Bill has also represented national oil companies and other energy-industry clients in matters involving oil and gas investment projects and cross-border transactions; large infrastructure projects; anti-corruption and FCPA advice; foreign-sovereign-immunity issues; and the enforcement of arbitral awards. He has been recognized in several legal directories, including The Best Lawyers in America® and Chambers USA. He is a frequent speaker and author on a variety of litigation and arbitration topics, including Thompson & Knight’s article addressing the importance of choosing the correct law in international dispute resolution clauses: Choice-of-Law Considerations when Drafting Arbitration Provisions for International Oil and Gas Agreements. Bill is admitted to practice law in Texas, New York, California, and the District of Columbia. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1991 and from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1994.

HARRY W. SULLIVAN, JR., is an International Energy Attorney based in Dallas, Texas, where he is an Adjunct Professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law and at Texas A&M School of Law. He also works for Kosmos Energy in their West Africa exploration activities. His previous experience includes fourteen years as Senior Counsel-International in the International E&P Legal Group of ConocoPhillips, Of Counsel with Thompson & Knight LLP, fifteen years as Chief Counsel-International and Senior Counsel for Atlantic Richfield Company and five years as Senior Counsel for Sun Oil Company. Mr. Sullivan has a J.D. degree from Louisiana State University School of Law and an LL.M. degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in the states of Louisiana and Texas and before the Supreme Court of the United States, and he is Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law in Texas. He is also admitted as a Solicitor in England and Wales. His practice and experience focuses on the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry, both in the U.S.A. and internationally, in more than 25 different countries. 

VERA DE BRITO de GYARFAS is a Partner in the Global Transactions Practice Group at King & Spalding in Houston. Ms. De Gyarfas’ practice is focused on energy projects in Latin America and Africa representing companies in upstream E&P projects, LNG and other gas projects, power companies in the construction of generation, transmission and distribution facilities, and petrochemical companies in the development of specialized plants under joint ventures, profit sharing agreements, operating services agreements, EPC contracts, and oilfield service contracts. Ms. De Gyarfas’ expertise in LNG involves the negotiation and drafting of host government and other investment agreements, analysis of existing regulation and Government negotiations, LNG sales and purchase agreements, gas supply agreements and terminal usage agreements, among others. Ms. De Gyarfas is a Member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and part of its Latin America Regional Executive Committee. Ms. De Gyarfas is ranked by Chambers Global as a Leading Individual in the (i) Energy and Natural Resource Foreign Expert category, and (ii) Venezuela.

DAVID McCARTNEY is a Commercial Manager with Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas (formerly with BG Group). He is engaged in supporting and assuring the commercial activities of the Group’s Brazilian Asset, having recently moved to Houston from the UK. Over the last 20 years he has worked in various oil industry roles from Projects to Operations and Commercial for BG Group Assets located on most of the continents.

PHILIP WEEMS is based in Houston, Texas, where he is co-head of the King & Spalding Global Energy Practice. He formerly served as Managing Partner of the firm’s three offices in the Middle East (based in Dubai from 2007-2010) and of the firm’s office in Singapore (based from 2010-2012). Since 1990, Mr. Weems has specialized in LNG / gas matters, upstream transactions, and energy maritime issues. He served as President of the AIPN from 2003-04 and as Chairman of the 2002 International Joint Operating Agreement Revision Committee. He is formerly Senior Counsel - ARCO Indonesia (Tangguh LNG Project); and former Associate General Counsel - VICO (major supplier of natural gas to the Bontang LNG Plant). Mr. Weems has a J.D., cum laude / Texas Tech University School of Law; Master of Laws / University of Sydney; Certificate of Advanced Study / Thunderbird School of International Management.

HARRY W. SULLIVAN, JR., is an International Energy Attorney based in Dallas, Texas, where he is an Adjunct Professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law and at Texas A&M School of Law. He also works for Kosmos Energy in their West Africa exploration activities. His previous experience includes fourteen years as Senior Counsel-International in the International E&P Legal Group of ConocoPhillips, Of Counsel with Thompson & Knight LLP, fifteen years as Chief Counsel-International and Senior Counsel for Atlantic Richfield Company and five years as Senior Counsel for Sun Oil Company. Mr. Sullivan has a J.D. degree from Louisiana State University School of Law and an LL.M. degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in the states of Louisiana and Texas and before the Supreme Court of the United States, and he is Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law in Texas. He is also admitted as a Solicitor in England and Wales. His practice and experience focuses on the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry, both in the U.S.A. and internationally, in more than 25 different countries. 

M. KATHRYN MARIETTA is a retired partner of King & Spalding, having worked in the firm’s Global Energy Practice in Houston. She was formerly Assistant General Counsel – Major Projects and New Ventures for Apache Corporation. Her legal career has been focused primarily on international projects, upstream oil and gas matters and general transactional work. She began her career in Singapore where she lived and worked for over ten years. Ms. Marietta has handled a variety of commercial transactions, some of which involved the oil and gas sector. Her experience includes work in the North Sea, Australia, Argentina, Canada, China, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, New Zealand, Singapore, and Suriname, as well as various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. In Ms. Marietta’s capacity as Assistant General Counsel, she represented Apache Corporation and its subsidiaries in negotiating and documenting various commercial transactions for international operations. These commercial transactions include LNG development projects, LNG marketing agreements, acquisitions, farm-ins, joint operating agreements, transportation and sales agreements, EPC contracts, credit facilities and other commercial agreements related to Apache’s international activities. Her responsibilities also included negotiations with state owned oil companies and governmental bodies in connection with in-country operations and new opportunities (such as the negotiation of oil and gas licenses, concessions and petroleum contracts). She also represented Apache’s business development and new venture groups in assessing new countries and opportunities for possible investment, and she implements Apache’s international compliance training and certification programs. Ms. Marietta has a Juris Doctorate degree, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Soil and Water Sciences. She has served on the Board of Directors of the AIPN, the Board of Directors of the Instituto Argentino del Petroleo y del Gas of Houston, the Finance Council of St Cecilia Catholic Community, and is a member of the State Bars of California and Texas.