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Oil & Gas
The MMS Oil and Gas Team provides in-depth experience of both the North Sea and International oil and gas provinces. Members of the team have advised/worked for a wide portfolio of players in this sector ranging from upstream majors (e.g. ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, BG, Shell and Total) and independents (e.g. Nexen, Rocksource, Caithness and Anadarko) to contractors (e.g. Schlumberger, John Wood Group and others), industry associations (e.g. Oil and Gas UK and Decom North Sea) and regulators (e.g. the Province of Nova Scotia). Our banking colleagues have worked with most of the principal banks operating in the oil and gas sector and our capital markets colleagues work closely with the nomads and brokers active in oil and gas.
We advise on a wide variety of exploration and production matters, including, for example, acquisition and divestment (e.g. Sale and Purchase Agreements, Farm-ins, and so on), Joint/Unit Operating Agreement work, commercial contracts (e.g. Transportation and Processing Operations Services Agreements, Gas Sales Agreements, Joint Bidding Agreements and so on) and on regulatory matters, such as Third Party Access to Infrastructure, Decommissioning and Environmental issues. We also advise oil companies and oil service companies on all manner of Oil Service and Oil Construction contracts. Carbon capture and storage is an area in which we are one of the leading law firms.
The MMS Oil and Gas Team is one of the largest senior oil and gas teams in the UK outside London.
It is headed by Uisdean Vass who has nearly thirty years' oil industry experience, both in the North Sea and internationally. He lived and worked in North and South America and is an active member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators ("AIPN"). Uisdean has advised oil and gas companies on many international matters, including advising bidders on numerous international oil and gas bidding rounds. Not only has he performed much work in the North Sea and worldwide but he also regularly delivers training to upstream companies on oil and gas issues. Uisdean won the 2007 Corporate Lawyer of the Year Award at the Scottish Law Awards.
Richard Cockburn, who is also a member of the AIPN, is dual qualified in Scotland and England & Wales and has practised in the City of London and Brussels. He has acted for a range of national and international upstream oil and gas players as well as the supply chain. He has been on a secondment at Marathon Oil. Additionally, he has niche expertise in decommissioning and carbon capture and storage having worked on a number of projects in these areas.
John Southworth, who has been advising on UK oil and gas law continuously since 1974, is a former UK head of legal at Marathon Oil and has also had in-house roles with companies such as the British National Oil Corporation, Anadarko and ExxonMobil. He is arguably the leading private practitioner in the UK in relation to the crucial issue of decommissioning security.
Stephen Welsh has been based in Aberdeen since 1995. He has more than 20 years' experience in the corporate M&A market which supplements experience in the E&P and oil service sectors gained during his time in Aberdeen. He is one of the few practitioners really at home in both oil and gas and corporate law and has advised on a number of North Sea and international A&D transactions. His specialist areas include mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, MBOs and MBIs and bespoke contractual work. He is also a member of the AIPN.
Uisdean, Richard, John and Stephen are supported by a team located across all four of our offices but based principally in Aberdeen and London. The MMS Oil and Gas team can also call upon support from colleagues across the firm in the full range of specialisms such as employment, litigation, intellectual property, construction and environmental.