Energy, Oil & Gas

Matters we have handled for energy, oil, and gas companies include representing:

• British Petroleum in litigation of claims, government investigations, and Congressional inquiries arising out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
• A U.S. producer of liquified natural gas in arbitrations concerning the sale of LNG from a facility in Louisiana.
• A Central European Sovereign in an investment treaty arbitration arising out of the privatization of an underwater coal mining company.
• An American industrial conglomerate and two of its former affiliates in a civil action against those three entities as well as approximately ninety other companies. The suit was brought purportedly on behalf of a middle eastern republic, in both its sovereign capacity and parens patriae on behalf of its citizens, alleging claims arising from the United Nations Oil for Food Program.
• The Carlyle Group in a securities class action related to the activities of Cobalt International Energy, which conducts oil drilling in Angola.
• An executive at a multinational energy company in connection with an international criminal antitrust investigation.
• A Fortune 100 transportation company in a fraud investigation conducted by the Criminal and Civil Fraud Sections of the Department of Justice.
• A petrochemicals firm in a Department of Justice investigation concerning alleged FCPA violations in Russia.
• ION Geophysical Corporation, which provides equipment, software and seismic processing services to the global oil & gas industry, in proceedings before the Federal Circuit on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court in WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp., et al., where WesternGeco accused ION of patent infringement based on ION’s sales of devices in the marine seismic survey market.
• A Swiss cooperative in a fraudulent misrepresentation case seeking recovery of $1.1 billion in losses allegedly suffered by creditors as a result of the collapse of an oil and gas company.
• A state-owned oil and gas company concerning allegations of human rights abuses.
• Range Resources, a natural gas exploration and production company, in a putative securities fraud class action claiming that the company made allegedly false and misleading statements in light of a settlement with the company’s Pennsylvania regulator.
• The former country manager of a multinational energy services company in a Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into alleged unlawful payments made to foreign officials in an oil-producing foreign country.
• A senior executive in a Department of Justice FCPA investigation of a large oil services company.
• An independent power producer in an ICC arbitration concerning the sale of power plants in Thailand. The tribunal awarded the firm’s client (the respondent and counter-claimant) $4.2 million in damages as well as attorneys’ fees and costs and rejected the $50 million claim brought by the opposing party.
• A global energy company in an ICC arbitration involving a joint venture to own and operate an oil refinery in Germany. The arbitration was seated in Montreal, with hearings in London and Hamburg, and was governed by New York law, and also presented issues of German law. After an award was entered in our client’s favor, our lawyers were admitted as foreign counsel in Quebec and directly participated in successful proceedings in the national courts to defend the arbitral award.