Oil & Gas Distribution

Our legal know-how and our industry-specific expertise help our clients to more easily and successfully close deals, address challenges, and avoid risks.

Overview

The oil and gas industry impacts nearly every aspect of our economy, and its rapidly-evolving nature presents ever-changing opportunities and challenges to businesses worldwide. We apply an integrated, cross-disciplinary team approach to work with industry participants, focusing particularly on the midstream market. We leverage our relationships with key industry participants to facilitate the right introductions for our clients to help grow their operations.

We have extensive experience advising clients regarding a broad range of issues that impact this industry, including the formation of joint ventures for the development, construction, and operation of pipelines and other transportation assets; pipeline and capacity leases; interconnection, terminaling, throughput, and other transportation and storage contracts; joint tariff division agreements; and pump-out, commission, fuel purchase, and transload agreements. We also have significant experience in corporate and transactional matters such as mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; corporate structure and governance; executive compensation; and employment matters.

Our litigators have substantial experience in handling all forms of disputes, ranging from serious personal injury and insurance coverage disputes to tariff and contract disputes and all forms of employment disputes. We regularly handle matters involving multi-million dollar claims and reach successful outcomes. Our practice is national, and we represent oil and gas clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the U.S.

In addition to our core oil and gas experts, we staff our teams with the specialists required for each matter and client. Teams often include specialists in environmental law, labor and employment, employment discrimination, ERISA and other aspects of qualified and non-qualified plans, welfare and fringe benefit plans, golden parachute and deferred compensation arrangements, intellectual property, real estate, and tax matters (including MLP considerations). This multidisciplinary approach allows our clients to benefit from both industry-specific advice and guidance and matter-specific expertise, yielding the best possible business outcomes.

Our leadership in this field and the excellence of our work for our clients has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA.

Experience

  • Represented a major interstate pipeline company in its $100 million acquisition of a storage facility, including jointly owned assets, in Texas.
  • Represented Colonial Pipeline Company in the formation of its Bengal Pipeline joint venture with Shell Pipeline Company.
  • Represented a major interstate pipeline company in the implementation of its biodiesel, renewable diesel, and butane blending initiatives.
  • Represented borrower in JPMorgan credit facility secured by receivables and fuel inventory.
  • Served as buy-side counsel for the strategic acquisition of infrastructure assets for wholesale distribution of petroleum products and renewable fuels in the energy sector.
  • Represented interstate pipeline company in the negotiation and execution of a pipeline capacity lease to strategically add system capacity in south Texas.
  • Represented a midstream company in the acquisition of a property on the Houston shipping channel.
  • Advised and assisted a national energy distribution company with self-correction under the Internal Revenue Service’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) of an operational failure of its 401(k) plan.
  • Served as lead investigation counsel for several pipeline companies with respect to internal and external complaints involving corporate codes of conduct, executive, and pipeline operations matters.
  • Represented a major oil pipeline company in a multi-million dollar arbitration involving contract interpretation and applicability.
  • Advised several pipeline companies with company-wide multi-jurisdictional workforce reorganizations, including the implementation of voluntary and involuntary reduction programs.

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