White & Case Industry Groups reflect our commitment to know our clients' businesses. Our Industry Groups bring together lawyers from across multiple practices and disciplines throughout our global network that have an in-depth knowledge of the legal and business issues confronting the industries in which our clients operate. Our industry focus allows us to efficiently and effectively respond to the specialized needs of each of our clients within the industry groups.

Today's oil, gas and petrochemical industries reach into every corner of the globe—and into challenging markets and practice areas where White & Case has a depth of resources and professional experience. Our clients rely on White & Case's global Oil & Gas Industry Group to mobilize multidisciplinary teams of lawyers with a deep understanding of all aspects of the oil and gas business. Our worldwide team of dedicated lawyers has grown with the oil and gas industry across every frontier. With that growth, we have developed enduring and wide-ranging relationships with industry participants across the hydrocarbon value chain. Today, our oil and gas sector clients are as diverse as the legal services that White & Case provides to them.

Legal Services for the Oil & Gas Industry
We provide our clients with efficient and innovative solutions to their commercial, legal, regulatory and structural challenges, including:

• Designing and implementing upstream oil and natural gas bid rounds, obtaining or granting access to upstream acreage, farm-ins and farm-outs, joint operating arrangements, oil field service contracts, drilling rig and boat development and financing.
• Project development and financing of LNG, refining, petrochemical, power and large-scale field developments, including partner evaluation and selection; shareholder, supply and sales agreements; utility, industrial gas and logistics agreements and corporate and project financing arrangements.
• Natural gas, crude oil and product pipeline development and financing.
• Crude oil, natural gas, NGL, condensate, LNG, refined product and petrochemical product sales.
• Construction contracting using all forms of EPC and construction management contracts and appearing in a variety of arbitral and court jurisdictions in connection with construction disputes.
• Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, particularly in the upstream E&P, refinery and petrochemical sectors.
• Bank and capital markets financing transactions in international and regional markets to support working capital and other financial programs.
• Specialized subject-matter expertise, such as the impact of WTO and trade agreement commitments; assessments of antitrust and competition law; tax advice regarding structures and sales across various jurisdictions and advice on employment arrangements, particularly in respect of executive employment.
• Arbitration and dispute resolution across a range of jurisdictions and legal systems involving sales contracts, antitrust challenges, upstream rights and related matters.
• Intellectual property, including evaluation and acquisition of technology licenses, obtaining patents and sales of technology.

Experience

LNG: We have been involved in most of the largest LNG transactions in recent years, including Qatargas II, 3 and 4, Sakhalin (Phase 2), Tangguh LNG and Brass LNG. We understand the complex coordination required, at all stages of the LNG chain, to ensure a project's success. We are actively involved in upstream development projects, LNG shipping and ship finance, LNG contracts, SPAs and Gas Sales Agreements, LNG receiving facilities and environmental concerns.

Pipeline Projects: We have unparalleled pipeline system expertise representing sponsors, including numerous private sector companies and national oil companies, and financiers in the financing and development of pipeline projects. Our experience includes the Nord Stream pipeline project where we advised the joint venture project company and the sponsors on the construction and financing of phase one of the development of two 1,220-kilometer subsea offshore gas pipelines linking Russia and the European Union, as well as the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline, where we represented US Ex-Im Bank in connection with the US$4 billion project financing of an oil pipeline from Chad to Cameroon.

Refinery and Petrochemical Projects: We advise national and international oil companies and lending institutions with respect to refining and petrochemical projects on a global basis, including representation of Saudi Aramco in respect of more than 10 large-scale joint ventures in Saudi Arabia, the US, Asia and Europe; Hess Corporation in its refinery joint venture with PDVSA; and US Ex-Im Bank with respect to the Q-Chem financing.

Oil & Gas Mergers and Acquisitions: With a global M&A team of more than 500 lawyers, we are one of the few law firms with the global capacity and expertise to provide assistance to public and private sector oil and gas clients, together with financial institutions, on mergers and acquisitions worldwide. Our experience includes representation of Hess Corporation in its proposed acquisition of NYSE-AMEX listed American Oil & Gas, Inc., an owner of oil shale acreage and related assets, and representation of TNK-BP, Russia's third largest oil company, with respect to its US$1.8 billion acquisition of BP's upstream and pipeline assets in Vietnam and Venezuela.

Oil & Gas Capital Markets: Corporate and financial clients in the oil and gas sector turn to us for assistance because of our deep understanding of the industry, as well as our experience with the specific disclosure requirements applicable to oil and gas securities offerings. Our experience includes representation of JSC KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, a subsidiary of NC KazMunaiGas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company, in its IPO and admission to the London Stock Exchange's Main List, raising US$2.03 billion (the largest IPO in Kazakhstan's history); Morgan Stanley & Co. in connection with an offering by W&T Offshore, Inc. of US$450 million of its 8.25% Senior Notes; and Hess Corporation in a registered public offering of US$750 million Senior Unsecured Notes underwritten by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley and in a subsequent registered public offering of US$1.25 billion principal amount of Senior Unsecured Notes through underwriters led by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and RBS Greenwich Capital.

Oil & Gas Financings: White & Case is a global leader in financings in the oil and gas sector. Our deep expertise is built on our long-standing representation of numerous national and multi-national oil companies and on the strength of our projects practice, which is consistently ranked among the best: Tier 1 for Projects: Oil & Gas by Chambers Global (2010); Tier 1 for Projects in the US and Latin America and Projects and Energy in the Middle East by Chambers Global (2009), and 1st globally for Oil & Gas by Infrastructure Journal (2008). Our experience includes representation of Banco Santander, BNP Paribas and Société Générale as lead arrangers in the financing of the US$1.7 billion Norbe VIII and Norbe IX offshore oil drillships; ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG, Dexia Crédit Local and WestLB AG as the Mandated Lead Arrangers of the US$450 million syndicated loan for JSC Gazprom, secured against gas receivables from a western European gas company; and numerous large-scale project financings, including PetroRabigh, the Qatargas II, 3 and 4 projects, Sakhalin (Phase 2) and Nord Stream.

Oil & Gas Disputes: The Firm's dispute resolution group is widely recognized as preeminent in its field and has helped major players in the oil and gas sector successfully resolve disputes involving a variety of arbitral and court jurisdictions. These matters include representation of the Government of Bulgaria in an ICSID arbitration, PLAMA v. Bulgaria, arising out of the privatization of a refinery project (case dismissed); a Middle Eastern oil company in an ad hoc arbitration relating to the acquisition of oil interests in Central Europe; Saudi Aramco in construction arbitrations and litigation in U.S. courts; and a US oil and gas corporation in an AAA arbitration relating to the construction of a natural gas pipeline off the coast of Massachusetts.