Oil and Gas Contracts

Energy-sector agreements and supporting papers notarised for international partners.

Oil and gas transactions are among the world’s most valuable commercial arrangements. They may cover exploration, production, drilling, engineering, transportation, joint operations or transfers of petroleum interests. They often involve parties in multiple jurisdictions and are commonly executed in England for use abroad.

International oil and gas contracts often involve government agencies, state-owned energy companies, large corporations and financial institutions. Counterparties therefore consider it prudent and necessary to establish corporate and apparent authority before these contracts are entered into and effective. International disputes have arisen where these formalities were overlooked and therefore resulted in costly challenges and disputes concerning the signatory’s identity, capacity or authority to contract.

Given the obligation on notaries to establish identity, capacity and authority of a person to enter into a certain transaction, notarisation is increasingly used in oil and gas arrangements. While notarisation does not eliminate legal risk, it may reduce fraud and execution disputes.

In addition to notarisation, counterparties and or stakeholders typically require the relevant document to be Apostilled under the Hague Apostille Convention (the “Convention”) (where the country the document is to be used is a party to the Convention), while others may require embassy or consular legalisation, often after Apostille has been obtained.

Assistance with legalisation (as part of an ongoing matter with us)

The schedule below contains a list of countries which typically accept a document signed in England by an authorised person under English law and which has been Apostilled under the Convention. John has significant experience in notarising and arranging Apostille against documents for use in these countries, including countries not included that may require embassy or consular legalisation. If you require the assistance of a Notary Public to facilitate this process, contact John.