England - London • Projects, energy and natural resources
3

Oil and gas

Akin

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Akin handles a broad range of work in the oil & gas industries, including major corporate transactions and joint ventures, restructurings, project financings, litigation, arbitration and disputes, and international trade, sanctions and public policy matters. The team is headed up by Shaun Lascelles , Alex Harrison, Justin Williams and Simon Rootsey.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The team has considerable in-depth experience in all traditional upstream oil and gas areas as well as in the more transactional areas (farm-outs, corporate deals etc.). The team is strong and capable and is prepared will give a commercial view along with legal advice. Drafting is excellent. Where this team is a cut above the rest of the field is in its responsiveness and availability: always available and always quick to respond.’

  • ‘Alex Harrison stands out as a fine example of constant availability and rapid response. He has considerable experience in the field, is commercially minded and is both efficient and an effective responder.’

  • ‘Akin Gump's services are well known for being very client-oriented, prioritizing client attention and agility of responses.’

  • ‘Our firm has worked closely with Akin who have consistently demonstrated incredible response time for client requests and an in-depth knowledge of the oil & gas industry's particularities.’

Key clients

  • Vitol (via subsidiary VIP II Blue B.V)
  • Aspect Holdings LLC
  • Hokchi Energy
  • The Ad Hoc Committee of Noteholders of Nostrum Oil & Gas Plc
  • Ad hoc group of new secured noteholders of Seadrill New Finance Limited
  • Dommo Energia S.A.

Work highlights

  • Advised Vitol subsidiary VIP II Blue on its acquisition of the outstanding shares in $2.3 billion London-based African oil business Vivo Energy Plc.
  • Advised  in relation to the financial restructuring of Nostrum and its outstanding debt liabilities. The restructuring involves a deleveraging debt for equity swap, corporate reorganisation and cross-border recognition.
  • Advised the unsecured bondholders of Seadrill Ltd in the company’s 2017 bankruptcy having filed for Chapter 11 in September 2017 with a debt load of $10.9 billion. The company emerged from Chapter 11 in 2018 and a deal was reached that recapitalised the company with in excess of $1 billion of cash, equitized $2.3 billion in debt and re-profiled an additional $5 billion of debt.

Lawyers

Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Justin Williams
Akin
Justin Williams is an English qualified solicitor with 25 years’ experience of handling complex international disputes, both in international arbitration and before the English High Court. He heads Akin’s London international arbitration practice and has a broad practice, but with particular focus on energy and on technology. He has acted in numerous complex and high-value international arbitrations in Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, Europe, CIS countries, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia. His practice includes both commercial and treaty arbitration. In addition, Justin has acted in some of the largest and most complex litigation cases in England and (together with local counsel) in off-shore and other jurisdictions, including Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. To learn more about Mr. Williams, please visit his full profile: https://www.akingump.com/en/lawyers-advisors/justin-williams.html

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Shaun Lascelles, Alex Harrison, Justin Williams, Simon Rootsey

Other key lawyers

Rebecca Carwood Barron

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