Energy & Natural Resources

Oil, Gas and Energy Litigation and Arbitration

Disputes in the energy industry are often preventable, and our energy lawyers advise clients daily to help them avoid contentious disagreements before they happen. We use all the tools at our disposal to prevent conflict, including precise drafting of contracts and advising clients on regulatory compliance and adoption of the best industry practices and procedures.

Yet some disputes are inevitable. Our attorneys recognize that successful resolution is far more nuanced than winning at all costs. In each case, it starts with knowledge of our client’s business and business objectives. Developing a winning strategy requires teamwork, listening to and understanding our client’s position and goals, clear vision, organization and attention to detail.

We’ve helped energy industry clients with prospects and operations in Louisiana, Texas and throughout the Outer Continental Shelf (GOA, Pacific & Alaska OCS Regions) to the North Slope of Alaska to the Tilodiran and Boral fields in Colombia to the Bass Straits of Australia. We’re in our element as one of the Gulf Coast’s premier oil, gas and energy firms.

Our energy practice encompasses all forms of dispute resolution, including litigation in state and federal courts, arbitration, mediation and administrative proceedings before local, state and federal agencies such as:

• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)
• Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE)
• Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR)
• Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA)
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
• Louisiana State Mineral and Energy Board
• Louisiana Office of Conservation
• Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy (LDCE)
• Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC)
• Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ)

We have also successfully guided energy clients through litigation ranging from commercial contract disputes to bankruptcy to criminal proceedings to property damage and personal injury claims arising from oil and gas operations, including well blowouts and gas storage or pipeline leaks.

We regularly litigate and arbitrate contractual rights and obligations under a wide range of negotiated agreements in the oil, gas and energy industry, including:

• Mineral leases and servitudes
• Assignments of mineral rights, including working interests, royalties, overriding royalties, net profits and production payments
• Onshore and offshore joint operating, participating and exploration agreements
• Gas balancing agreements
• Oil and gas purchase agreements
• Dedication agreements
• Drilling contracts
• Seismic permits and agreements
• Pipeline construction, operation, transportation and dedication agreements and tariffs
• Gas storage leases and agreements
• Farmout agreements
• Unit agreements and unit operating agreements
• Master service agreements and master charter agreements
• Oil and gas processing and production handling agreements
• Rights-of-way, easements and other surface or subsurface agreements
• Mortgages
• Refinery feedstock agreements

We also regularly litigate statutory, tort and other rights and obligations under a similarly wide range of issues in the oil, gas and energy industry, including:

• Clean-up, plugging and decommissioning obligations
• Drainage
• Expropriation by eminent domain
• Well blowouts
• Pipeline and gas storage leaks
• Lien workouts
• Royalty disputes
• Correlative rights among neighbors or between surface owners and servitude owners
• Boundary and title disputes

With our vast experience and insight, industry groups—from the American Petroleum Institute (API) to the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) to the Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) to the Professional Landmen’s Association of New Orleans (PLANO)—as well as various individual companies have retained our energy lawyers to draft amicus briefs in appeals on significant industry issues.