Trading, marketing, production sharing contracts, joint ventures both offshore and onshore, transportation and lifting agreements, quantity/quality assessments, value adjustment mechanisms, charterparties, contracts of affreightment, price benchmarking and indexation.
Assays and gross product worth analysis, refined product pricing, refinery linear programming.
Trading and hedging with futures, forwards, swaps and options.
We are commissioned regularly on a confidential basis to act as advisors and/or expert witnesses on international matters involving litigation both in the High Courts and in arbitration panels. This is one of the fastest growing areas of our business and reflects the fact that accurate management of complex legal issues has become an integral aspect of performance in the energy industry.
Our litigation support usually involves appearing as an independent expert witness, but we have also been called on to act as an adviser to one or other of the protagonists in a dispute. We can help discover the underlying facts, understand the trading pattern or relevant commercial activities and compare any given situation with normal custom and practice of trade. We have substantial experience in establishing a fair and objective assessment of damages or ‘quantum’.
The sums involved in complex litigation cases can be substantial, running into hundreds of millions of dollars. We provide expert testimony on such issues as price benchmarking trends, valuation and current best practice on trading and contracts.
