Porter Hedges offers deep experience in the legal aspects of the development, acquisition and sale of unconventional hydrocarbon resources with a particular focus on domestic oil and gas shale plays. Our Energy Transactions team has handled shale deals with a combined value of nearly $10 billion in the least several years. Our work is primarily in the most prolific shale basins in the U.S., including the Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Barnett, and Haynesville, among others.
Our experience in unconventional resources, on behalf of developers, investors, purchasers and sellers of these resources, includes:
- Negotiating joint venture partnerships for the development of shale properties;
- Customizing industry documents such as oil and gas leases, joint operating agreements and joint development agreements which were developed for vertical drilling and completion operations to cover the emerging legal issues arising out of horizontal drilling and fracking operations;
- Addressing environmental issues involved in water sourcing and disposal for hydraulic fracturing operations;
- Structuring and documenting development arrangements for LNG plants using unconventional resources;
- Structuring and documenting complicated tax issues;
- Due diligence on these issues in connection with acquisitions and divestitures.
While abundant, these unconventional resources pose unique environmental, regulatory and legal challenges to all parties involved in the transactions. Our integrated team offers the full range of resources needed to address all relevant transactional issues including corporate mergers & acquisitions, environment, tax, and employee benefits.
Recent Representative Transactions
- Representation of Noble Energy, Inc. in a $3.2 billion joint venture partnership with CONSOL Energy for the development of CONSOL Energy’s Marcellus Shale properties in southwest Pennsylvania and northwest West Virginia.
- Representation of Cortez Energy Resources in the sale of oil & gas assets in the Eagle Ford Shale to Carrizo Oil & Gas, Comstock Resources, Devon Energy, Riley Exploration, and Chesapeake Energy in separate transactions.
- Representation of Petrohawk in the $1.7 billion combined sale of and participation in natural gas midstream businesses with Kinder Morgan. In two separate transactions, the deals included the natural gas gathering and treating services provider in the Haynesville Shale and stake in Petrohawk's natural gas gathering and treating business in the Eagle Ford Shale.
- Representation of Talisman Energy, who along with Norway’s Statoil ASA, purchased $1.325 billion of oil shale properties in the Eagle Ford Shale formation in South Texas and formed a joint venture to develop the fields.
- Representation of Laser Midstream Energy in the $150 million sale of a gas gathering system in the Marcellus Shale to Delphi Midstream Partners.
- Representation of Talisman Energy in the $359 million acquisition of Eagle Ford Shale assets from Common Resources.
- Representation of Aurora Oil & Gas Limited in the acquisition of additional working interests in the Eagle Ford Shale for $120 million.
- Representation of Noble Energy in the $494 million acquisition of oil and gas assets in the Niobrara Shale from Suncor Energy.
Accolades, News and Events
- Energy Transactions practice ranked by Chambers USA among the leading practices in the country (2011) (Bob Thomas and Randy King noted as leading lawyers.)
- “Eagle Ford Trends and Metrics,” DUG Eagle Ford (October 12, 2011) (Bob Thomas spoke on a panel at the annual Developing Unconventional Gas conference)
- "Dealmaker of the Week: Size and Scope," Texas Lawyer (August 29, 2011) (Randy King named Dealmaker of the week in Texas Lawyer for his representation of Noble Energy in its $3.2 billion joint venture with Consol Energy.)
- "Dizzying array of M&A activity pumps the Eagle Ford shale," Houston Business Journal (August 19, 2011) (Bob Thomas commenting on the record pace of Eagle Ford transactions.)
- "$100 oil here to stay, energy expert says," Houston Business Journal (May 19, 2011) (Bob Thomas led a panel discussion on energy industry trends at the Houston Energy Summit)
- “Chesapeake’s Fayetteville fields ripe for deal,” MarketWatch (February 10, 2011) (Bob Thomas offered his perspective on Chesapeake Energy outlook in the Fayetteville shale.)
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