Legal Support Services

Our work in this area has focused on developing technical expert witness report s and as acting as technical expert witness. Several of these assignments have required the deployment of our INTEGRATED team of oil and gas consultants to provide expert testimony in reserves, license and other technical disputes.Below are details of the consulting work carried out in this area.

License Dispute - Russia

Developed a Petroleum Expert Witness report and acted as an expert witness during arbitration proceeding with respect to a disputed unitisation claim affecting two adjacent licenses onshore western Siberia. The transaction occurred some 8 years ago. Required to make a retrospective assessment of reserves as the basis for testing the compensation claim of one of the parties to the dispute.

Onshore Azerbaijan Field Dispute.

Developed a petroleum expert witness report with respect to a dispute over two medium sized onshore oil fields, developed in soviet times but taken over by western investors. The report included an independent assessment of reserves, production profile and levels of investment required to develop the fields to their full potential. The assessment was based on a detailed review of production and other data gathered in Soviet times up to the present day.

Production Failure Investigation

Conducted a detailed investigation in to a number of failures that impacted production from a significant producing field. Developed a petoleum expert witness report on the failures establishing the technical reasons for the fasilures. Established an assessment of costs and production losses that was used to establish the basis for a compensation claim. Prepared technical portion of a statement of claim for an arbitration.

Technical Expert Witness Report - Canada

Developed a technical expert witness report designed to establish the suitablity of a production vessel, originally designed for use in the UKCS, for Canadian waters. The brief was to establish if there where insurmontable technical difficulties in deploying a vessel, originally designed for the severe weather conditions of the North Sea, in the ice-infested and potentailly frozen waters offshore Newfoundland. The conclusion of the report was the whislt all technical difficulties could be overcome the cost impact of making the canges to the particular vessels would be severe.

Petroleum Expert Witness Report - Heavy Oil Field

Developed a petroleum expert witness report for an onshore heavy oil field. The report assessed reserves, likely production rates and surface facilities required for this shallow depth development. A notable feature of the work was a cosideration of the need to deploy steam injection to produce the field to achieve resonable recoveries. The assessment was used by the expert witness for the defence under a claim pursued under UNCITRAL rules at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

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Oil & Gas Consultants - Prospect Evaluation - Reserves Assessment - Legal Support Services