oil and gas
Our Oil and Gas Group acts for companies of all sizes and types—our clients are local, national and international, private and public and in the energy, land, marketing and service fields.
Our team is actively involved advising clients in all stages and areas of the oil and gas sector from exploration to development and production and with respect to oil sands and crude bitumen, conventional oil and gas, unconventional gas and LNG products.
Our lawyers are recognized as experts by their clients and peers and by Canadian and international courts. We are also active contributors to the oil and gas community as advisors to and members of professional organizations within the industry. Members of our team also develop industry-wide standard form agreements, develop course curriculums and teach energy-related courses at universities and other post-secondary educational institutions. Others regularly write oil and gas-related articles and papers for publication. In late 2009, one member of our team published Canada's only comprehensive text on oil and gas law.
Specialty practice areas include:
upstream and midstream energy services
The work of our upstream energy services team is extremely varied and includes a range of tasks from problem solving to negotiation to documenting conventional and unconventional oil and gas and crude bitumen exploration and production, operating, farm-out and royalty agreements and procedures and joint venture agreements. We also analyze and offer advice on a wide variety of operating issues that energy companies face daily from freehold lease issues to gross royalty trust issues to land use agreement issues.
Midstream work includes negotiating, structuring and documenting transactions related to natural gas and natural gas liquids, as well as the midstream gathering, processing and transportation. Our experienced team has worked on infrastructure agreements relating to facility construction and ownership as well as midstream asset project financing. The McMillan team recently acted for an exploration company to complete commercial negotiations for the acquisition of capacity on the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline.
regulatory law
Our regulatory lawyers have significant experience in appearing before national and provincial administrative tribunals including Alberta Energy, Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta Environment, Alberta Special Areas Board, Alberta Surface Rights Board, British Columbia Oil & Gas Commission, Saskatchewan Energy and Resources, Indian Oil and Gas Canada and the National Energy Board.
We assist clients with energy and transportation issues, enforcement actions, proceedings, applications and responses before administrative tribunals, investigations and on environment-related issues. Our regulatory law team's most notable work has been on energy development applications for Alberta's oil sands and on land use frameworks, potential liability and enforcement issues arising for applicants, approval holders and working interest participants in connection with construction, operation and abandonment activities.
offshore and international energy services
The offshore and energy services team provides advice on oil and gas exploration and development in Canada and internationally. Our recent work includes working for clients with assets in Canada's Arctic and East Coast as well as in the UK and Norwegian North Sea, Tunisia, Libya, Russia, Ukraine, Trinidad and Tobago and Colombia.
The team's responsibilities range from Canadian and international land tenure regimes to joint venture agreements, facility construction and ownership agreements, offshore services agreements and offshore jurisdictional issues.
transactional services
The transactional services team provides legal representation to a range of senior, intermediate and junior companies buying and selling assets throughout Western, Atlantic and Northern Canada and internationally. We structure, negotiate, document and close petroleum, natural gas and other energy-related asset purchase and sale transactions.
The McMillan team can quickly mobilize to meet tight deadlines. Our large legal team has the depth, breadth and experience to undertake due diligence, swiftly and efficiently identifying and assessing deficiencies.
litigation
Our litigation lawyers are experienced in all types of commercial dispute resolution from negotiation to mediation and arbitration. We work closely with our oil and gas solicitors, which enables us to expertly interpret and resolve a wide variety of operational issues arising between operators and co-owners of energy assets.
The litigation team works collaboratively with clients to develop effective business strategies to reach satisfactory solutions to disputes and to prepare and proceed with the case when a negotiated solution cannot be reached. Recent notable cases include the successful resolution of the appeal in Kensington Energy Ltd. v. B & G Energy Ltd., a precedent setting decision involving the challenge of the validity of a freehold lease on the basis of the suspended well clause.
hydrocarbon marketing
Our team provides problem solving, negotiation and documentation related to marketing agreements for natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil end-use purchase/sale agreements, energy marketing regulation matters and trans-border energy disputes and litigation matters. We structure long-term and short-term physical sales of natural gas and natural gas liquids including direct gas sales contracts (large and small end users), netting, guarantees, bonds, collateral/securitization agreements and various buy/sell arrangements for a wide range of crude products and by-products.
energy marketing
Our lawyers draft and negotiate physical and derivative financial instruments for energy marketing and trading. We have extensive experience in all matters related to electricity supply including negotiating, drafting and developing precedents for commercial and industrial end-use contracts, swaps and direct sales contracts.
Our team advises in-house counsel, credit, risk and treasury and trading groups on instruments including ISDA's, brokerage agreements, GasEDI's, NAESB's, Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Master Enabling Agreement, WSPP and electricity grid support agreements.
aboriginal interests
The McMillan aboriginal interests team provides experienced counsel to energy clients engaged in operations on Aboriginal lands, and to Aboriginal groups who participate in oil and gas activities on their traditional lands.
corporate
Our lawyers are experienced in networking and creating and documenting corporate, joint venture and partnership structures for the financing, development and exploitation of national and international oil and gas projects. We use our international contact and client networks to bring parties together to negotiate and document resource based and non-resource based financing transactions.
Our team offers services in the areas of business structures, capitalization, secured debt and equity financings, general counsel services, corporate governance, public securities and regulation of public corporations, corporate recapitalization, restructuring and bankruptcy and insolvency matters. These services include the organization and ongoing development of a $250 million green energy facility, which involves corporate organization, unanimous shareholder agreement, consulting agreements, convertible debt financing with a major financial institution, site acquisition and land options, technology licensing through international technology providers, confidentiality agreements, project financing and commercial agreements.
securities and m&a transactions
Our lawyers regularly advise national and international clients in all aspects of securities and mergers and acquisitions. We have experience in private and public debt, equity offerings, stock exchange listings, takeover bids, issuer bids, plans of arrangements, amalgamations, going private transactions and going public transactions. Our team is regularly consulted on matters of corporate governance by board of directors and special committees.
Representative Transactions/Cases
- Acted for Suncor Energy Inc. on the contribution of all of its Western Canadian natural gas assets (approximate value more than $1 billion) to Suncor Energy Oil and Gas Partnership
Counsel to a major American midstream company and its various Canadian affiliates negotiating and drafting agreements for the bidding and tendering of materials and services related to the construction of facilities and pipelines, as well as agreements for the processing, transportation, purchase and sale of natural gas and natural gas liquids
Acted for a Canadian intermediate oil and gas company negotiating and drafting purchase and sale documentation, and conducting due diligence in a series of acquisitions of oil and gas companies and assets with a total value in excess of $1 billion
Acted for NAL Energy Corporation on the structure, negotiation, due diligence and closing of acquisitions of Breaker Energy Ltd., Alberta Clipper Energy Inc., Plenty Energy Inc. and assets from Enerplus Energy Corporation
Acted for Kensington Energy Ltd. on a successful appeal with a settlement in excess of $1 million; this Court of Appeal judgement is a precedent setting decision involving the challenge of an oil and gas lease on the basis of the suspended well clause.
Acted for a private oil and gas company on the corporate and tax structuring, negotiating and closing of a sale of producing assets to an affiliate, and the sale of all shares of this affiliate in a transaction valued in excess of $30 million
Acted for a Canadian public oil and gas company on the structure, negotiation and implementation of an offshore production sharing arrangement with the Government of Tunisia
Acted for a Canadian public oil and gas company on the structure, negotiation and implementation of an offshore production sharing arrangement with the Government of Libya
Acted for a Canadian intermediate oil and gas company with offshore oil and gas assets in Trinidad and Tobago in securing bankruptcy/creditor protection and the company's successful emergence from such protection as a continuing going concern
Acted for a private Canadian oil and gas company securing offshore oil and gas assets in the British North Sea
Acted for a senior public Canadian oil and gas company in the structure, negotiation and implementation of a major underground gas storage arrangement in Alberta
Acted for several private Canadian intermediate oil and gas companies in successfully implementing corporate combinations by means of Court supervised plans of arrangement
Acted for a senior public Canadian oil and gas company in the successful conclusion of a right of first refusal dispute where at issue were in excess of $1 billion of Canadian oil and gas assets
Publications / Presentations
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