Baker Donelson represents upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas companies in high stakes litigation, complex transactions, and regulatory matters across the United States. Our clients include major and independent companies, pipeline operators, service providers, and energy asset owners navigating operational, commercial, environmental, and regulatory risk throughout the energy lifecycle.
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
We routinely defend and resolve sophisticated oil and gas disputes involving blowouts; well control incidents; wellhead, casing, downhole, and reservoir damage; pipeline failures; environmental and legacy contamination claims; offshore accidents; product liability; and complex contract and title disputes. Our attorneys represent energy clients before state and federal courts, arbitral tribunals, and appellate courts, bringing technical knowledge and industry insight to matters that demand precision and credibility.
Our litigation experience includes:
- Defending oil and gas producers and pipeline companies in blowout and catastrophic loss cases, including claims seeking to defeat contractual risk‑allocation provisions.
- Representing energy companies in legacy environmental litigation, coastal erosion matters, and land contamination claims spanning decades of operations.
- Litigating and arbitrating pipeline construction; engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC); and lien disputes, including multiparish infrastructure projects.
- Defending offshore operators and contractors in matters involving maritime law, offshore safety incidents, and federal investigations.
- Securing confirmation of international arbitral awards and defending appeals in U.S. appellate courts on behalf of energy clients.
Pipeline, Condemnation, and Infrastructure
We have significant experience advising midstream companies on acquiring land and land‑use rights critical to energy infrastructure development. Our attorneys counsel clients in expropriation and condemnation proceedings, eminent domain matters, easement acquisition and disputes, and regulatory challenges affecting pipeline construction and operation. We also support clients in negotiating pore-space lease agreements for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects.
Business Transactions and Commercial Agreements
We advise oil and gas companies, energy developers, and startups on business formation, strategic growth, and capital deployment across the energy lifecycle. Our oil and gas team advises clients on transactions such as asset sales, mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, restructurings, and infrastructure financing. We structure and negotiate energy financing arrangements, including agreements for the financing of pipelines, drilling rigs, and production equipment, as well as credit facilities, mezzanine financing, production payment financing, and leveraged lease transactions.
Our team advises on the full range of commercial agreements that support exploration, production, transportation, and distribution activities. We regularly negotiate and draft exploration and participation agreements, joint development agreements, purchase and sale agreements, pipeline, gathering, and processing agreements, waste disposal agreements, master service agreements, drilling contracts, seismic licensing agreements, data acquisition and use agreements, joint operating agreements, farmouts, and vessel and platform construction contracts. We also advise on transportation, refining, marketing, and the sale and distribution of oil, natural gas, and related energy products.
Intellectual Property
We have substantial experience advising clients on intellectual property matters in the oil and gas sector, including the preparation and prosecution of energy‑related patent applications. Our team includes petroleum engineers and mechanical and industrial engineers who are registered patent attorneys, bringing deep technical knowledge and industry experience to the protection of innovative technologies used in exploration, production, and energy infrastructure.
Environmental Regulatory Compliance
Our team delivers strategic environmental compliance counsel for oil and gas clients, combining deep experience across air, water, and waste regulatory programs with a practical, business-focused approach. From securing complex permits and navigating waste-generation, wetlands, and coastal-zone-management requirements to advising on hazardous-substance reporting, including emerging contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the team helps clients stay ahead of evolving obligations. Backed by strong capabilities in transactional due diligence, enforcement defense, and environmental litigation, Baker Donelson provides counsel to help companies confidently manage risk, maintain compliance, and keep critical projects moving forward.
Additionally, our attorneys advise oil and gas and energy companies on a full spectrum of occupational safety and health (OSHA) matters, helping clients manage regulatory risk and maintain compliance across complex operations. We counsel on OSHA compliance and recordkeeping, audits and inspections, and the defense of OSHA citations, as well as the evaluation of safety issues arising in third‑party tort actions and retaliation complaints investigated by OSHA. Our team also conducts OSHA‑related due diligence in connection with mergers and acquisitions and prepares comments on proposed safety and health regulations affecting the energy industry.