Stuart is an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer with over 30 years’ experience and specialises in the oil and gas sector. He has worked extensively in-house where he has held a number of senior legal and management roles, in addition to over 10 years’ City practice experience.
Stuart has advised on transactions and projects across EMEA, Caribbean, South East Asia and on the UKCS where he has acted for a broad spectrum of clients, including small to mid-cap E&Ps, multi- and super-nationals, service companies, NOCs and government departments.
Expertise
- Acquisition and disposal – private company and assets (farm-in/outs & swaps)
- Government concessions, production sharing and licencing arrangements
- UKCS licence applications and transfers (master deed and conventional)
- Areas of mutual interest and joint bidding agreements
- Extensive experience preparing and negotiating AIPN unitisation and AIPN/UK joint operating agreements
- NPI and royalty agreements
- Seismic and reprocessing agreements
- UK decommissioning & security agreements
- Engineering, procurement and construction agreements
- Drilling, well engineering & management agreements
- CTIA and capacity arrangements
- Transportation and processing arrangements and storage
- Gas and condensate offtake agreements
- Short-term and long-term LNG sales
Experience
Energy
Advised the following companies in the matters briefly described:
- Pura Vida Energy NL on the acquisition of interest in Liesa Energy Sp.zo.o and Gora Energy Sp.zo.o
- IOG on the restructuring and farm-down of licence interests and on the purchase of Thames Onshore Infrastructure at Bacton
- Sterling Energy on farm-out of Cameroon Ntem Block interest
- Cabot Energy on the acquisition of various Rockhopper Italian production assets
- Bridge Petroleum on its corporate acquisition of Orlando Field from IONA, including crude sales and EPC
- CLH on its ground fuels transportation and processing agreements
- Impact Oil & Gas on South African country entry and acquisition of Tugela assets
- Hansa Hydrocarbons on Juliette Field development and gas sales
- HMRC Treasury on decommissioning relief deed submissions
- Serica on UKCS, Namibian, Moroccan and East Irish Sea farm-outs and early-stage Columbus unitisation
- Vitol on Ivory Coast PSC and gas sales
- Summit E&P Limited on Kinnoull Field development, Pierce Field swap, restructuring and corporate sale of Summit Petroleum
In-House Counsel
- BG Group on feedstock arrangements for Atlantic T2 and unitisation of NCMA fields (Trinidad) and OKLNG Nigeria
- TOTAL on Libyan, Angolan and Indonesian PSCs
- Afren on Tanzanian farm-out
- BG Group on UKCS SW Seymour development and sale of interest in Forties pipeline
- Canadian Petroleum (now CNOOC Nexen) on the legal management of CLAM assets, Dutch Sector North Sea & of Caister Murdoch, and on development of the Rivers Fields, East Irish Sea
- ExxonMobil on the legal management of the Beryl Field (and satellites) and the decommission of NW Hutton
- Burlington Resources on Algerian PSC re-negotiations and Rivers Field Development East Irish Sea
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Recognised by The Legal 500 (2022-2023) for Oil & Gas
“Stuart Carter is a very commercially-oriented lawyer who has been able to provide us with excellent, wide-ranging advice built on a legal foundation.” The Legal 500 2023
“Stuart Carter: Has a good blend of in-house and private practice experience in the energy sector. He is knowledgeable, practical and a pleasure to work with.” The Legal 500 2022
Recognised by The Legal 500 2022 for Power (including electricity, nuclear and renewables)
Member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators
Career
Stuart qualified as a solicitor in 1989. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2020, he worked at the following firms:
- Fieldfisher
- Bond Dickinson
- Rowe & Maw