Baker Botts has maintained an active practice in the Middle East and North Africa for several decades, with matters that cover a broad range of work in the fields of energy, corporate law, commercial law, telecommunications, banking and finance, defense, real estate and boundary disputes. We have had an office in the Middle East since 2001, with a principal focus on legal matters in the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Several lawyers in our Middle Eastern practice speak Arabic and Farsi in addition to English.
The majority of our work in the region involves the oil and gas industry, from upstream work (negotiating concession agreements, joint venture arrangements, reservoir management agreements, production sharing agreements, LNG projects and drilling contracts) to midstream work (pipeline, refinery and petrochemical projects) to downstream work (lube oil plants and transportation and distribution arrangements). The firm's lawyers are also active in the development and financing of electric power generation plants, including independent power projects (IPPs). Our clients in the region include energy companies/developers; governments; oilfield service companies; engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors; and lenders.
Baker Botts has broad experience in the banking and finance sector, where it has represented some of the largest financial institutions in the region on corporate restructurings, joint ventures, licensing activities, new product development and a wide range of lending work, including Islamic finance, on a variety of projects, including petrochemical plants, hotel and resort projects, power plants and corporate finance. The firm recently developed templates used by the Export-Import Bank of the United States for medium-term Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed loans in Saudi Arabia.
Baker Botts lawyers also regularly handle telecommunications matters, working on behalf of operators and equipment providers on a variety of projects that include GSM infrastructure, fiber optic networks and trunked radio systems.
Examples of Matters and Projects
Examples of Agreements
Production sharing agreements (PSAs)
Offtake agreements
Joint venture agreements
Asset acquisition agreements
Share purchase agreements
Technology license agreements
Shareholder agreements
Loan and security agreements
Commercial agency and distribution agreements