Bracewell Represents Impact on Gabon Offshore Oil Contract Licenses

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP advised Impact Oil and Gas Limited (“Impact”), the Africa focused specialist upstream explorer on the negotiation and award of three deepwater offshore oil contracts in Gabon.

Gabon's oil ministry signed a total of seven oil contracts with six companies as part of an offshore licensing round expected to attract at least $1.1 billion in investment to the sector. The Central African country hopes that this tender, its tenth, will help it reverse a decline in output due to maturing onshore fields. The former OPEC member currently produces about 230,000 barrels per day, down from a peak of close to 400,000 bpd in the 1990s.

“This is a game changing deal for Impact, who has signed licenses alongside Repsol, Marathon, Noble Energy, Petronas and Woodside. The London office of Bracewell & Giuliani is exclusively dedicated to the energy sector and our French speaking team is thrilled to have worked with Impact on this significant deal to acquire these licenses,” said Ben James, the lead Bracewell partner. “This is the first licensing round in Gabon since 2000 and the awarded production sharing contracts have been negotiated in accordance with the Government’s new production sharing contract and in light of anticipated legislative changes.”

Bracewell attorneys involved in this transaction include:

Partners:Ben James and Olivia Caddy

Associates:Olga Galin and Sally L. Brunton