Shipping, Offshore & Oil Service

SANDS’ internationally renowned Shipping, Offshore & Oil Service Department is a modern project advisor in an international industry. Our core team of Norwegian and English lawyers has extensive international experience, as well as industrial experience from management positions in oil service and shipping companies, which gives our advice unique quality and depth. They are supported by a team of experienced partners in adjacent practice areas such as transactions, banking/finance and employment law. We offer modern, seasoned and cost-effective project advice regardless of jurisdiction and geography.

One of the top Scandinavian law firms with an unparalleled knowledge of the oil and gas and energy and shipping sectors in particular, and a stellar client list.

- Client (The Legal 500, 2023)

How we work

SANDS combines legal expertise, first-class project management and right-on-point advice at prices markedly lower than the other large business law firms. We’re in the same boat as our clients. The demanding market situation for oil and offshore firms, and the demand for lower costs in the industry as a whole should also be reflected by the industry’s advisers.

We accompany our clients out into the world and are there when we advise Norwegian enterprises in other jurisdictions. We collaborate closely with leading law firms in other parts of the world, including in countries subject to international sanctions.

Our core team

Our core team is built on a strategy of bringing together lawyers with long industrial experience and backgrounds as advisers for major players in energy, shipping & offshore. Our lawyers are commercially oriented, have a large amount of international experience and cover the entire value and contracts chain, on both the supplier and purchasing sides.

The areas in which we provide assistance include:

Project development phase

  • Letters of Intent/Heads of Terms/MOUs
  • Cooperation Agreements/Joint Development Agreements
  • Tender processes – pre-qualification, qualifications & clarifications, bidding strategy, negotiations, Shareholders' Agreements


Project Contracts

  • Charter Parties; Time/Voyage/Bareboat
  • Drilling Contracts
  • Operation and Service Agreements
  • Offshore Construction and Installation Contracts
  • Subsea Installation Contracts
  • FIDIC Contracts
  • Contracts of Affreightment
  • Sale & Purchase
  • Management Agreements


Construction

  • EPC (IC)
  • Shipbuilding Contracts
  • Subcontracts, Supply Agreements
  • Supervision Agreements
  • Delivery documents and procedure


Transaction Services and Tax

  • Auction Processes
  • Due Diligence
  • Sale and Purchase Agreements   
  • Co-investment Programs
  • Tax Structuring
  • Corporate Re-structuring


Financing

  • Quiet enjoyment issues
  • Direct Agreements
  • Contractor Warranty
  • Guarantees/LCs


Review

  • Insurance review / Liability regimes
  • Regulatory issues
  • Construction Risk
  • Renegotiations
  • Dispute handling
  • Corporate investigation
  • Compliance

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