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Overview

Edward Poitevent has practiced energy law for more than 40 years, with a concentration in the U.S. markets, the U.S. Gulf Coast, and international energy deals.  He focuses his practice on all phases of domestic and international energy/mineral law and natural resources law.

Throughout his career he has counseled clients in a wide range of interests in the energy industry, including natural gas pipeline companies and domestic and international oil and gas projects.

Edward recently won a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the non-existence of critical habitat on family land in Louisiana for an extinct frog. This ruling prompted the U.S. Department of the Interior to overhaul its critical habitat rules.

Representative Matters

  • Lead outside counsel for negotiation and drafting of a Share Purchase Agreement, a Coal Supply Agreement, and related documents for an approximately $1 billion (USD) project in Turkey.
  • Lead outside counsel for negotiation and drafting of a Joint Venture Agreement and related agreements and documents for a gold mine project in Turkey.
  • Implement and interpret contracts for operation of a major LNG liquefaction facility (the largest in the Western hemisphere) in Trinidad and the sale of LNG from the facility.
  • Assist the law department of a Trinidad liquefaction facility in numerous legal tasks, including arbitration issues, during a 6 month secondment to a company in Trinidad.
  • Implement and interpret contracts for the sale of gas in a Trinidad for LNG facility.
  • Draft Gas Vaporization and related agreements for a proposed floating terminal in the Gulf of Mexico for a supermajor.  Analyze reserve issues for gas reserves offshore Angola.
  • Drafting contracts involving the development of Indonesian natural gas reserves and gas purchase and transportation contracts for the gas.
  • Draft and negotiate farmout for development of gas reserves offshore Nigeria.
  • Draft and negotiate a series of contracts for development of gas reserves in Indonesia and development of pipeline infrastructure associated with the same to sell gas to major consumer of gas.
  • Long-term crude oil import agreement for 1,000,000 barrels/mo. from a Latin American state-owned oil and gas company.
  • Negotiate and draft an operating contract for platforms in the Gulf of Thailand.
  • Negotiate, draft, and structure agreements for a joint venture to conduct seismic operations in Mexico.
  • Negotiate, draft, and structure agreements for a joint venture to conduct seismic operations in Brazil.
  • Negotiate, draft, and structure complicated agreements for conduct of seismic operations offshore Canada with a supermajor.
  • Lead counsel for a $282 million merger of an entity with leases in Louisiana state waters and OCS (offshore Louisiana and Texas) and the production for a major Australian energy company.
  • Lead counsel for $83 million purchase of producing oil and gas properties in Gulf of Mexico (offshore Louisiana and Texas).
  • Farmout, participation, and development agreements for onshore Gulf Coast and offshore oil and gas fields (Louisiana and Texas).
  • Natural gas volumetric production payment and prepayment transactions.
  • Farmout and development of Gulf of Mexico fields for deep gas reserves.
  • Acquisition and development of West Texas fields for oil and gas development.
  • Participation agreement for a West Texas field.
  • Acquisition and structuring of a major package of land-related assets in Louisiana (fee, mineral royalty, and working interest).
  • Negotiate, structure, and finalize agreement with exploration company for development of Tribal lands in Utah.
  • Mineral law issues for largest Louisiana landowner and major owner of timber and minerals in Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama.
  • Financing of interests in producing fields in Louisiana and Texas.
  • Oil and gas development of 35,000 acres of South Louisiana marshlands, including 3-D seismic option.
  • Development issues involving North Louisiana minerals.
  • Litigation involving surface and subsurface environmental issues in a producing Louisiana field.
  • Ownership dispute over a large mineral acreage in a Louisiana field.
  • Preparation and negotiation of a Texas farmout agreement.
  • Gas sales contracts, processing agreements, and a related product sales agreements in a West Texas field.
  • Negotiation of a major package of Rockies gas for simultaneous prepaid gas contract sale to utility.
  • Vermilion Field production payment maintenance and gas imbalances.
  • Analysis and resolution of gas imbalance issues (onshore and offshore Louisiana fields).
  • Throughput capacity lease for 300-mile crude oil pipeline in Mid-America.
  • Storage of natural gas in a Gulf Coast salt dome (Napoleonville).
  • Contracts for development and operation of a salt dome cavern storage in a Southwest Louisiana salt dome.
  • Development of coalbed methane and lignite reserves in North Louisiana.
  • Outer Continental Shelf operations and regulatory matters.
  • Major natural gas infrastructure contracts for deepwater Gulf of Mexico operations.
  • Contract for Gulf of Mexico FPSO operations.
  • Development and construction of platforms and pipelines for deepwater Gulf of Mexico operations.
  • Drilling contracts for Gulf of Mexico wells.
  • Negotiation and drafting of seismic agreement for a Norwegian company for seismic operations in Gulf of Mexico for a major integrated oil company.
  • Acquisition of Louisiana petroleum pipelines.
  • Louisiana intrastate pipeline acquisitions and operations.
  • Negotiation of energy supply/management services for a large U.S. Southwest utility on behalf of major integrated oil company.
  • Terminal use agreement for LNG vaporization facility in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Negotiate, draft, and structure land-related documents for onshore Texas and Louisiana LNG vaporization facilities.
  • Contracts for operation of Louisiana and Texas intrastate pipeline companies.
  • Advise interstate natural gas pipeline on land-related issues for acquisition of rights-of-way and related agreements for a 140-mile natural gas pipeline in Southwest Louisiana.
  • Contracts to build/operate Louisiana 200 MW independent power project.
  • Purchase and sale of interstate natural gas pipeline.
  • Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certificates for Texas and Louisiana pipeline systems.

Professional & Civic Activities

Professional and Civic Activities

  • American Association of Petroleum Landmen member and former Co-Chair of its Model Form Gas Balancing Agreement Committee. 
  • Association of International Petroleum Negotiators' Model Form Farmout Agreement Committee member and Model Form International Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement Committee member. 
  • American Bar Association’s Section of Environmental, Energy, and Natural Resources Law former Council Member.
  • Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation former Trustee.
  • Eastern Mineral Law Foundation former Trustee.
  • Louisiana Mineral Institute governing body former member.
  • Leukemia Society of America, Inc., Louisiana Chapter President, 1990-1991. 
  • Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans Board of Directors, 1984-1990. 
  • Louisiana State Bar Association member.

Honors & Awards

Honors & Awards

  • Best Lawyers in America 2007 - 2024.
  • Louisiana Super Lawyers 2013 - 2015.
  • New Orleans Magazine "Top Lawyer" 2016 - 2023.
  • Edward has been listed in the Euromoney/Legal Media Group's Guide to the World’s Leading Energy and Natural Resources Lawyers and Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers. 
  • Who's Who in American Law. 
  • New Orleans CityBusiness 2010 Leadership in Law honoree.

News & Events

Publications

  • Author, "Post-Production Deductions From Royalty," Petroleum Accounting and Financial Management Journal, Vols. 22 and 23, Fall/Winter/Spring 2003 and 2004.
  • Co-Author & Co-Chair, "State Regulation of Intrastate Oil and Gas Pipelines in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana," Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines: Wellhead to End User, January 1995.
  • Author, "Post-Production Deductions From Royalty," South Texas Law Review, Vol. 44. No. 3, Summer 2003.
  • Co-Author, "The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Concept of Adjacent State Law" and " Moving Offshore Production to Market," Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation’s OCS Short Course, Spring 2003.
  • Author, "Wellhead Gas Balancing," Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Natural Gas, 2001.
  • Co-Author, "Preferential Rights, Rights of First Refusal and Options: The Whys and Wherefores," American Association of Petroleum Landmen, June 2000.
  • Co-Editor, Chapter 25, "Outer Continental Shelf Leases and Operating Regulations," The Law of Federal Oil and Gas Leases (Matthew Bender).
  • Co-Author, "Recent Developments on the Outer Continental Shelf," 47th Annual Institute on Oil and Gas Law and Taxation, Southeast Legal Foundation, 1996.
  • Author, "The Louisiana Mineral Code and the Civil Law Tradition," Oil and Gas Law & Taxation Review, Vol. 12, Issue 5, 1994.

Industries

Bar Admissions

  • Louisiana

Education

Tulane University Law School, J.D., 1974

Tulane University, B.A., 1971

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