AIPN Seminar at NAPE

I had the pleasure of attending yesterday’s workshop (February 9, 2022) to listen to Mr. Eric Fry, and Mr. Norman Nadorff speak on The Ten Commandments of International Contracts Negotiations:  What plays in Peoria may not play in Pretoria.  The information was holistic and presented by speakers who were speaking from experience.  I also enjoyed the mini-mock negotiations starring Mr. Neil Segel, a Texan lawyer, that checked several  boxes for “What Not To Do When Negotiating Abroad”.  His counterpart on the other side of the table, Ms. Scheila Araujo, gently (and at times ambitiously) corrected him and explained why his comments and/or assumptions were not correct.  I highly recommend that you see the replay of this Session.

The mid-morning was spent witnessing a master class for a true to life drilling rig contract negotiation by Mr. Bill Pugh and Mr. John Almy.  I did not get to speak with Mr. Pugh, but I can remember being a green thumb many years ago and cutting my teeth during negotiations with him over the phone.  It was nice to see him in action.  He was tough yesterday and that is how I remember him, although I was the contractor and he was representing the operator.  In addition to giving a look into valid justifications and reasonings for positions from both sides, this discussion also highlighted the key areas, alternatives and options of the AIPN 2020 Offshore Drilling Contract.  Having run mock negotiation exercises within my current company on a global basis to improve the skills of our folks at the table, I found yesterday to be worth your time for the replay.

Finally, the afternoon sessions were handled by Mr. Harry Sullivan who is a wealth of knowledge.  He did a wonder job discussing the new AIPN Farmout Agreement and how it differs from it previous version.  The last topic that he taught on was International Unitization – The revised AIPN UUOA.  I could have spent a couple of days listing to Mr. Sullivan break this down.  So I am hoping that AIPN will run something this year (by Mr. Sullivan) that gives those of us who have not worked in this area of the business a deeper dive.  The replay of these two session will be time well spent.