Michael P. Darden

• 811 Main Street
• Suite 3700
• Houston, TX 77002
• USA

Michael P. Darden, a partner in the Houston office, serves as the Global Chair of the Oil & Gas Transactions Practice and Co-chair of the global Oil & Gas Industry Team.

Mr. Darden's practice focuses on:

Mr. Darden previously served as Vice President, Business Development, for Nuevo Energy Company, with responsibility for US and international business development, international new ventures, international legal and negotiations matters and international mergers and acquisitions, as well as real estate portfolio management and land matters in the US. He has also served as the firmwide Chair of the global oil and gas practice at a major international firm and worked in the international legal and/or negotiations areas for Tenneco Oil Company, BHP Petroleum and Hunt Oil Company.

Mr. Darden has been recognized in the following publications:

• Chambers USA Guide America's Leading Business Lawyers, 2005–2012
• Chambers Global, 2012
• The Best Lawyers in America, 2007–2013
• Law & Politics as a "Texas Super Lawyer," 2003–2004, 2006–2012
• The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, 2008–2012
• The International Who's Who of Oil & Gas Lawyers, 2010–2012
• Who's Who Legal: Texas, 2008–2012

Mr. Darden is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, in which he has served as an officer, director and committee chairman and was co-chair of the committee that developed the model form international farmout agreement. Mr. Darden is Board Certified in Oil and Gas Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and a member of the American Association of Professional Landmen and the Houston Bar Association.

Mr. Darden’s representative experience includes:

• Extensive work on petroleum exploration, development and/or production projects outside the US in all regions of the world, including several LNG projects. Involvement at all stages of petroleum projects, working with governments, industry partners, contractors, suppliers, lenders and insurers
• Representation of buyer in acquisition of several producing deepwater Gulf of Mexico fields (23 leases encompassing 5 field areas), along with associated capacity rights in offshore infrastructure and interests in related contracts, for US$5.55 billion
• Representation of Sumitomo Corporation in its US$2.0 billion investment in exchange for 30% of Devon’s interest in approximately 650,000 net acres in the Cline shale and the Midland-Wolfcamp Shale of the Permian Basin
• Representation of largest seller in multi-company divestiture of approximately 32,000 gross acres in the Bakken Shale formation of North Dakota for $1.4 billion
• Representation of seller in divestiture of 17,241 net acres of leasehold in the Eagle Ford Shale formation for US$640 million
• Representation of seller in divestiture of 64,000 net acres of leasehold in the Marcellus Shale, along with associated rights in gathering, processing and sales agreements, for US$325 million
• Representation of seller in divestiture of 109,305 acres of leasehold located in various onshore fields for US$577 million
• Representation of seller in divestiture of 120,000 net acres of productive and exploratory leasehold in the Eagle Ford Shale formation in South Texas, along with the seller’s interest in certain mid-stream gathering assets, for US$1.45 billion
• Representation of seller in divestiture of 20,000 net acres of productive leasehold in the Barnett Shale formation and 4,000 net acres of productive leasehold in the Texas panhandle for US$993 million
• Drafting and negotiation of production sharing contracts, licenses, technical evaluation agreements, confidentiality agreements, joint bidding agreements, farmout agreements, purchase and sale agreements, joint operating agreements, drilling contracts and service contracts for exploration and production activities of independent oil company in more than 30 countries