Profile: John P Bowman

Oil and Gas

Biography: Oil and Gas

A partner in the Houston office of King & Spalding LLP, John Bowman is engaged in an arbitration and litigation practice representing primarily energy and petrochemical companies in a wide range of international commercial and investment disputes and is co-chair of the firm's International Arbitration Practice Group.

For 27 years, Mr Bowman has represented energy companies in arbitration and litigation, including in AMI and confidentiality agreement disputes, production-sharing contract disputes (renegotiation demands, windfall profits taxes, failure of state oil company to pay costs), joint operating agreement disputes (removal of operator, joint interest billings, preferential purchase rights, voting rights, disputes between investors and promoters), seismic licensing disputes, drilling contract disputes, gas contract disputes (price, take or pay, ratable takes, minimum takes, gas quality and measurement), gas marketing disputes (failure to deliver, imbalances), royalty owner disputes (drainage, failure to market, affiliate sales, calculation and payment of royalties, lease termination), and property valuation disputes (including look-backs), as well as in contested proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Texas Railroad Commission.

He works closely with experts in the energy industry, including petro-fiscal system consultants, geophysicists, geologists, petroleum engineers, well completion and production engineers, gas measurement specialists, gas contract administrators and gas marketers, joint interest auditors, experts in utility regulation, and experts in the history and development of US and foreign energy sectors.

Today, almost all of his cases involve international oil and gas disputes including disputes for and against host governments and state oil companies, JOA disputes, and disputes with promoters and local representatives. He frequently advises IOCs on how to maximise protection of their investments.

Mr Bowman has presented papers on a variety of energy topics, including resource nationalism, stabilisation and political risks, gas contract litigation, royalty owner marketing claims, ratable take and 'take or pay' litigation, private actions against petroleum engineers and geologists, transfer pricing issues, decommissioning of offshore facilities, and host government contracts. His article, 'Dispute Resolution Planning for the Oil and Gas Industry' appears in 16 ICSID Review - Foreign Investment Law Journal 332-407 (2001). Another article, entitled 'Dispute Resolution Planning and Pitfalls for Energy and Natural Resources Disputes', appears in 50 Rocky Mtn Min L Fdn 8-1 to 8-46 (2004).

His recent energy cases include: representing international oil company in dispute with state oil company over wrongful termination of PSC; representing an international oil company in disputes with a state oil company over the right to renegotiate PSC due to changed circumstances; representing non-US oil companies in disputes concerning JOAs for blocks in Colombia and Ecuador; representing a US oil company in a dispute with an installer of an offshore drilling and production platform; representing an oil-field service company in a dispute concerning a project to construct a floating production and storage barge; representing major international oil companies in disputes concerning fields in Kazakhstan; and representing a political risk insurer in regard to claims of expropriation by a Latin American regulatory agency.

He is widely recognised for his expertise in the arbitration of international oil and gas disputes, where he acts mainly as an advocate but also frequently as an arbitrator.