Biography: Oil and Gas

Jay Park, QC is a partner and chair of the global resources practice group with Macleod Dixon LLP, where he has practised oil and gas law since 1980. Based in Calgary, Jay leads a team of energy lawyers in Macleod Dixon's Calgary, Toronto, Moscow, Almaty, Caracas and Rio de Janeiro offices. Jay has represented oil and gas producers, consumers, marketers, pipeline companies and local distribution companies, governments, banks and investors. His practice has included oil and gas asset acquisitions and divestments, share acquisitions and divestments involving oil and gas companies, advising on production sharing agreements, concession agreements, product marketing, gas sales and purchase contracts, pipeline transportation matters, oil and gas pipeline asset dispositions, drafting legislation and regulations, oil and gas regulatory hearings and joint venture and participation agreements.

In over 27 years of practice, Jay has conducted oil and gas transactions and joint ventures, and negotiated, drafted and provided advice in respect of numerous oil and gas agreements and laws, in Albania, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Thailand, Trinidad, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen. Jay has experience representing both investors and states; he has assisted governments and state oil companies in the design or amendment of petroleum regimes in 13 countries, whose total resources comprise 49 per cent of world oil reserves and 35 per cent of world gas reserves.

Jay's considerable experience has included assisting Pemex, Mexico's state oil company, from 2003 to 2005 in the creation and award of the Multiple Services Contracts, which were the first arrangement permitting international oil companies to conduct activities in Mexico since 1938. He advised the government of British Columbia in connection with updating its petroleum regulations to address modern regulatory principles. Jay also assisted an oil and gas company in the negotiation of one of the first post-war production sharing agreements in the Kurdistan Region of the Republic of Iraq.

Jay is actively involved in legal education and training. He is the instructor of the International Petroleum Transactions course at the Faculty of Law of the University of Calgary. He co-instructs the five-day training course, 'World Legal Systems and Contracts for Oil & Gas', which is held semi-annually in London. He also co-instructs the five-day courses, 'Global Gas Transportation and Marketing' and 'International Petroleum Joint Ventures', which are presented annually in London and other locations.

Jay has been recognised by Who's Who Legal, the independent research partner of the International Bar Association, as the world's leading oil and gas lawyer in 2006 and 2007. Jay is listed as a Band 1 practitioner for energy and natural resources law in Chambers Global publication, The World's Leading Lawyers 2010, a position he has held since Chambers first published its global review in 2001. He is rated "most highly recommended" by Lexpert, the Canadian legal rating organisation, and is listed in the Lexpert/American Lawyer publication, Guide to the Top 500 Lawyers in Canada. Jay has also been named to the LEXPERT list of 'Canada's 100 Most Creative Lawyers'.