Areas of Practice

Upstream - Oil & Gas

 

The Oil and Gas Industry is structured into the Upstream Sector, the Midstream Sector, Chemical Sector, and the Downstream Sector. Each of these sectors represents an operating component of the industry that performs a function independent of the others. The primary components include exploration, development, production, transportation, refining, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing.

The Upstream Sector is typically represented by the exploration, development, and production components. Through exploration and development, companies identify and evaluate prospective oil and gas fields, obtain drilling rights, contract for drilling and related services, and purchase the expendable tools, equipment, and supplies. Production involves the further evaluation of the commercial potential of wells and fields and the completion of well development.

Downstream - Petroleum Refining

 

The Downstream Sector includes petroleum refineries, renewable fuels plants, storage terminals, racks, pipelines, gas-to-liquids plants, and retail marketing assets. Oil refineries are the primary assets in this sector, but they require assets from farther downstream in order to deliver their products to the market. These downstream assets include storage terminals and racks and the pipelines that move the product. Marketing assets, or service stations, receive the products from the rack and provide a safe and reliable method to provide fuel for customers' vehicles.

Chemicals

 

The Chemicals Sector encompasses commodity chemicals, basic chemicals, specialty chemicals, inorganic chemicals, life science chemicals, plastics manufacturing, performance chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

Midstream - Terminals, Pipelines & Gas Processing

 

The Midstream Sector is commonly represented by the transportation network that moves the oil and gas to a plant for further processing. This sector includes pipelines that transport crude oil from the Upstream Sector to the refinery, crude oil storage, and other types of transportation assets. This sector also includes gas gathering assets, pipelines, product storage and the plants that treat gas and separate it into marketable products such as natural gas, ethane, propane, butanes, and NGLs.

Power Generation

 

The Power Generation Sector includes electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and trading of power, potentially segmented by customer group. This sector encompasses electricity generation plants that us coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydro, biomass, wind, solar and geothermal as fuel sources.

Biofuels

 

The Biofuels Sector consists of energy products produced from organic matter, such as corn or sugar, vegetable oils, fats, greases, or waste oil feedstocks. Biofuels emit less carbon dioxide (CO2) than conventional fuels and can be blended with fossil fuels as an effective way of reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector. The Biofuels Sector has grown recently, driven primarily by the introduction of new energy policies in the US and Europe that call for more renewable, low-carbon fuels for the transportation industry.

Liquified Natural Gas

 

The Liquid Natural Gas ("LNG") Sector has experienced periods of both high growth and prolonged downturns. LNG is used for natural gas supply operations such as domestic storage, exports and imports via tanker ships, and is consumed as fuel, predominately in electricity generation. Interest in LNG exports has been supported by higher supplies of natural gas in recent years due to increased domestic production and technological advances in liquefaction. LNG assets include marine terminal operations, storage facilities, and niche market facilities to serve vehicle fuel demand.