Graham Watson | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

“Graham Watson is a highly regarded leading lawyer for oil & gas”

ILFR1000 2019
Graham Watson, Partner
Corporate and M&A

London

65 Fleet Street
London EC4Y 1HS
T +44 20 7936 4000
F +44 20 7832 7001

graham.watson@freshfields.com

Graham is head of our global oil and gas group.

His practice covers public and private mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and general corporate and commercial advice.

Based in London, he has worked on a wide variety of natural resources matters across the globe, particularly in Latin America and Africa.

A fluent Spanish speaker, Graham spent almost three years based in our Madrid office. He is one of our country partners for Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

Advising Total on its:
- US$7.45bn acquisition of Maersk Oil; and
- proposed acquisition of Chevron Denmark.
Advising Neptune Energy (backed by funds advised by Carlyle and CVC) on its US$3.9bn acquisition of ENGIE E&P International. Read more about the deal in our case study.
Advising BG Group on its:
- US$70bn recommended takeover by Shell;
- US$5bn Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas pipeline sale to APA, Australia's largest gas infrastructure business; and
- US$1.7bn disposal to Cosan of its 60.1 per cent holding in Comgás, Brazil’s largest gas distribution company.
Advising Hess on its sale of Ghana upstream interests to Aker Energy.
Advising Tullow Oil on its US$300m convertible bond offering.
Advising First Reserve on its acquisition of Morrison Utility Services.
Advising TelecityGroup on its proposed US$4.5bn all-share merger with InterXion.
Advising on the settlement between the Karachaganak consortium (BG, Eni, Chevron and LUKoil) and the Republic of Kazakhstan, including the US$3bn transfer of 10 per cent of the consortium’s interests to national oil company KazMunayGas.
Advising Sinochem on its acquisition of Emerald Energy, the first London main market takeover by a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
Advising on various transactions for Xstrata, including its unsolicited and contested C$20bn acquisition of Falconbridge, its Cerrejón and Prodeco Colombian coal acquisitions and its rights issues.

Education

Trinity College, University of Oxford, UK (MA in jurisprudence)

London

65 Fleet Street
London EC4Y 1HS
T +44 20 7936 4000
F +44 20 7832 7001

graham.watson@freshfields.com

Deal of the year for advising Total on its US$7.45bn acquisition of Maersk Oil.

Oil & Gas Council World Oil & Gas Awards 2017

Deal of the year for advising BG Group on its US$70bn recommended takeover by Shell.

Financial News Awards 2016 and Oil & Gas Council World Oil & Gas Awards 2015

Shortlisted M&A deal of the year for advising BG Group on the US$1.8bn disposal of its interests in Comgás to Cosan.

Latin Lawyer Awards 2013

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