William A. Alexander has 39 years of experience in legal and negotiating activities associated with commercial transactions in both the domestic and international arenas, with an emphasis on energy, energy marketing and trading, exploration and production activities, and other energy-related matters.

Practice & Background

Mr. Alexander’s legal and commercial experience includes domestic and international (both onshore and offshore) oil and gas exploration, development, production, transportation, and hydrocarbon sale and purchase activities, including the preparation and negotiation of various types of granting instruments (leases, licenses, concession agreements, production sharing contracts, risk sharing contracts, service contracts) and the agreements required for related exploration, development and production activities (bidding agreements, joint venture agreements, operating agreements, unitization and unit operating agreements, drilling contracts, service agreements, construction contracts, charter party contracts, transportation agreements); energy-related mergers, acquisitions and divestitures; privatizations and capitalizations; the sale and purchase of crude oil, natural gas and power; energy marketing and trading activities; acquisitions of energy marketing and trading entities and assets; pipeline and refinery projects; FEED and EPC contracts, including those associated with offshore energy development and production projects (platforms, floaters and FPSOs), pipelines, refining and LNG-related projects; and energy-related matters associated with the restructuring of energy companies.

Mr. Alexander has lived in Japan, England and Bolivia and has legal and commercial experience in more than 60 countries, including the United States, Canada, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Tunisia, Oman, UAE, Yemen, China, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

Mr. Alexander is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the American Bar Association and is a former chairman of the ABA’s International Resources Committee. He is also a member of the Houston Bar Association. He is a member of the Center for American and International Law and serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. He is a member of the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations and is a former member of the Houston Roundtable of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Alexander also participated in the University of Houston’s Russian Petroleum Legislation Project. He is an original member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, has served as an officer and director of the AIPN, and is a member of the AIPN’s International Unitization and Unit Operating Agreement Committee. He is a member of the Asia Society, the World Trade Council and the Japan America Society, for which he served as a director and as a member of its Executive Advisory Board. Mr. Alexander also serves on the advisory board for the South Texas College of Law Frank Evans Center for Conflict Resolution.

Representative Matters

During the course of his career, Mr. Alexander has been involved in matters that include:

  • the presentation to the State Petroleum Company of Brazil of a workshop on unitizations and unit operating agreements and the subsequent preparation of the documents required for an offshore unitization
  • the negotiation and documentation of precedent agreements and service agreements required for the transportation of regasified LNG throughout the northeast United States
  • the preparation of long-term (in excess of 20 years) natural gas sale and purchase agreements for the sale and purchase of natural gas (including regasified LNG)
  • the preparation of EPC contracts for the design, engineering, procurement and construction of an LNG regasification facility located in the Gulf Coast area of the United States
  • various aspects of numerous pipeline projects, including the Orenburg pipeline project, the Bolivia-to-Brazil pipeline project and the proposed Iran-to-India pipeline project
  • the preparation of FEED and EPC contracts for greenfield refineries and pipeline projects
  • the acquisition by a major energy company of a substantial book of natural gas and electric power supply agreements for the West Coast of the United States, together with other related energy marketing and trading assets
  • the acquisition by a major energy company of a natural gas and electric power marketing and trading company and organization marketing, trading and transporting gas and power throughout the northwest United States
  • the preparation, negotiation and finalization of an energy management services agreement under which a major energy company provides to the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of snack and fast foods total energy (natural gas, electric power, fuel oil, alternate fuels and coal) and management services for all plants located in North America, including services associated with RFPs for energy supply, the acquisition and supply of energy, transportation of energy, scheduling of deliveries, usage of energy, maximization of energy consumption, invoicing management, and dealing with diversity participation in the supply and sale of energy
  • the preparation, negotiation and finalization of an energy supply and energy management services agreement under which the client provides energy supply and energy management services for one of the largest utilities in the southwest United States
  • the acquisition by a major energy company of a combination of energy marketing and trading assets and companies throughout the Atlantic Coast and Midwest regions of the United States and throughout Western Canada
  • advice to energy companies on all aspects of energy marketing and trading, including energy supply (both equity and acquired), transportation and shipping, exchange and storage arrangements, and value chain issues associated with the above
  • South America’s largest industrial merger
  • the Bolivian capitalization process
  • the presentation to representatives of the government of Vietnam of a one-week seminar in Hanoi on international petroleum agreements, arrangements and transactions
  • the organization and administration of the corporate, legal and negotiating functions of a multinational energy company, directing activities in more than 35 countries
  • the sale of a multibillion-dollar international petroleum company
  • the organization and administration of the legal and negotiating efforts associated with the North Sea activities of a U.S. multinational, supporting the largest petroleum discoveries in the U.K. sector during the 1980s.