Background

An Operating Agreement dispute as to what specific costs could be charged to the Joint Account in respect of a North Sea oil field following a corporate transaction that changed the cost structure of the Operator.

Our Role

A Secretariat Managing Director was appointed as the Expert Determiner to determine what amounts could be charged by the Operator to the Joint Venture.

Outcome

We considered the submissions from both sides setting out legal and accounting arguments, including legal pleadings, factual witness statements, expert accounting evidence and documentary evidence. We instructed a QC to provide an opinion on the legal matters and then applied the QC’s opinion and our accounting opinion to determine the amounts that could be charged to the Joint Venture. This required detailed analysis of large volumes of cost and accounting data and working with complex legal issues.