Jackson Walker partner Jordan Smith was featured in the Oil and Gas Investor cover story regarding the impact of the oil price war, pandemic, and environmental setbacks on the E&P industry.

In the article, Jordan discussed how the formation of partnerships, such as drilling partnerships, has declined.

“I’ve been through a couple of ups and downs, but 2020 was certainly unlike anything we’d ever seen. You had to gasp and catch your breath,” Jordan said. “Now people are looking up and trying to figure out their next move, whether to core up or exit entirely. We’ve seen private equity investments that were precommitted be scaled back or deferred. In 2020, you didn’t want to drill at those low prices. It was a temporary moratorium.”

“I’ve been through a couple of ups and downs, but 2020 was certainly unlike anything we’d ever seen. You had to gasp and catch your breath.”

Regarding how the structure of drillcos has changed, he noted, “We did start to build more ‘exit ramps’ in these deals as the years went on. Circumstances come up, whether it’s market forces or your JV [joint venture] partners have problems.”

To read more, visit the Hart Energy article “Oil and Gas Investor Cover Story: Revising the E&P Blueprint” and the April 2021 issue of Oil and Gas Investor. A subscription is required to view the article and magazine.

Meet Jordan

S. Jordan Smith concentrates his practice in the areas of oil, gas, and natural resources law, with an emphasis on negotiating transactions pertaining to upstream financing, joint ventures, DrillCo transactions, and traditional acquisitions and divestitures. Jordan represents exploration and production companies, private equity funds, and other financial institutions in complex transactions across the energy sector, with a particular focus on alternative financing and joint ventures to develop upstream and midstream oil and gas assets, including Drillco transactions, volumetric production payments, equity joint ventures and farmout arrangements. In addition, he has experience in a variety of other complex business transactions, including the acquisition and development of real property, corporate mergers and reorganizations, asset sales and acquisitions, and project financing.