Oil & Gas Legal Experts: MENA Still Very Risky Investment

© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden, JD Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook The Middle East and Northern Africa continue to be extraordinarily tempting to U.S. oil and gas companies, but political volatility in the region is preventing many energy firms from making significant financial investments. Three of Texas’ leading oil and gas legal experts – Hunt Oil Chief Financial Officer and former General Counsel Dennis Grindinger, ConocoPhillips Senior Legal Counsel for International Operations Harry Sullivan, and SMU Dedman Law School Energy Law Professor John Lowe – told a group of international lawyers gathered in Dallas that MENA is still one of the regions that offers huge potential for investments by major U.S. energy companies. Lowe, Grindinger and Sullivan spoke to a packed audience in a program sponsored by the American Bar Association Section of International Law and the SMU Dedman School of Law. “Fifty percent of all proven oil reserves and 30 percent of all proven natural gas reserves are in the Middle East and North Africa,” says Lowe, who is widely recognized as one of the leading oil and gas legal educators in the U.S. “If you are interested in finding oil and gas, the Middle East…