Withers & Rogers - Oil & Gas Practice Group
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Our Oil & Gas group boasts engineers and scientists from across our offices in the UK and Europe who understand the unique and fascinating technologies being developed to meet the challenges facing the oil and gas industry. Upstream or downstream, marine or pipeline, our Oil & Gas group has the skills and expertise to make a difference.

Our experience

We appreciate the challenges facing the upstream sector. For example, in exploration, we have experience of deepwater seismic surveying technologies and airborne gradiometers. On the drilling front, we have worked with one of the industry’s main players in protecting their technology. We understand the issues facing the industry in improvements to directional drilling, including MWD technology. Our team is also familiar with HTHP electronics, devised to withstand the 25-30ºC/km temperature increases facing downhole technology, and the issues associated with downhole power generation and communications.

On the processing side, we are familiar with seabed extraction and processing systems. Our team has the skills to work on technologies such as multi-MW permanent magnet motor-driven pump systems, oil/gas/water/sand separation systems, and sand recycling systems. We have also worked in the fields of subsea valves, risers and pipeline inspection technologies.

Our specialist chemists deal with refinement and processing technologies, as well as downstream petrochemical derivatives. Our interests are many and varied, for example the quest to improve yields of the most valuable materials. As in every sector, environmental considerations are important. We are always pleased to be involved in advances in chemistry that can help to minimise the environmental impact of extracting and processing oil and gas, and value our role in helping to bring cleaner technologies to market.

Our expertise

The team, headed up by David McWilliams, draws on the experience of well over 50 patent and design attorneys with backgrounds in electronics, engineering and chemistry, as well as trade mark attorneys specialising in brand protection. In evolving sectors, our breadth and depth of knowledge is invaluable. We explore the pendency trends and examine attitudes that impact our clients, and then help devise tactics that steer the progress of our clients’ applications in a business-driven direction.

Our team includes patent attorney litigators, offering invaluable experience in the event of a dispute. In addition, our team includes a former patent examiner with special responsibility for International Patent Classification E21B covering drilling and well technology.

For further information please contact the group's lead attorney:

David McWilliams

David McWilliams

McWilliams

Partner

Partner

+44 114 273 3400

Office: Sheffield