Negotiations and negotiating techniques for the upstream oil and gas industry

• Negotiations in the context of the oil and gas industry
• The need for structured planning and clear communications
• Exercise: bargaining and compromise in securing drilling resources
• Harnessing cooperative, adversarial and competitive approaches
• Game theory –– its relevance to some oil and gas negotiations
• Exercise: prisoners’ dilemma game
• Empathising with positions of other parties
• Setting objectives and agendas
• The importance of listening and questioning
• Exercise: negotiating commercial terms of an upstream permit
• Negotiating mergers, acquisition and divestments
• Researching the other parties – identifying their preferences
• Pitching the first offer or proposal
• Exercise: Qualities required to be a good negotiator

Day Two: Strategic approaches and innovative solutions

• Tried and tested negotiating strategies and tactics and responses to them
• Negotiations with communities; case studies Niger Delta and Queensland
• Lessons to be learned from Machiavelli’s “The Prince”
• Broadening the solution and enlarging the rewards
• Exercise: negotiating with a disgruntled community
• Negotiating strategies to achieve workable and lasting deals
• Win-win solutions versus zero-sum outcomes
• Zones of possible agreement (ZOPA) and bottom lines
• Negotiating joint-venture operating agreements
• Exercise: competitive bidding and EPC contract terms
• Sole risk and non-consent options and dispute resolution
• Procurement and tendering negotiation issues
• Exercise: negotiating terms for a farmout deal
• Negotiating power and perceptions of it
• Negotiating with financial institutions to secure debt
• Culture and ritual impact negotiating tactics and outcomes

• Team negotiations, team roles and interpersonal behaviour
• Personality types and psychology can guide tactics
• Communicating and understanding signals
• Using body language and other non-verbal indicators
• Exercise: identifying body language combinations
• Posturing, manipulation and diverting attention from key issues
• Exercise: negotiations in a labour dispute (management versus workforce)
• Dealing with late stage surprises
• Recognising and exploiting time pressure
• Dealing with deadlock or threats of it
• Exercise: negotiating access to midstream infrastructure
• Dealing with impromptu and telephone negotiations
• Closing deals and recognising how and when to do so
• Exercise: negotiations between LNG supplier and buyer
• Documenting and learning from previous negotiations
• Benchmarking and improving performance in negotiations