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energy-natural-resources

Energy & Natural Resources

Energy disputes are among the most widely publicized, and they play out before decision-makers who may hold views about the industry before the first exhibit is shown. The team that makes complex operational and scientific evidence clear and credible holds the advantage. That is where IMS comes in.

Focus energy on the evidence in complex litigation and arbitration.

In disputes involving energy and natural resources, decision-makers are asked to weigh geological data, engineering records, decades of lease and contract history, and shifting regulatory standards, while potentially harboring associations that labels like "Big Oil" carry. These labels also extend to experts. One juror sees decades of industry experience as credibility, while another sees a corporate mouthpiece. Success depends on getting the technical analysis right and presenting it in a way a skeptical audience can evaluate fairly.

Legal teams worldwide rely on IMS to make the evidence clear and credible for jurors, judges, and arbitrators alike. Representative case types include:

  • Oil and gas contract, lease, and royalty disputes
  • Mineral rights, title, and underground trespass claims
  • Environmental contamination, remediation, and natural resource damages
  • Coastal erosion and land loss litigation
  • Pipeline, refinery, and facility incidents
  • Health, personal injury, and toxic exposure claims
  • Utility, power, and renewable energy project disputes

As a strategic partner throughout the full dispute lifecycle, we help clients develop strategies designed to succeed in federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration venues. Read more below about our trusted solutions for energy and natural resources disputes.

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From Early Case Assessment Through Trial and Appeal: Integrated Support for High-Stakes Disputes

Energy matters require a cohesive, data-backed case narrative and an experienced team that can clarify critical issues, including royalty calculations, subsurface trespass, contamination, and catastrophic incidents. We deliver tailored expert witness and consulting services at every step of dispute resolution to strengthen strategies, reduce risks, and support optimal outcomes.

Featured Case Study: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. v. Oil Insurance Ltd.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNR) had to prove that a crack in a failed underwater brace on a North Sea oil platform originated in a weld, making the failure a covered manufacturing defect rather than an excluded loss. Our team built an interactive 3D-animated model of the platform and brace, paired with a photo timeline that traced the crack's progression. The visuals gave arbitrators context of the structure's scale and pinpointed where the defect began, and the London arbitration settled in CNR's favor.

Read the Case Study

Featured Case Study: Deepwater Horizon Litigation

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and released roughly 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Seeking to hold BP accountable, Anadarko Petroleum turned to IMS to help illustrate the failures that led to the disaster. Working with experts and counsel, IMS developed dozens of animations and hundreds of graphics that explained key technical and operational issues. Anadarko ultimately settled with BP for less than its assigned 25% share of cleanup costs.

Read the Case Study

Energy & Natural Resources Capabilities

  • Expert Advisory & Analysis

    • Economics & Finance: Rebuild royalty calculations, analyze pricing methods and post-production deductions, and quantify underpayments, lost profits, and damages in contract, lease, and energy project disputes
    • Statistics, Sampling & Econometrics: Provide sampling and class-wide analysis to support or challenge certification and quantify damages in royalty owner class actions and mass tort exposure litigation
    • Litigation Surveys & Rebuttals: Measure public perception where environmental or sustainability claims are at issue, and rebut opposing survey methodology

    • Expert Witness Search

      • Custom Expert Witness Search: Locate testifying and consulting experts in lease administration, mineral title, land use, coastal science, and energy regulation, vetted for subject-matter depth and credibility in the chosen venue
      • Technical Expert Witness Search: Source geologists, reservoir and petroleum engineers, hydrogeologists, environmental scientists, remediation specialists, and failure analysis, process safety, and pipeline integrity experts for trespass, contamination, and incident matters
      • Medical Expert Witness Search: Find toxicologists, epidemiologists, and treating-specialty physicians to address general and specific causation in health and toxic exposure claims

    • Litigation Consulting

      • Strategy & Theme Development: Explain unfamiliar operations, subsurface conditions, and decades of site history in plain terms that an unfamiliar judge or skeptical juror can evaluate fairly
      • Jury Research & Mock Trials: Test themes, expert credibility, and settlement positions with mock jurors and focus groups drawn from the trial venue, and measure local attitudes toward the energy industry
      • Voir Dire & Jury Selection: Identify jurors whose views on energy companies or environmental harm could decide the case before they reach the jury box
      • Trial Graphics & Multimedia: Build 3D geological models, incident animations, drone-based virtual site tours, time-lapse visuals of landscape change, explanatory graphics on concepts such as trace toxicity, and Chronos® interactive timelines of operational and regulatory history
      • Presentation Technology: Deliver exhibits and expert testimony without issue at trial, arbitration hearings, and mediation

    • Medical Legal Experts

      • Medical Expert Witnesses: Identify toxicologists, epidemiologists, occupational medicine specialists, pulmonologists, oncologists, and other physicians to evaluate causation and injury claims arising from chemical exposures, environmental contamination, industrial incidents, and workplace hazards
      • Life Care Planning & Rebuttals and Vocational Assessments: Assess future medical needs, functional limitations, and earning-capacity impacts in catastrophic injury and long-term exposure cases
      • Economic Damages: Quantify future care costs, lost wages, and other damages, backed by credible expert evidence
      • Medical Demonstratives: Translate complex medical evidence into clear visuals that clarify key case issues and improve understanding of causation and impact

      They ask the hard/right questions about trial themes. They prepare compelling visual aids and demonstrative evidence. Simply put, IMS makes us better trial lawyers.

      Litigator & Partner

      IMS quickly custom-matched the expert to our needs. Once engaged, their expert totally impressed me, my client, and our opposition.

      Partner, Am Law 100 Firm

      FAQs

      Energy and natural resources litigation includes oil and gas contract, lease, and royalty disputes, mineral rights and underground trespass claims, environmental contamination, remediation and natural resource damages, coastal erosion and land loss litigation, pipeline, refinery, and facility incidents, health and toxic exposure claims, and utility and renewable energy project disputes.

      IMS can join at nearly any stage, but engagement before discovery closes or a trial date is set provides the most value. Early involvement allows time for expert search and vetting, venue-specific jury research, theme development, and the design of trial graphics, virtual site tours, and interactive timelines that can be tested and refined before trial.

      IMS sources and vets petroleum engineers, geologists, hydrogeologists, reservoir specialists, environmental scientists, toxicologists, land use and coastal specialists, and energy economists, with well over 100 expert placements in land use, coastal erosion, and environmental and toxic tort matters. IMS also provides in-house economists, statisticians, and survey experts for damages and class-wide questions.

      IMS jury consultants measure attitudes toward the industry in the specific trial venue through jury research and mock trials, then use those findings to shape case themes, voir dire strategy, and expert selection so decision-makers can evaluate the evidence on its merits.

      IMS economists rebuild royalty calculations and analyze pricing and post-production deductions, while statisticians provide sampling and class-wide analysis to support or challenge certification and quantify damages. IMS supports individual contract, trespass, and injury disputes as well as class actions and mass tort exposure litigation.

      IMS has supported energy matters in federal and state courts and in international arbitration, including the London arbitration featured in the CNR case study above. We have provided expert witnesses, jury consulting, and trial graphics, including 3D models, incident animations, and virtual site tours, to support teams in each forum.

      Blue textured angles.

      We bring a unique perspective based on decades of practical experience in 70,000+ cases spanning all industries.