Susan D. Maples

In addition to her energy disputes experience in areas such as cost recovery, profit petroleum sharing, geologic data sharing, and title disputes, Ms. Maples has advised on numerous corporate transactions in the energy, oil and gas and mineral resource sectors. She has led petroleum sharing contract (PSC) negotiations and renegotiations; negotiated farm-ins with major international oil companies (IOCs) and juniors; designed competitive tenders for licensing rights in the oil and gas and mining sectors; conducted legal framework assessments; assisted in multiple cross-border pipeline negotiations and feasibility assessments, including the drafting of supporting documents such as inter-governmental agreements and host government agreements; supported various governments in maritime boundary negotiations; assisted in refinery acquisition transactions and crude oil sale transactions; and negotiated mineral development agreements and mineral title disputes.

Ms. Maples often works with financial models to analyze, negotiate and draft profit-sharing and taxation formulae. She has assisted governments on disputes in these areas and has advised on the drafting of laws and regulations in the oil, gas and mining sectors, as well as related legislation, such as tax and investment laws. She regularly advises governments on implementing and monitoring such laws and agreements.

Before joining Curtis, Ms. Maples was a Visiting Assistant Professor and Andrews Kurth Energy Scholar at the University of Houston Law Center and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Columbia Law School. Susan was also a Natural Resource Governance Fellow in the Office of the Legal Advisor to the President of Liberia, Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, in Monrovia, Liberia.

Ms. Maples is a co-author of Mining Contracts: How to Read and Understand Them; Oil Contracts: How to Read and Understand Them; and Contracts Confidential: Ending Secret Deals in the Extractive Industries.