Emery J. Choi

Mr. Choi advises clients on the acquisition, divestiture and joint development of a broad range of energy assets, including upstream and midstream oil and gas assets and power infrastructure. He also counsels clients on complex domestic and cross-border M&A, private equity investments and other energy-related transactions.

Mr. Choi is recognized in Chambers USA for Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional) (2022-25), where clients describe him as “an excellent lawyer” who is “practical and very commercial, quick to respond and able to handle and solve complex matters” and delivers “phenomenal work product.”

Before joining Skadden, Mr. Choi was a partner at another global law firm, where he advised on numerous high-profile transactions in the energy industry, including:

• Occidental Petroleum Corp. in:
  • its $905 million sale of certain Denver-Julesburg Basin assets to Elk Range Royalties
  • its $825 million sale of onshore oil and gas assets in Colombia to The Carlyle Group
  • its $818 million sale of certain Delaware Basin assets in Texas and New Mexico to Permian Resources
  • its acquisition of McDermott’s entire stake in NET Power, LLC
  • Net Power’s $1.46 billion business combination with Rice Acquisition Corp. II
• CNOOC Energy Holdings USA, Inc. in the sale of CNOOC Holdings USA Inc. to INEOS Energy
• Devon Energy Corp. in its:
  • formation of NDB Midstream LLC, a strategic partnership between WaterBridge NDB LLC, a portfolio company of Five Point Energy LLC, and WPX Energy Permian, LLC, a subsidiary of Devon Energy Corp
  • $273 million sale of certain non-core upstream assets in the Delaware Basin to multiple buyers
  • $2.5 billion joint venture with Sinopec for five shale plays (Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Niobrara, Mississippian, Ohio Utica Shale and Michigan Basin)
  • $2 billion sale of certain non-core upstream assets to multiple buyers in east Texas, the Anadarko Basin, the northern and central Midland Basin and northern Oklahoma
  • $553 million sale of the southern portion of its Barnett Shale position
• Mitsui & Co., Ltd., through its U.S. subsidiary Mitsui E&P USA LLC, in the acquisition of an unconventional gas asset in Texas from Sabana, LLC and Vanna, LLC
• EnCap Investments L.P. in the $1 billion sale of Broad Reach Power’s battery storage business to ENGIE
• ERG S.p.A. in a strategic partnership with Apex Clean Energy to manage and expand a U.S. wind and solar project portfolio
• a consortium of investors in the $1 billion purchase from Hilcorp Energy of a 75% interest in the 540-mile Arrowhead Pipeline, which transports crude oil from the Eagle Ford shale to two refineries and an intrastate marine terminal
• a private company in the joint funding, exploration, development and operation of certain well assets in Borden and Howard counties in Texas
• AMCI Acquisition Corp. II, a SPAC, in its $2.2 billion business combination with LanzaTech NZ, Inc., a leading carbon capture and transformation company combining synthetic biology and engineering to transform carbon waste into materials and high-value products
• an affiliate of Sixth Street Partners in a $402 million overriding royalty interest acquisition and joint venture with Antero Resources Corporation
• Apollo Global Management and Riverstone Holdings, among a consortium of investors, in the $7.15 billion acquisition of El Paso Corp.’s upstream assets
• Atinum Partners in an acquisition and joint venture with Smith Production in south Texas
• California Resources Corporation in its joint venture with Benefit Street Partners Debt Fund IV LP to form California Resources Development JV, LLC
• Castleton Commodities International LLC in its $1 billion-plus acquisition of the Carthage upstream and midstream assets in east Texas from subsidiaries of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
• Clayton Williams in the $400 million sale of substantially all of the company’s assets in the Giddings Area in east central Texas
• Continental Resources, Inc., a top 10 independent oil producer in the U.S., in its $3.25 billion acquisition of certain entities and assets in the Permian Basin from affiliates of Pioneer Natural Resources Company, one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the U.S.
• Enerplus Resources (USA) in the $292.3 million sale of certain non-operated North Dakota assets to Bruin E&P Non-Op Holdings
• EP Energy Corporation in its drilling joint venture with Wolfcamp Drillco Operating to fund future oil and natural gas development in its Wolfcamp program
• Gastar Exploration in its:
  • agreement with a large private global investment fund to jointly develop up to 60 wells in the STACK play in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma
  • $187.5 million acquisition of 24,000 acres of the West Edmond Hunton Lime Unit located in Oklahoma from Lime Rock Resources
• HRT O&G Exploração e Produção de Petróleo in a sale and purchase agreement to acquire a 40% interest in the Polvo Field off the coast of Brazil from Maersk Energia Ltda. in exchange for cash consideration and the assumption of certain decommissioning obligations
• KNOC in its $1.55 billion joint venture to buy a stake in the liquids-rich Eagle Ford shale in Texas from Anadarko Petroleum, including the subsequent sale of minority interest by KNOC to VOGO
• Marathon Oil Corporation in its $3 billion acquisition of the Eagle Ford assets of Ensign Natural Resources
• Pipeline Technique, a portfolio company of Bluewater Private Equity, in its acquisition of the Stanley Oil and Gas business from Stanley Black & Decker, a Fortune 500, NYSE-listed international pipeline services and equipment company
• Priority Power Management, LLC, an independent energy management services and consulting firm, in its acquisition of Satori Enterprises LLC (d/b/a Satori Energy), a leading energy consulting firm based out of Chicago that serves more than 55,000 industrial, municipal and residential clients in 25 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Mexico
• Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung Engineering in the creation of a joint venture entity with AMEC to carry out the design engineering for fixed and floating offshore platforms, floating production storage and offloading systems (FPSOs) and subsea pipelines
• SandRidge Energy in a DrillCo joint venture with a private equity-backed investor to fund up to $200 million for the development of oil and gas properties in Oklahoma
• Sixth Street Partners, LLC, a global investment firm, in its $405 million acquisition of PDP assets from Laredo Petroleum, Inc., a company focused on exploration in the Permian Basin
• The Carlyle Group in its:
  • $400 million definitive drilling agreement to fund the development of EOG’s oil and gas assets in Ellis County, Oklahoma
  • definitive drilling agreement to fund the development of Diamondback Energy’s oil and gas assets in Pecos County, Texas
• TPG Sixth Street Partners in its $500 million equity commitment to Eagle Land JV, a partnership with Glendale Energy Ventures
• TPG Special Situations Partners (TSSP) in its agreement between the operating subsidiary of Legacy Reserves LP and funds managed by TSSP to jointly fund horizontal development of certain of Legacy’s Spraberry, Wolfcamp and Bone Spring rights in the Permian Basin