Transfer of assets on the UKCS—the Master Deed

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Produced in partnership with Isla Stewart of Matheson
Practice notes

Transfer of assets on the UKCS—the Master Deed

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Produced in partnership with Isla Stewart of Matheson

Practice notes
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The Master Deed is the standardised process used in the oil and gas industry on the united kingdom continental shelf (UKCS) to formalise asset transfers. It is a well-established process and covers two areas: (i) pre-emption, and (ii) standardised transfer arrangements.

The Master Deed has four key aims:

  1. •

    standardise existing pre-emption provisions

  2. •

    create pro-forma transfer arrangements

  3. •

    reduce complexity around signing documentation, and

  4. •

    increase certainty around the timing of completion

Structure

The concept of the Master Deed is enshrined in the body of the Master Deed, however the majority of the day-to-day relevant provisions are contained in the schedules and are broken down as follows:

  1. •

    main body—appoints the Administrator to run the Master Deed processes and provides that new parties will join through deed of adherence

  2. •

    schedule 1—contains the Contracting Parties at the date of signature

  3. •

    schedule 2—New Transfer Arrangements—note that the Annexes to this schedule contain the Execution Deed

  4. •

    schedule 3—New Pre-Emption Arrangements, and

  5. •

    schedule 4—Deed of Adherence

The Administrator

The

Isla Stewart
Isla Stewart

Matheson

Isla is an Associate in the Oil & Gas team. She qualified in 2010 after spending her traineeship with a leading international law firm. Isla then spent three years with the offshore oil and gas industry's leading trade association, Oil & Gas UK, as their in-house lawyer where she gained a strong background in working on complex industry issues across the UKCS.

Isla advises both operator and service sector clients on a range of aspects including asset acquisitions and disposals, joint venture matters and service sector contracts.

She has also been involved in a number of industry initiatives, most prominently the revision of the LOGIC general terms and conditions, the competing interests of the renewables industry offshore and the development of post-tax security for decommissioning security agreements.

Isla has also spent time on secondment to upstream oil and gas companies Talisman-Sinopec and Maersk Oil.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
United Kingdom Continental Shelf definition
What does United Kingdom Continental Shelf mean?

The United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) is the region of waters surrounding the United Kingdom, in which the country claims mineral rights. This principally refers to the North Sea, where there are large resources of oil and gas.

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