Partner

Graeme Clubley

Languages

English

Graeme is a partner in the CMS Energy & Climate Change Team and is based in Aberdeen, Europe’s oil and gas capital.

Graeme specialises in upstream oil and gas transactions and projects (including, acquisitions/disposals of oil and gas assets/companies, oil/gas transportation projects and decommissioning security arrangements) and advises more generally on joint venture issues and contractual matters in the oil and gas sector.

Graeme is ranked as a leading lawyer by Chambers, Legal 500 and is an Acritas Star – independently rated lawyer.

With more than 450 energy and climate change lawyers, including over 100 partners, the CMS Energy and Climate Change practice is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Led from its centres of excellence such as London and Aberdeen, the practice works across 75 offices globally. Building on 40 years of experience advising on power, oil & gas and renewables through to energy disputes, emerging areas and Energy Transition, CMS is uniquely placed to ensure clients receive advice best suited to their commercial needs and to our collective future.

Awards & Recognitions

01 –

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"Graeme Clubley: our go-to partner for oil and gas matters in the UK and abroad. Super pragmatic and no-nonsense approach. Focuses on issues that really matter and create value."

Legal 500, 2026
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"Graeme is an oil and gas specialist who provides very commercial, pragmatic legal advice."

Chambers, 2026
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"Graeme ticks all the boxes and always has what we need."

Chambers, 2026
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"Graeme's level of service, responsiveness and attention to detail is excellent."

Chambers, 2025
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"Graeme is an industry expert and a go-to lawyer."

Chambers, 2026
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"Graeme is very responsive, commercial and easy to interact with."

Chambers, 2025
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"Graeme Clubley has strong expertise in the upstream sector. He is very smart and able to turn work around very quickly."

Chambers, 2025
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"Graeme Clubley is a superb oil and gas lawyer. He goes the extra mile for the client all the time and delivers highly pragmatic advice. Very good at interfacing directly with other parts of the organisation which makes life easy for the in-house legal team."

Legal 500, 2025
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"Graeme is absolutely fantastic. He is always available and pragmatic."

Chambers, 2024
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"He is a rising star."

Chambers, 2024
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"Graeme's support is first-rate. His input is instrumental in successful deal structuring and negotiations."

Chambers, 2024
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"Graeme Clubley has the ability to understand and translate complex legal matters into something clients can quickly understand. He is a no-nonsense, straightforward and trustworthy advisor of choice."

Legal 500, 2023
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"Graeme's advice is always direct, clear and well-considered. He thinks outside the box."

Chambers, 2023
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"Independently rated lawyer."

Acritas Star

Relevant experience

Repsol on the sale of interests in various operated assets including Blane and Enoch to Bridge Petroleum.
Equinor on the $850m acquisition of Suncor Energy UK Limited.
Mitsui on the disposal of its interest in the Alba field to Ithaca.
ConocoPhillips on the $2.6bl disposal of its upstream business to Harbour Energy.
Oil Spill Response on various matters related to its incident response services.
TotalEnergies on its assumption of operatorship of the SEAL pipeline.
BP on various matters, including:
- the acquisition of an interest in the Foinaven field from RockRose
- the acquisition of an interest in the Seagull field from Repsol Sinopec
- the reorganisation of its ETAP asset and the acquisition of various ETAP field/infrastructure interests from Shell, Esso and JX Nippon
- the sale of interests in the Brae, Harding, Maclure and Devenick fields to TAQA for a total consideration of circa $1.2 billion.
North Sea Operational Gas Group (comprising TAQA, CNR, Enquest and Dana Petroleum) in connection with a collaborative project for the purchase and transportation of operations gas to fuel gas deficient platforms in the Northern North Sea. The project won the inaugural Oil and Gas Authority Maximising Economic Recovery Award at the 2015 Oil and Gas UK awards.
Shell as operator of a joint venture of multinational oil companies (Shell, BP, BG, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Petrobras, Total and Statoil) in connection with the Subsea Well Response Project. The project involved the development and procurement of capping and containment equipment to be used to respond to well control incidents worldwide.
18 month secondment to ConocoPhillips legal team.

Education

2001 – Diploma in Legal Practice, Glasgow Graduate School of Law, Strathclyde University, Glasgow
2000 – LLB (Hons), The University of Glasgow, Glasgow

sectors

Energy & Climate Change

Insights

Global Reach

UK Pay Gap Report 2024