Jack Arrives in Abu Dhabi

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When you work for one of the majors, you go where you are posted, whether you like it or not.

Jack, an experienced American lawyer who had worked only in the Mid-West, was posted to Abu-Dhabi. We took him down to introduce him to the country manager. He was extremely nervous. We tried to persuade him to try an Arabic coffee, but he declined and clung grimly to his American instant.

An amplified wailing sound came from a nearby minaret. It is the call to prayer, which any visitor to the world of Islam will hear five times a day. The sound alarmed Jack. He lurched to his feet: “Jesus Christ, what the hell is that goddamned racket?”

Jack never really did settle in the UAE.

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Chris Thorpe

Chris Thorpe is a respected independent lawyer in the upstream oil and gas industry, and an established lecturer and author. Chris has a LLB in law from Magdalene College, Cambridge and trained as a barrister in London. He worked for eight years' as an in-house lawyer for BP and Marathon. Since 1991, Chris has run his own upstream legal practice, CPTL, which has acted for many upstream clients. He has extensive experience of international upstream transactions, principally in the North Sea, the FSU, Africa and the Middle East. Chris has spoken at many UK and International Conferences and Seminars, both public and in-house. His most popular current lecture is Fundamental of Upstream Petroleum Agreements, a two-day course with accompanying book.