Legal Consulting
A&A Consulting Services for Litigation Support, Expert Witness Testimony, Arbitration, and Production Sharing Contract (PSC) & Agreement Review — Oil & Gas and Energy Disputes Worldwide
Assign your company's oil & gas litigation, arbitration, or contract-review challenges to A&A, and let the high-level, seasoned technical experts of the A&A Consulting Team put decades of hands-on industry experience — and testifying-expert credibility — to work for you, around the world.
Energy remains the second-most frequent industry sector in international arbitration — 15% of the 894 new cases the ICC International Court of Arbitration registered in 2025, trailing only construction and engineering — and the ICC's pending caseload closed the year at a record 1,869 cases with an aggregate value of $299 billion. Oil & gas disputes reach A&A's consultants through the same channels those figures represent: Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and joint-operating-agreement interpretation disputes, reserves and valuation disputes, well-control and drilling-incident litigation, and international investor-state arbitration. Whichever forum a dispute reaches — U.S. federal or state court, the ICC, ICSID, the LCIA, or another arbitral institution — the technical questions at its center usually decide the outcome, and that is where A&A's expert-witness and consulting-expert work begins.
Avasthi & Associates, Inc. (A&A) is an independent petroleum engineering and geoscience consulting firm. Dr. Sam Avasthi and Dr. Jay Avasthi both hold doctorate degrees in engineering disciplines directly related to the oil & gas industry, and the other high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team hold advanced or baccalaureate degrees across petroleum engineering, petrophysics, geology, geophysics, reservoir engineering, mining engineering, natural gas engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and other oil & gas-related fields — many are licensed Professional Engineers (PEs) or Professional Geologists (PGs), and all bring years of day-to-day practical industry experience beyond their academic credentials. A&A does not represent either party's business interests in the underlying transaction, does not accept contingency-fee arrangements, and holds no equity or technology stake connected to the matter at issue — A&A's opinions are formed strictly from the technical record and industry-standard practice, which is what a testifying expert's credibility, and a consulting expert's usefulness, depend on.
A&A's expertise in legal and arbitration matters spans litigation support and expert witness testimony, arbitration support, Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and agreement review, and technical investigations. If your company or legal team needs a testifying or consulting expert, a pre-signature PSC or contract review, or an independent technical investigation, please contact us — the high-level, seasoned consultants and subject-matter experts (SMEs) of the A&A Consulting Team, and collaborators, are available to help your company, around the world.
1. Litigation Support and Expert Witness Testimony
• Testifying Expert Services: developing and defending expert opinions and written reports on oil & gas technical matters, and standing for deposition and trial testimony
• Consulting Expert Services: providing confidential technical analysis and case-strategy support to counsel without becoming a testifying, and therefore discoverable, expert
• Technical Exhibit and Demonstrative Development: building the decline-curve, reserves, production, and economic exhibits that make technical testimony understandable to a judge, jury, or arbitration panel
• Rebuttal Analysis: reviewing and rebutting the opposing side's technical expert reports and opinions
2. Arbitration Support
• International and Domestic Arbitration: technical expert and consulting-expert support in arbitration proceedings before the ICC, ICSID, the LCIA, the AAA/ICDR, and other institutions, and in ad hoc arbitrations
• Quantum and Damages Support: technical input to damages and valuation calculations in arbitration disputes involving reserves, production, or project economics
• Expert Determination: serving as a neutral technical expert determining a defined technical question under a contract's expert-determination clause
3. Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and Agreement Review
• Pre-Signature PSC Review: reviewing a Production Sharing Contract before signature — fiscal terms, cost-recovery mechanisms, work commitments, relinquishment schedules, and stabilization clauses — so its technical and commercial terms mean what your company believes them to mean
• Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) and Farmout Agreement Review: reviewing JOAs, farmout agreements, and other oil & gas agreements for technical and operational terms before signature
• Contract Interpretation Support: providing independent technical interpretation of existing PSC, JOA, or other agreement provisions once a dispute has already arisen
4. Technical Investigations
• Incident Investigation: independent technical investigation of drilling, well-control, blowout, or production incidents
• Root-Cause and Liability Analysis: determining the technical root cause of an incident or performance shortfall, and the extent to which it supports or undermines a liability claim
• Regulatory and Compliance Support: technical support for regulatory investigations and enforcement matters
Related A&A Service: A dispute frequently turns on the same reserves, production, or cost estimates A&A reviews for pre-investment technical due diligence — for A&A's independent review and assessment of technical work already performed, please see A&A's Third-Party Review and Assessment Services page.
Related A&A Service: An acquisition or divestiture technical due-diligence finding can become the subject of a post-closing dispute — for A&A's comprehensive, ground-up technical field assessment, please see A&A's Full Field Review (FFR) and Acquisition/Divestiture Technical Due Diligence page.
Related A&A Service: This page is one of four services under A&A's advisory practice — for A&A's full advisory service directory, please see A&A's Advisory Services page.
Software and Technical Tools
The high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team are expert users of the industry-standard software and technical tools used to build defensible, decision-grade technical exhibits for litigation and arbitration, including:
• Decline-Curve and Production Analysis Software: OFM and MOSAIC, for building production-history and forecast exhibits
• Reserves and Economics Modeling: Aries and PHDWin, for reserves, cash-flow, and valuation exhibits
• Reservoir Simulation: Eclipse and CMG, when a dispute's technical questions require simulation-based analysis
• Geomodeling and Mapping: Petrel and Petra, for subsurface exhibits and demonstratives
Deliverables
The high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team deliver decision-grade technical work product for litigation, arbitration, and contract-review matters, including, but not limited to:
• An expert report or rebuttal expert report suitable for deposition and trial
• A confidential technical case-assessment memorandum for counsel
• A PSC, JOA, or other agreement technical review memorandum with recommended changes before signature
• Deposition, trial, and arbitration hearing testimony
• An independent technical incident-investigation report
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a testifying expert and a consulting expert?
A testifying expert forms opinions intended for disclosure to the opposing side and the court or tribunal, and is subject to deposition and cross-examination. A consulting expert provides confidential technical analysis and strategy support to counsel and is generally not discoverable by the opposing side. A&A's consultants serve in both roles, and counsel typically determines which role best fits a given matter.
Does A&A review contracts before they are signed, or only after a dispute has already arisen?
Both. A&A's pre-signature PSC, JOA, and agreement review is intended to catch technical and commercial issues before they become disputes; A&A's contract interpretation and litigation support address matters where a dispute has already arisen over an existing agreement.
Does A&A represent operators, investors, or government agencies in disputes?
A&A's consultants have provided technical expert and consulting-expert services to a broad range of parties in the oil & gas industry, including operators, investors, and government and regulatory agencies. A&A screens every engagement for conflicts before accepting it.
What types of oil & gas disputes does A&A support?
PSC, JOA, and farmout agreement disputes; reserves, valuation, and royalty disputes; well-control and drilling-incident litigation; reservoir and production-performance disputes; and international investor-state and commercial arbitration, among others.
Does serving as an expert on one matter compromise A&A's independence on other engagements?
No. A&A screens every legal and arbitration engagement for conflicts of interest with its other consulting work, and does not accept contingency-fee arrangements or any stake in a matter's outcome — the same independence that underlies all of A&A's consulting services.
Before signing a Production Sharing Contract or any other major oil & gas agreement, or once a technical dispute has already arisen, let the A&A Consulting Team's high-level, seasoned consultants review the technical and commercial terms, or build the technical case, on your side. Please contact us — the stakes in a single misread PSC clause, or a single unexamined technical record, are often measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and getting the technical analysis right, the first time, is A&A's business.
