Specialist counsel to the offshore seismic, marine geophysical and upstream oil & gas industries. Based in the United Arab Emirates. Engaged wherever the industry operates.
Start a conversationWe know the upstream industry the way its operators do: as one continuous chain, from the first seismic shot to first oil.
Vermeulens is a boutique legal consultancy built on more than two decades of senior in‑house practice inside the upstream oil & gas and offshore seismic industries. Our founder built and led the legal function of one of the region’s leading independent oilfield services groups for almost eleven years, then served as General Counsel and Company Secretary of an international marine geophysical contractor. We have sat on the client’s side of the table, as lead negotiator opposite BP, ENI, ADNOC, Saudi Aramco and KOC.
We have negotiated the contracts of every phase of the well’s life.
That is not a claim about reading the industry. It is a record of working in it: the day rates and standby regimes, the knock‑for‑knock structures, the tool‑loss and lost‑in‑hole provisions, the data ownership clauses, the acceptance tests. When we negotiate your contract, we have usually administered one like it.
The first legal consultancy in the UAE dedicated to the offshore seismic and marine geophysical industry.
Seismic acquisition is the first link in the upstream contracting chain, and it generates a body of legal work unlike any other: part oilfield services, part marine law, part data and intellectual property. It is a field we know from the inside. Our founder served as General Counsel and Company Secretary of an international marine geophysical contractor operating ocean‑bottom‑node and towed‑streamer acquisition fleets.
Marine seismic acquisition: source and streamer spread with ocean‑bottom nodes, over the imaged subsurface section.
The contracts of the wellsite, drafted by someone who has administered them.
Across the well’s life: drilling and rig contracts; well testing and flowback; wireline, logging and perforation; coiled tubing, stimulation, workover and intervention; early production facilities. Tender support; indemnity and knock‑for‑knock regimes; consequential loss and limitation frameworks.
Turnkey, construction and field‑development agreements, subcontracts and supplier frameworks; fitness‑for‑purpose and specification obligations; variations, delay and completion regimes.
Charter parties, including BIMCO forms, for vessels, rigs and support fleets; offshore support and logistics arrangements aligned with operational realities in the world’s producing basins.
Claims strategy, preparation and negotiation under energy, EPC and commercial contracts; dispute avoidance; support through arbitration and, with licensed advocates, before the courts.
End‑to‑end support across commercial contracts: drafting, review and negotiation with clarity, enforceability and risk discipline at every stage.
Company formation and structuring in the UAE and beyond; mergers, acquisitions and cross‑border transactions; corporate governance, board advisory and company‑secretarial support.
Most energy services companies need the judgment of an experienced General Counsel. Few can justify the overhead of a full legal department. Vermeulens closes that gap.
Our outsourced in‑house counsel service embeds a senior, sector‑specialist lawyer in your business for a defined commitment each week or month, on a fixed retainer. You gain a standing counsel who learns your contracts, your counterparties and your risk appetite, attends your negotiations, and is accountable for outcomes, at a fraction of the cost of a full‑time hire or of international‑firm partner rates.
Every engagement begins with a written engagement letter setting out scope, fees and terms, a conflict check and client due diligence. Matters run on a secure, cloud‑based practice platform with direct partner access throughout. Invoicing is monthly and transparent, in AED or USD, and we do not hold client funds.
Marthinus Vermeulen, Founder and Managing Partner
Marthinus Vermeulen is the Founder and Managing Partner of Vermeulens. Before establishing the practice, he served as General Counsel & Company Secretary at PXGEO, a marine geophysical services company, and spent over a decade at OiLSERV as its General Counsel. His earlier in‑house roles include Region General Counsel for Sub‑Saharan Africa at Weatherford, covering 15 country markets, and Senior Legal Counsel at Huawei South Africa. He began his career as an Attorney at Mills & Groenewald, near Johannesburg, South Africa.
Marthinus has practised law for more than twenty years, seventeen of them in‑house in the upstream oil & gas, offshore seismic and technology industries, and has been based in the UAE since December 2012. He is admitted as an Attorney and as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa and remains in good standing with the Legal Practice Council, South Africa. He holds LLB and LLM degrees from North‑West University and an MBA with an oil & gas focus from Middlesex University, London.
The Legal 500 GC Powerlist, 2019, 2022 and 2023 editions, and GC Powerlist: Teams, 2018. Presidential Award for Best Legal Counsel, Huawei. Jury member, The Oath Middle East Legal Awards, 2019 to 2024. Member, Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN), Middle East Committee, and Association of Corporate Counsel, Middle East Chapter.
He has acted as lead negotiator on major upstream and EPC projects opposite BP, ENI, ADNOC, Saudi Aramco and KOC, established subsidiaries and branches across the Middle East and Africa, and designed and led a group‑wide ethics and compliance programme.
Companies that perform the work of the energy industry, wherever it operates.
Our clients are typically small and mid‑sized companies with major‑company counterparties: businesses negotiating with national and international oil companies whose contracts demand senior legal judgment, but whose scale does not support a full legal department. For international seismic and marine groups, we act as regional counsel where the surveys are actually acquired, complementing parent‑company legal functions in Europe and North America.
From the United Arab Emirates, we act wherever our clients’ operations take them. Our deepest roots are in the Gulf, the wider Middle East and Africa, where our founder has negotiated, incorporated and operated for two decades; our seismic and marine clients take us wherever the fleets work, from the North Sea to the Americas to Asia‑Pacific. Engagements are run in English, with certified legal translation and licensed local counsel engaged where matters require them.
Industry specialists first. We bring years of direct in‑house experience across the oil & gas services, seismic and EPC sectors, and we understand the operational realities behind every contract we negotiate.
Commentary and analysis on legal developments affecting offshore energy, EPC contracting, and corporate practice in the UAE and internationally.
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