› Geoff King
› Graeme Alexander
› Martin King

GEOFF KING (Principal)

BA (NSW) LLB (ANU), Solicitor (NSW), Barrister and Solicitor (Victoria), Barrister and Solicitor (ACT).

Geoff’s career has encompassed administrative, commercial and legal experience commencing in 1968 in the Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra where he worked until 1979.

In 1979 he joined Esso Australia Ltd. as in-house legal counsel at Esso’s administrative headquarters for the Bass Strait Oil and Gas fields in Sale, Victoria. During 5 years in Sale, he gained extensive experience as a contract lawyer in tendering, negotiating and drafting contracts for services and construction required for development of the Bass Strait fields. Part of this work was the tendering and contracting of services for the fabrication and offshore installation of 4 platforms – West Kingfish, Cobia, Fortescue and Flounder – as well as all subsidiary services for those platforms. He was assigned to Esso Exploration, Houston, to develop new worldwide standard Esso contract for offshore drilling rigs.

In 1985 he became Esso’s Upstream Law Co-ordinator at the Sydney Headquarters with overall responsibility for upstream law activities and litigation.

In 1990, he moved to Ampolex Ltd. as General Counsel and Company Secretary. Ampolex was then a listed top 20 Australian company with extensive exploration and development assets in PNG, South America, US, North Africa and Australia.

In 1993, he was appointed as a Director of the Wandoo Alliance, a commercial alliance formed by Ampolex and its major alliance partners to construct, launch and bring to production to 81000 tonne Wandoo concrete platform on the NW Shelf.

In 1996, Geoff commenced work in the International Energy Industry and has worked outside of Australia on energy related projects until forming the legal firm GJ King & Associates in 2007 for the purpose of making his experience and knowledge of the energy industry available to clients operating in the Australian jurisdiction.

Business Involvement

2000 to present – Independent Director, Singapore Petroleum Company Ltd. Member of Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee.

2004 to present – Independent Director, Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia Pty. Ltd.

GRAEME ALEXANDER (Senior Associate)

B.App.Sc (Geol) (CCAE), LLB, Solicitor (NSW), Barrister and Solicitor (PNG)

After graduating in 1971 in Geology, Graeme commenced a 16-year career in the base metal mining and exploration industry in Australia as a Mining and Exploration Geologist.

He graduated 1990 in law and was admitted to practice as a Solicitor in New South Wales in 1991, and became Legal Counsel in the Ampolex Law Department.

During his time with Ampolex, Graeme gained wide legal experience of oil exploration, development and production, working on projects in Australia, Papua New Guinea and North and South America.

After Ampolex was taken over by Mobil in 1995, Graeme remained with Mobil Exploration and Production Australia as its Senior Counsel in Western Australia, working on oil and gas projects on the North West Shelf.

In 1997, he joined Gadens Lawyers in Sydney as a Senior Associate in that firm’s Corporate, Resources and Finance practice. In 1998, he was appointed to the firm’s practice in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as Senior Commercial Partner, specializing in Corporate and Resources Law.

In 2001,Graeme joined InterOil Corporation as General Counsel and Group Company Secretary, working initially on the financing and construction of PNG’s first oil refinery in Port Moresby. He also assisted the company with the development of a petroleum distribution business in PNG, including the acquisition of all of Shell’s and BP’s petroleum distribution assets in PNG.

After leaving InterOil in 2005, Graeme has provided consultant legal services to energy companies in Australia, PNG and New Zealand, including the successful public float of an NZ oil company, L&M Petroleum Limited in 2006, on the ASX and NZX.

He joined G J King & Associates as Senior Associate in July 2008 and re-established a working relationship with Geoff King which began in 1990 in Ampolex.

MARTIN KING (Associate)

Martin graduated from the Australian Defence Force Academy with First Class Honours in Arts.

As an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force Martin’s military career included postings to 75 Squadron in the Northern Territory working with fighter aircraft, Head Quarters Joint Operations Command as an Operations Watch Officer in Sydney and 462 Squadron which specialises in information operations.

During his ten year career, Martin was responsible for technical and specialist briefings to a wide range of audiences from frontline fighter pilots to 3 Star Generals and he was relied upon to provide instant technical, tactical and strategic analysis to a range of commanders to facilitate decision making, and to operational personnel to assist in the successful completion of missions. Martin has significant experience in international liaison and co-ordination. Martin was deployed on exercise and operations in Asia and the world.

His professional experience and the resulting network of contacts enables Martin to provide advice and guidance to Corporations and Government departments in Australia and world wide which are seeking commercial and strategic analysis of national and foreign opportunities.

Corporations seeking to expand internationally or gain greater awareness of their competition can obtain analysis and guidance on:

• international legal structures, obligations and limitations;
• political environments, including generic governmental forecasts and stability indicators and assessments of strategic security;
• the industrial climate, issues, development and constraints;
• commercial competition;
• approaches to government and semi government organisation.

Martin is a firm believer that any set of facts and circumstances can be distilled, interpreted and analysed and communicated, so as to address the concerns of each level of management to facilitate timely and sensitive decision making to advance the best interests of the organisation.

Martin provides specific advice, guidance and leadership on:
• workplace administrative architecture, systems and procedures;
• strategic alignment of a corporation with the objectives of a State or government entity;
• co-ordination of multi-national and multi-dimensional business activities to achieve safe and successful outcomes, on time;
• international expansion based on political and strategic assessments, logistical problem solving and international liaison.