The oil and gas industry is one of the largest and most important industries in the world and the City of Aberdeen is the European capital of that industry. A key element in any successful oil and gas development is the appropriate legal environment, both regulatory and contractual. The Aberdeen Masters in Oil and Gas Law aims to provide its graduates with the skills and knowledge necessary to work in and on the legal aspects of this vital and exciting global industry. The oil and gas sector is a thriving, exciting and well remunerated area for a lawyer to practice in. The programme covers both private law aspects of the sector, such as joint ventures and contractual arrangements, and also public law and regulatory aspects, such as environmental protection, health and safety regulation and taxation. The focus is upon setting practical and real problems in a wider conceptual context with the aim that graduates should not just know but understand the relevant areas of oil and gas law. Although there is an emphasis on UK Oil and Gas law this is very much set in the context of the global legal regime for oil and gas. The University of Aberdeen Law School is fortunate in having one of the largest and most able teams of oil and gas faculty in any European law school. This enables the Law School to provide both strength and depth to the courses provided. In contrast to the LLM Oil & Gas Law with Dissertation, the LLM Oil & Gas Law with Professional Skills offers students the opportunity to develop key practical skills required for the legal management of Oil & Gas exploration and production activity, instead of further developing research, analytical and argument construction skills through the preparation of an extended (10,000-word) essay. Students on this programme will undertake additional classes based on simulated practical exercises and submit a portfolio of works (eg. briefing notes, reports etc).

Graduates of the LLM Oil & Gas Law have gone on to wide variety of careers in industry, in international law firms and in Government Ministries.