ADNOC has launched a program standardizing procurement terms and conditions across its value chain. PHOTO SOURCE: ADNOC
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) reported Tuesday that it has implemented an initiative standardizing procurement terms and conditions across its value chain.
The new oilfield procurement process subjects all bidders to the same terms and conditions in competitive tendering and shrinks the timeline for legal negotiations from months to weeks, ADNOC pointed out in a written statement emailed to Rigzone. The firm added that more than 1,100 local and international principal companies – including oilfield service providers Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Baker Hughes (NYSE: BKR), and Weatherford (OTCMKTS: WFTLF) – have signed up for the program.
Legal departments cut outside spending, focus on managers and specialists, study shows
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The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more legal departments to cut spending on outside counsel, according to a new report from global research and advisory firm Gartner Inc.
For its 2021 State of the Legal Function report, Gartner surveyed 126 leaders of global legal departments this summer and found that 57% of their spending was staying in-house in 2020, compared to the 50.2% shown in its 2018 report. When these leaders needed to hire outside counsel, litigation comprised about 39% of their external spending.
“We’ve been seeing legal departments slowly bringing more work in-house in an attempt to reduce the biggest driver of their legal spend,” Gartner senior research specialist Caroline Van Allen told Law.com for its coverage of the study. “But I think this is a bigger jump than what we’ve seen in past surveys. I would attribute that to the reduced resourc