Herbert Smith is advising alongside a raft of US and Canadian law firms on the $15.1bn (£9.7bn) acquisition of Canadian oil and gas company Nexen by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), reports The Am Law Daily.

Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising state-owned energy giant CNOOC, with a corporate team including New York partners George Bason and Leonard Kreynin, as well as Beijing partner Howard Zhang and Hong Kong partner Kirtee Kapoor.