Making Effective Master Service Agreements
April 30, 2011
By: Brit T. Brown
Natural Gas & Electricity
The master service agreement (MSA) is a useful tool for parties who regularly conduct business together in situations allowing little advance time to negotiate the terms of a new agreement.
MSAs allow parties to quickly execute simple work orders incorporating, by reference, more extensive provisions contained within previously negotiated and executed agreements. Thereby, MSAs facilitate ease and speed of contracting while ensuring control by a carefully designed contractual scheme. In situations involving a unique service, or even a relatively routine service with unique characteristics (e.g., some drilling contracts, casing programs, directional services, and other arrangements), it might not be prudent to rely heavily on an MSA, though the parties might still use an existing contractual template and agree to project specific terms and conditions to supplement the basic template.
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