All the best? Drafting and interpreting endeavours clauses in contracts

Key Points:
Although there's no substantive difference between "best endeavours" and "reasonable endeavours", you should still be careful when drafting and interpreting agreements.

Requirements for a party to use its "best" or "reasonable" endeavours are regularly seen in a broad range of energy and resources contracts. These provisions exist because there is doubt over:

• what the ultimate contractual objective is. For example, endeavours clauses are found in sales agreements where there is no particular sales target; and/or
• whether the contractual objective itself can be achieved. In this respect, endeavours obligations are regularly imposed in relation to, for example, registrations of plans and permits or approvals of transactions.