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    Energy & Natural Resources

    The energy and natural resources industry is ever-changing and shifts in any segment of the industry or in any geographic market send ripples throughout other segments, markets and industries. This pivotal, dynamic and complicated industry is often seen as the primary influence on world markets and global economic growth.

    We have more than 150 lawyers dedicated to providing the top level of legal expertise, based on decades of our experience, to our clients who explore, develop, produce, market, transport and process energy and natural resources.

    Why Choose Us

    Industry Experience

    Our Energy & Natural Resources Practice has long been recognized for our comprehensive and innovative approach to the energy industry. We build our legal teams on a multi-disciplinary basis to cover all the areas required to provide comprehensive and in-depth service to our energy and natural resource clients and their projects. We have provided counsel on many large scale energy initiatives over the last several decades, including the development of intercontinental pipelines, ground-breaking LNG facilities and state of the art renewable energy projects throughout the world. Our in-depth experience allows us to understand our clients’ challenges and to help them respond quickly, effectively and to keep the project on track.

    Global Footprint

    We are located where our clients are doing business. Our lawyers practice in the major energy and natural resource markets in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. We provide our clients with legal and policy counsel regarding the local laws and regulations, as well as, offering a global perspective on the issues relevant to their particular geographic market and industry segment.

    Explore

    Project Development and Construction

    We have the global resources, expertise and know-how to help clients address all of their construction, engineering, equipment procurement and project needs. We represent clients at every phase of a construction project. We advise owners, developers, operators, contractors and subcontractors, governments, venture capitalists, management consultants and architects – from initial contract negotiation to final details to post project disputes and tax matters. Our experience includes the development of greenfield projects from the concept or bidding stage; analyzing tender documents and assisting in the preparation of bids; negotiating consortium, teaming and joint development agreements; preparing detailed legal risk analyses for developers; and negotiating and preparing the full range of project documentation, including project engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts, capacity and services agreements, power purchase agreements transportation service agreements (TSAs) supply and offtake agreements.

    Regulatory

    We have extensive experience with planning, project siting, permitting, federal land use approvals, licensing, competition, antitrust and trade-related issues relating to energy projects. We are recognized leaders in precedent-setting cases before regulatory commissions involving oil pipeline rates, government enforcement agencies, and open access and bypass issues. We have experience in counseling on the establishment of electric and gas transmission rates, obtaining market-based rate authority, and reporting requirements and other administrative matters.

    Public Policy

    Our lawyers and public policy professionals have maintained a reputation for cutting-edge advocacy in the energy and environmental sectors by working closely with Congress and regulatory agencies in Washington DC, in state capitals and with governments around the globe. The firm maintains extensive and long-standing bipartisan relationships with numerous members of Congress, the leadership of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as with the Executive Branch. Our Public Policy Practice provides strategic advice to clients regarding a broad range of energy and environmental policy matters and is intimately familiar with US landmark energy and environmental laws.

    Environmental and Planning

    Our Environmental, Safety & Health practice is one of the largest and best-regarded practices in the world. The practice excels in complex litigation, including defense of government and citizen suit enforcement actions, advancement and defense of cost recovery actions and defense of multi-party and toxic tort defense. The practice also has significant experience with rulemaking and policy development, including rule challenges, particularly with respect to air quality and climate change, and has helped to shape some of the issues of greatest significance to the energy industry. Our practice includes a robust compliance counseling component, which includes complex project siting, permitting and infrastructure development. The transactional component of our practice includes property acquisition, federal land leasing and land use approvals, site remediation, brownfields redevelopment, water rights and water resource management.

    Financing

    Our lawyers have extensive experience in the area of energy and resources project finance and frequently work with major project sponsors, financial advisers, investment banks, commercial banks, export credit agencies and multilateral financial institutions. Many of our lawyers have also been internationally recognized for their expertise in this area, including attribution in Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers. Our work in energy project finance covers both equity and debt structures, as well as other sophisticated finance structures, such as leveraged leasing, tax effective and public finance.

    M&A

    Our corporate lawyers advise on energy-related acquisitions, divestitures, fund raisings, initial public offerings and restructuring transactions, as well as takeovers, joint ventures, shareholders agreements and other consortia and change-of-control activities. Our experience covers cross-border deals, and we work closely with our tax lawyers to ensure our clients negotiate and close the best deal.

    Disputes

    We have experience in litigation and arbitration relating to energy matters in courts in numerous countries and under a variety of international arbitration regimes. We have significant experience in disputes relating to leases and concessions, joint operating agreements, energy facility construction contracts, long-term oil, gas and refined product supply agreements, LNG price review arbitrations and treaty arbitrations relating to energy projects.

    Insolvency

    We have represented a number of energy and natural resource companies as creditors and debtors in recent reorganization and restructuring proceedings, most notably serving as co-counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Enron bankruptcy case, providing restructuring-related advice, structured finance and litigation support on more than 25 energy related M&A transactions. We have also served as bank and trustee counsel to numerous oil and gas producers and fuel refineries, and also served as Chapter 11 restructuring counsel to TECO-Panda, the owner of the two largest combined cycle natural gas power plants in the world. We are currently involved in the chapter 15 Veris Gold Corp. case.

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    • Recognized as one of the top 50 international law firms in Latin America by Latinvex 2015, a leading Latin America business publication
    • Ranked among the top 10 law firms (#7) in Latin America for Energy by Latinvex 2015
    • Ranked as a recommended firm in the area of infrastructure in Asia Pacific, IFLR1000 Energy & Infrastructure (2015)
    • Recommended International Firm for Project Finance in Latin America, by Energy and Infrastructure: Latin America 2013 – A Guide to the Industry’s Leading Law Firms and Lawyers

    • Developer – Advising on two 120 MW wind projects in Kansas.
    • Major US energy company – Representing on the licensing of and patent applications for intellectual property rights for a regasification system to be installed onboard LNG tankers and discharged through an offshore buoy system.
    • FPL Energy (now NextEra Energy Resources, LLC) – Representing in a US$206 million project financing for two wind facilities aggregating 196.5 MW of capacity.
    • Natural gas marketing company – Representing in connection with its performance under a natural gas pooling agreement to supply fuel to 11 power generation facilities located in California, including advising the company on its long- and short-term supply arrangements and in the negotiation of its marketing arrangements.
    • Major power company – Representing in the development of landfill gas combustion projects in Latin America to generate greenhouse gas credits and electricity.
    • Developers – Advising the developers of a 50 MW portfolio of wind projects in Germany and France on its sale to an international investor.
    • Integrated energy company based in Italy – Assisting in negotiating with the LNG division of a US-based energy company to become the anchor user of its proposed LNG terminal to be located on the Louisiana coast. On behalf of our client we negotiated a contract for approximately 40% of the terminal's capacity over a 20-year period, as well as a long-term contract for transportation on the interstate pipeline to be built by the LNG's company's affiliate. The terminal will be the first new LNG facility to be built in the US in more than 20 years; its projected capital cost is US$500 million.
    • Global energy company – Representing in connection with the development of an LNG facility in Altamira, Mexico. Our work on this project included the preparation and negotiation of permit applications for the construction and operation of the terminal including the general terms of service and rate methodology; the preparation of various requests for engineering, procurement and construction contracts relating to the terminal; the preparation and negotiation of various land purchase, land assignment and right of way agreements relating to the terminal; and analysis and revision of tender documents and draft contracts issued by the Mexican Federal Electric Commission for the purchase and sale of natural gas stored and regasified in the terminal as well as negotiation of back-up gas arrangements.
    • International consortium of energy companies – Serving as project counsel to in all aspects of the development, permitting, construction, operation and maintenance of a 1 billion cu. ft. LNG receiving and regasification terminal under development in Sonora, Mexico, including infrastructure connecting an LNG regasification terminal in Sonora with distribution points in Mexico and the US.
    • Major solar photovoltaic manufacturer – Representing in all aspects of international supply procurement.

    Case Studies

    Emulsion Fuels

    The three major producers of emulsion fuels, diesel fuel with high water content, encountered significant difficulties in marketing their product within the EU. The problem stemmed from the fact that (1) there was no technical standard for such fuels, with the result that the market demand was being tainted by inferior product, and (2) the individual producers efforts to obtain favorable tax treatment (there are significant environmental benefits to using such fuels as opposed to regular diesel) were hampered by the absence of a common definition. We organized a trade association, European Emulsion Fuels Association (EEMFA), and lobbied the EC. By relying upon an underutilized procedure, the parties sponsored, under the auspices of the EC, a voluntary standard that has since been accepted by the industry. Since the adoption of the standard there has been a significant expansion of the emulsion fuel market.

    Electric Generation, Transmission and Distribution

    Our Energy & Natural Resources team advises clients on the siting, construction contracting and financing of electricity generation and transmission facilities, as well as in utility rate and certificate regulation and restructuring. We also counsel on transmission access, integration, and cost and revenue sharing.

    LNG

    We have extensive experience with the development of LNG facilities all over the world, as well as in relation to the import and export of LNG, short- and long-term LNG sales contracts, terminal use agreements, ship charters, and regulatory approvals. 

    Mining

    We have been advising clients in every aspect of the global mining and metals sector for more than 100 years. We have advised on significant transactions across a number of commodities including iron ore, gold, coal, graphite, precious and semi-precious metals, well as counselled in relation to complex environmental, tax, and regulatory issues.

    Nuclear

    We advise clients on the development, financing, siting and construction of nuclear power projects. We have handled matters relating to cleanup issues, consortia formation and bidding for government-led nuclear decommissioning procurement programs. We are one of the few firms with expertise in incident response and crisis management in the nuclear sector.

    Oil and Gas

    In the oil and gas industry, we assist landowners, working interest parties and parties under concessions and production sharing agreements with issues such as development and marketing plans, royalties, farmouts and assignments, long-term sales and supply agreements and shipping. We are experienced in negotiating and drafting joint operating agreements, AMI agreements, leases, concessions and production sharing agreements and long-term supply and transportation agreements. We are also experienced in handling major pipeline rate filings, applications for certificates to construct and operate facilities, and industry-wide rulemaking proceedings.

    Renewables

    We have one of the leading practices in the US and Latin America in the development and financing of large scale solar power generation facilities. We also have an outstanding track record of advising on all aspects of onshore and offshore wind farm projects power generation facilities fueled by other renewable resources such as geothermal energy, landfill gas, wood-waste, agricultural waste, waste oil and peat-fueled facilities, as well as non-power generation renewable facilities, such as biofuels plants. Our experience includes preparing and negotiating engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, operations and maintenance (O&M) agreements, power purchase agreements (PPAs) and other offtake agreements, feedstock supply contracts, joint venture agreements, mergers and acquisitions, and financing.

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