At Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, our roots run deep in the energy industry. Since our founding in Texas more than a half-century ago, energy has been a vital part of our practice—and we have played an important role in hundreds of deals, financings and global development projects to address the world’s energy needs.

Today, Akin Gump is known at home and abroad for our sophisticated, diverse and full-service energy law practice, encompassing both transactional and regulatory matters. Our lawyers have represented virtually every major segment of the energy industry on issues ranging from energy policy to tax questions to environmental and land use challenges.

Our strength lies in our knowledge of global and domestic energy markets, our broad and deep transactional experience, our commitment to efficient teamwork with our clients and our attention to their strategic considerations. Our clients include companies, institutions and sovereign states working across the energy value chain from independent exploration and production companies to renewable energy investment funds.

For many of our largest energy clients, we have been at the forefront of every important corporate event and have helped these companies manage growth and change. The firm’s work includes acquisitions and dispositions of assets, as well as the structuring of offshore holding companies, joint ventures and privatizations.

International Energy Experience

A close look at our experience demonstrates that we are also at the forefront of global investment trends, including China’s outbound investment interests, the resurgence of interest in Latin American assets, robust investment activity by national oil companies and entities fueled by their growth, the coming of age of the Canadian oil sands business and the incredible growth of Russia’s oil and gas economy. Some of our international energy representations include—

• Representing a major Chinese company in connection with the acquisition of an option on 26 nickel licenses located in Tanzania. Our responsibilities include undertaking extensive diligence on the legal aspects of the licenses and drafting and negotiating the option agreement and the royalty agreement with the current license holders.
• Representing an international mineral resource and manufacturing company in the financing and development of a copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our work on the project has included negotiating the mining convention granting our client its mineral rights, the shareholder agreement with the state owned mining company of the DRC as well as the preparation of all financing and project documents. Total capital costs for the project are currently estimated at approximately $1.6 billion. This project will be the largest copper and cobalt mining operation in the world.
• Advising a UK hedge fund in its $255 million sale of controlling interests in three hydrocarbon concessions and related operations in Colombia.
• Advising a Houston-based integrated oil company in its 35 percent working interest in natural gas property in the Espirito Santo basin offshore Brazil.
• Assisting a Cayman Island public company listed on the American Stock Exchange, with $225 million of project financing to conclude the financing plan for the San Cristobal project, a $700 million silver, zinc and lead mining and concentrate plan being developed in south western Bolivia. When completed, this mine is expected to be one of the largest and lowest cost producers of silver and zinc in the world.
• Advising one of the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the $350 million divestiture of its Qatar operations.
• Advising an entity wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi in connection with its investment in a global private equity firm, a major real estate development company, a technology company and a strategic alliance with a leading entertainment company.
• Advising one of Canada's largest energy and energy-related companies in its agreement with one of the world’s largest energy companies to create an integrated, North American oil sands business consisting of upstream and downstream assets. We also represented the company in its successful bid to purchase a Lima, Ohio refinery for $1.9 billion.
• Advising a leading North American natural gas producer as U.S. counsel in the transfer, valued in the aggregate at $15 billion, of two oil sand fields to a Canadian partnership and two refineries to a U.S. limited liability company.
• Advising one of the world’s leading vertically integrated oil & gas companies in its historic and comprehensive joint venture with one of the largest integrated energy companies in the United States, including significant oil terminal and related downstream matters related to finance, construction and operating agreements. We also advised this company in the issuance of more than $900 million of convertible bonds and guaranteed notes, as well as in connection with its joint venture’s $4.5 billion multi-project credit facility.

Domestic Energy Experience

Upstream. Sustained high oil and natural gas prices have led to robust investment in the exploration and production sector of the energy industry in recent years, including significant merger and acquisition activity. We have been at the forefront of these developments as a transaction advisor to integrated and independent exploration and production companies, as well as to investment funds and venture capitalists. In addition, the oil and gas field service and supply industry clients, which include contract drillers, engineers and equipment manufacturers, have used this profitable period to access the capital markets with our assistance. Some of our domestic upstream energy representations include—

• Advising one of the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the $23 billion acquisition of an oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) company and of a natural gas E&P company, as well as in a $5.5 billion senior notes offering and a $500 million senior notes offering.
• Advising a global oilfield service company with operations in over 90 countries in the $2.4 billion sale of a minority interest in the world’s largest geophysical services company.
• Advising a leading Rocky Mountain E&P company in a $172 million senior notes offering
• Advising an independent oil and gas producer in the $946 million acquisition of oil and gas assets
  in Colorado, as well as in a $300 million senior notes offering and a $500 million senior notes offering
• Advising a global leader in the production of stainless steel tubes in the $800 million acquisition of businesses
• Advising an independent E&P company in its $400 million sale.

Midstream. Akin Gump has been project counsel to many of the world’s largest pipeline projects, including the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, the largest privately financed pipeline project in U.S. history. We are project counsel for the Joint North Slope Producers on the North Slope Natural Gas Pipeline, a pipeline to transport natural gas from Alaska through Canada to markets in the lower forty-eight states. We have provided advice to cogeneration developers, end-users, intrastate pipelines and marketers regarding the structure and implementation of sales, transportation and marketing transactions and the construction and operation of new natural gas transmission facilities. Some of our midstream energy representations include—

• Advising a publicly traded energy partnership in the formation of a $1.5 billion joint venture
• Advising a limited partnership focused on the midstream segment of the oil and gas industry in the Gulf Coast region in the acquisition of business assets valued at approximately $560 million and a $500 million credit facility.

Downstream. After years of thin margins, refiners and marketers are enjoying the opportunity to upgrade facilities, expand into new markets and adjust their asset portfolios. Our lawyers have been heavily involved in this downstream activity as transaction advisors and as environmental and land use consultants. Activity in the Gulf Coast region of the country has been particularly brisk, and Akin Gump has been a leader in domestic and cross-border corporate and securities matters. Some of our downstream energy representations include—

• Assisting a petrochemicals company in a $150 million senior secured notes offering
• Assisting a major oil multinational in the $1.4 billion sale of a petroleum refinery.

Power. We represent clients in all aspects of the development and financing of cogeneration, independent and public power projects, including partnership and joint venture agreements, and sophisticated tax allocation and ownership arrangements to maximize regulatory considerations. Corporate clients and governments have engaged Akin Gump repeatedly in connection with the privatization of electric generating, distribution and transmission companies in the emerging markets.

In North America, many utility executives face difficult times as large capital commitments in generation and transmission assets will be required to ensure reliability of power supply, as well as to meet potential carbon emission mandates. Investor-owned utility holding companies, state and municipal power entities and merchant energy companies will all be impacted and observers expect considerable industry consolidation as power companies strive for size to meet capital requirements. Some of our representations include—

• Assisting a leading U.S. power generation company in the $2.4 billion purchase of a generation portfolio, as well as in a $1.5 billion senior notes offering, a $900 million offering of its stock, a $2 billion credit facility and an $850 million term loan facility
• Advising a leading energy sector contractor in a $1.26 billion merger.

Renewable Energy. Akin Gump is a world leader in the development and financing of energy projects. As energy markets rapidly move to embrace scalable renewable energy projects, our renewable energy practice combines legal skills developed across a broad array of traditional energy expertise and combines such skills to provide renewable energy clients with a seamless experience.

Our renewable energy practice is headquartered in Los Angeles, and most of our practitioners are located in California, Texas, New York and Washington, D.C. Our lawyers regularly work in large teams with colleagues from many disciplines to bring the most comprehensive solutions to our renewable energy clients. Some of our representations include—

• Representing the initial purchaser in the placement of common stock of a leading producer and marketer of ethanol and related by-products, and the underwriters in the initial public offering of common stock of that same company
• Representing one of the world's largest private equity firms in the structuring, formation and negotiation of a series of investment fund vehicles related to a $685 million renewable energy infrastructure fund and other strategic alternatives.
• Engaging in review, revisions and advise regarding the site leases, EPC contracts, turbine manufacturer’s and developer’s warranty agreements, O & M agreements, power purchase agreements, wind data software licensing agreement, balance of plant performance testing documents, bridge financing and security agreements, and permanent financing documents for various wind power plants in Texas
• Providing counsel to a company developing an integrated solar roofing system suitable for new home construction in intellectual property matters.
• Assisting in the acquisition of a 45 million gallon biodiesel facility in Illinois to produce ethanol using soybeans as feedstock.