February 14, 2008 – LAWFUEL – Law Firm Newswire – Chadbourne & Parke represented The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, as Sole Lead Arranger and Sole Bookrunner, and the lenders in connection with the $870 million financing of Gulf LNG Energy’s proposed liquefied natural gas receiving terminal to be located in Pascagoula, Miss.
The deal closed on February 7.
Working for Chadbourne on the deal was Houston office Managing Partner David Schumacher and associates Jocelyn Leary in New York and Drew Prisner in Houston. Also assisting on the transaction were Tom Charbonneau, Marjorie Glover, Ted Zink, and Stephanie Chaice in New York and Noam Ayali and Andy Giaccia in Washington.
The financing backs construction of a proposed $1.1 billion LNG receiving terminal. It will have a base send-out capacity of 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, and 6.6 billion cubic feet in storage capacity. The sponsors of the project are the Crest Group, the initial developer, with a 30% stake, Angola’s national oil company, Sonangol, with a 20% stake, and El Paso Corporation, whose acquisition of a 50% stake also closed on February 7.
The principal construction contractor is a joint venture involving Aker Kvaerner and IHI Corporation. The project benefits from two terminal use agreements with 20-year terms. The first terminal use agreement is with Angola LNG Supply Services, whose members are subsidiaries of Sonangol, Chevron, Total ,BP, and Eni. The second terminal use agreement is with Eni USA Gas Marketing, a subsidiary of Eni S.p.A.
