International law firm Clifford Chance advised Royal Dutch Shell plc on its acquisition of part of Repsol S.A.´s LNG portfolio outside of North America for a cash consideration of US$4.4 billion. The transaction includes plant capacity and supply positions in Peru and Trinidad and Tobago, a 25 per cent stake in a power plant in Spain and a material LNG marketing and trading operation. Shell will also assume and consolidate balance sheet liabilities predominantly reflecting leases for LNG ship charters of currently US$1.8 billion.

Advising CEC and West Power & Gas

London: International legal practice Norton Rose has advised on the acquisitions of two state owned power companies from the Bureau of Public Enterprise and the Nigerian Ministry of Finance worth US$300 million, as part of the Nigeria power sector privatisation process.

Ashurst has advised Concord Energy Pte Ltd and its affiliates on the sale of a 50% interest in Fujairah Oil Terminal FZC ("FOT") to Sinomart KTS Development Limited, which completed on 3 January 2013 and FOT on the USD 251,860,000 limited recourse financing of the project, provided by a syndicate of six international banks. The financing closed on 13 February 2013.

Paris: The Paris office of international legal practice Norton Rose has advised Polesine S.A., a subsidiary of Akuo Energy S.A.S., on the USD 88.5m financing granted by development finance institution Proparco (also acting as arranger), Dutch development bank FMO and German development finance bank DEG for the construction and operation of a wind farm located in San Gabriel (Florida), Uruguay.

South Africa’s Investec Bank and private investment company Low Carbon have partnered to fund four solar PV plants in the UK.

Low Carbon has funded development by Inazin Power and is providing construction equity with Investec supplying debt for the projects.

The facilities are located in the South and South West of England and will have a combined capacity of 23MW.  They are set to enter commercial operation in February and March this year, serving more than 7,200 households.

Herbert Smith Freehills advised PetroChina on its acquisition of an interest in two Western Australian exploration assets from ConocoPhillips.

Under the transaction agreements, which still require government and partner approvals, PetroChina will acquire a working interest in the Poseidon offshore discovery in the Browse Basin, and in the Goldwyer Shale area in the onshore Canning Basin.

The companies have also entered into a Joint Study Agreement to identify unconventional resource reserves in the Neijiang-Dazu Block in China’s Sichuan Basin.

Herbert Smith Freehills has acted as international and US counsel to NTPC Limited ("NTPC"), one of India's largest state-owned power generation companies, in connection with an offer for sale ("OFS") by the Government of India of a US$2.14 billion stake in NTPC. 

The Singapore office of international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Seadrill Limited (“Seadrill”), a leading offshore deepwater drilling company, on the integration of its tender rig division into SapuraKencana Petroleum Berhad (“SapuraKencana”), one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas services and solutions providers, for an agreed acquisition price of US$2.9 billion.

Bangkok: Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised B. Grimm BIP Power Limited and Bangkadi Clean Energy Limited on a total financing of THB9.75 billion (approximately US$ 325 million) for two gas-fired power projects located in Bangkadi Industrial Park, Pathumthani Province in Thailand.

The two projects will have an installed generating capacity of 114MW each and will be developed by B. Grimm Power Limited.

Watson, Farley & Williams (WFW), a leading international law firm, has advised Madagascar Oil Limited (the Company) on a fully subscribed placing and open offer to existing shareholders raising £49.5 million (approximately US$78.4 million). The placing, in respect of which the Company received irrevocable commitments from existing shareholders for US$76 million, was subject to clawback to satisfy valid applications from existing shareholders under the open offer.