Energy - Finance

Overview

Attorneys in our Energy Finance team blend a multidisciplinary background with decades of experience serving clients in both the energy and financial markets. Blank Rome supports its clients for all of their financing needs; from simple loan transactions to highly complex project financings, our team is here to assist you with crafting the financial solutions you need to be successful in a challenging and evolving market, and we are always focused on cost-effectiveness and efficiency.

As financial transactions in all industries become more complex, the lawyers who handle those deals need to be increasingly sophisticated and business minded. They need to master not only the evolving world of finance but also the changing environment of the industries in which the transactions occur. Blank Rome has significant depth of talent in financial services legal matters and extensive experience in representing senior and subordinate lenders, including mezzanine and second lien lenders. Our commercial lending attorneys have extensive experience in structuring, negotiating, and documenting all types of complex financing transactions. Our team combines sophisticated commercial finance and lending experience with a strong familiarity with energy, derivatives, contract, tax, real estate, and securities law.

Blank Rome energy finance attorneys advise a full spectrum of energy-related clients, including:

Financial institutions, hedge funds, direct lenders, private credit institutions, investors, borrowers, major private equity funds and infrastructure funds
Commodity hedge providers and other swap dealers/participants
Governments and national energy companies
Electric, gas, and water independents and public utilities
Oil, gas, petroleum liquids, and mineral producers
Midstream operators
Liquid natural gas (“LNG”) importers, exporters, and storage operators
Pipeline, processing, and distribution companies
Electric transmission companies
Developers and owners of solar, wind, and hydro power facilities
Service providers including engineering, procurement, and construction and environmental firms
Renewable energy companies, including offshore wind developers

We regularly advise and support clients across a broad range of transactional or regulatory projects, including:

Financing and, if necessary, debt restructuring of energy businesses and related facilities, including revolving and term loan facilities, reserve-based financings, bridge loans, and project finance
Advising on various transactional security aspects of trade finance matters
Alternative energy capital solutions, such as call financing facilities, production payments, drillcos, and prepaid swap agreements.
The negotiation and drafting of physical and financial energy commodities transactions using ISDA, NAESB, and EEI documentation.
The purchase or sale of upstream, midstream or downstream assets or companies, and related financing and security arrangements.
Secured and unsecured commercial finance transactions, such as syndicated financings, asset-based financings, bilateral loans, and loan workout and restructuring transactions, including debtor-in-possession and exit credit facilities.
Lien-based hedging transactions and structured commodity transactions involving oil and gas, natural gas liquids, power, emissions instruments, metals and other commodities.
Transactions involving swap intercreditor agreements and similar multi-creditor arrangements.
Financing transactions, including volumetric (or dollar-denominated) production payments, net profits interests, and mineral royalty fund.
Carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (“CCUS”) industry, CCUS project development, production prepayment facilities and other structured finance, oil and gas and pore space leasing, corporate governance, project development, coordination of estate matters, distressed asset sales, commercial agreements, and other documents associated with natural gas operations, CCUS, waste-to-energy projects, and other energy development.
Representing creditors, lenders and debtors-in-possession in energy transactional and corporate matters in U.S. bankruptcy proceedings.
Raising and investing capital and forming alternative asset structures such as special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”).

How We Can Help

Our team regularly represents many of the nation’s leading players in lending, leasing, and specialty finance in a broad range of services, including:

Business finance
- Asset-based finance
- Equipment leasing
- General commercial/corporate finance
Factoring
Real estate lending
Project finance
Structured finance
Prepaid forward contracts
Receivables financing
Loan sales and trading
Loan workouts and restructurings
Lender liability litigation, prevention, and defense
Securitizations including CLOs and CDOs
Healthcare and sponsor finance
Fund formation, management, and operation

What Sets Us Apart

Chambers USA 2023 ranked our firm Band 1 for Banking & Finance in Philadelphia (PA) and Surrounds.
Our practice group members frequently lecture to numerous organizations, such as the Mortgage Bankers Association, Certified Financial Association, and Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys, on legal issues affecting the financial services industry.
Our attorneys frequently write for well-respected journals such as the ABF Journal and Financial Fraud Law Report as well as author thought leadership such as The CLO Manager’s Handbook.
Ranked Tier 1 in U.S. News & World Report–Best Lawyers® 2023 “Best Law Firms” for Energy Law in Washington, D.C., and highly ranked nationally.
Chambers USA 2019–2023 ranked Blank Rome for Energy: Oil & Gas (Regulatory and Litigation) – Nationwide.
The Legal 500 United States 2023 listed Blank Rome as a Recommended Firm for Energy Regulation: Oil and Gas.

Key Contacts

Related Services

Related Industries

Experience

Representation of various hedge providers in lien-based financial commodity derivatives transactions with a notional value exceeding several billion dollars in the aggregate.
Representation of agent banks and upstream and midstream portfolio companies of private equity sponsors, on numerous senior secured credit facilities with aggregate lending commitments ranging from $10 million to $500 million.
Representation of Russian oil company in a $1.5 billion long-term, export-backed financing by a consortium of five western money-center banks.
Represented Tallgrass MLP Operations, LLC in its acquisition of Ruby Pipeline, LLC through a competitive auction process supervised by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court that involved cash consideration of approximately $290 million.
Representation of a publicly traded (NYSE) multinational drilling company as the borrower in senior secured credit facilities and related amendments and as issuer in multiple domestic and Canadian high-yield debt offerings.
Advised on a $500 million senior secured credit facility for a public oil and gas minerals company in connection with an initial public offering.
Represented one of the largest U.S. privately-held commodities trading companies in a structured $120,000,000 call financing facility secured by oil and gas assets located in Pennsylvania.
Represented private equity-backed midstream company in a $135,000,000 syndicated senior first lien secured revolving credit facility, with a $50,000,000 accordion feature, to finance the company’s working capital needs and other general corporate purposes and secured by the company’s personal property assets (including, without limitation, equity interests, fixtures, equipment and bank accounts).
Represented a large international investment fund structuring a $300,000,000 delayed draw term loan facility to fund development of oil and gas assets located in the Marcellus shale.
Represented a commercial bank, as administrative agent, in a $125,000,000 syndicated reserve-based senior first lien secured credit facility collateralized with certain oil and gas assets in the State of Texas.
Represented a commercial bank, as administrative agent, in a $100,000,000 syndicated senior first lien secured credit facility collateralized with certain pipeline and other midstream assets located in the States of Texas and Louisiana.
Represented a privately-owned helium producer in a $83,000,000 asset-backed securitization transaction secured by helium producing assets located on Navajo Nation tribal lands in Arizona and Utah.
Represented private equity-backed oil and gas exploration and production company in a $50 million revolving credit facility and a pari passu $30,000,000 main street lending facility secured by oil and gas reserves located in the State of Oklahoma.
Represented privately-owned fuel, propane, lubricant and NGL distributer in a $75,000,000 first lien revolving credit facility and a $50,000,000 second lien term loan facility secured by all of the company’s personal and real property assets located in the States of Texas, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, South Carolina and Kentucky
Represented a mezzanine lender in a $75,000,000 advancing term credit facility collateralized with certain oil and gas assets located in the State of Texas, in which the lender acquired an overriding royalty interest in the borrower’s oil and gas assets.
Represented a mezzanine lender in a $40,000,000 advancing term credit facility collateralized with certain coal-bed methane properties located in the States of Kansas and Pennsylvania, in which the lenders acquired fee mineral interests and net profits overriding royalty interests in the coal bed methane assets.
Represented a foreign mezzanine lender in a $200,000,000 senior term loan credit facility collateralized with certain oil and gas assets located in the State of Texas, in which the lender acquired a net profits overriding royalty interest in the borrower’s oil and gas assets located in the State of Texas.
Represented a publicly traded oil and gas exploration and production company in a $300,000,000 syndicated senior first lien secured revolving credit facility and a $350,000,000 syndicated second lien term loan to finance the company’s acquisition and development of certain oil and gas assets located in and offshore the States of Texas and Louisiana.
Represented commercial and mezzanine lenders in the negotiation of intercreditor agreements involving first and second lien lenders and hedges counterparties and standardized master agreements commonly used in the energy industry (including ISDAs and NAESBs).
Represented commercial and mezzanine lenders in various workout and credit settlement transactions, including the foreclosure on and transfer of secured oil and gas assets located in, among other places, the States of Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Colorado.
Represented an affiliate of a privately-held Houston-based oil and gas operator in connection with its development of a carbon capture and sequestration project in California’s Cuyama Basin.
Represented an investment bank in a physical tolling arrangement on a natural gas power plant in the Pacific Northwest.
Represented large natural gas marketing and trading company in connection with structured asset management transactions for natural gas transportation and storage portfolios.
Represented large independent producers of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids in fractionation and natural gas liquids and oil transportation contract negotiations.
Represented anchor shippers in the negotiating of long-term transportation agreements on interstate pipeline expansion projects.
Represented a major power generation company in connection with the regulatory compliance aspects of trading renewable energy credits.
Represented a natural gas storage provider in connection with asset acquisitions and dispositions.
Served as project counsel for the Liberty Port Ambrose LNG Project (liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of New York and New Jersey).
Served as project counsel for two solar projects to serve an airport authority in Pennsylvania.