Global Law Firm White & Case LLP has advised Saudi Aramco in relation to the structuring, tendering, development and financing of three cogeneration plants in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The multi-site project, which achieved financial close on January 9, 2014, will have a capacity of 876 MW of power and 3.26 million pounds per hour of steam once constructed. The project is being developed on a build-own-operate-transfer basis pursuant to contracts between Saudi Aramco and Power Cogeneration Plant Company (PCPC), a special purpose vehicle owned 50 percent by a Saudi Aramco affiliate and 50 percent by the winning consortium comprised of Marubeni Corporation (lead member), JGC and Al Jomaih company.
Engineering, procurement and construction will be carried out by Samsung Engineering and General Electric will supply the gas turbines. Construction at all three sites is expected to have started on January 9, 2014 with a phased commencement of commercial operations between February 29, 2016 and June 1, 2016.
The US$530 million project financing package includes loans from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), Saudi Riyal and U.S. Dollar commercial facilities and a local Islamic finance facility.
"We are pleased to have advised on this important cogeneration project, which is the first transaction in which Saudi Aramco will be acting as both offtaker and equity investor - through an investment affiliate - alongside the winning bidder," said White & Case partner Antoine Cousin. "White & Case was honored to have the opportunity to work with our longstanding client Saudi Aramco on all the project development and financing aspects of the project and successfully support this deal."
The Saudi Aramco legal team included Hassan Y. Habib and Christopher D Birrer. The White & Case team was led by Riyadh-based partner Antoine Cousin, supported by partners Tom Bartlett (London) and Wendell Maddrey (New York), counsel Luke Robottom (Abu Dhabi), associates Ivan Paskal and Adam Pierson (Riyadh), Raymond Azar (New York), Hamad M. Al-Hoshan (Riyadh/New York) and Zeyad Al-Salloum (Riyadh).
White & Case represented Saudi Aramco on its first cogeneration projects in 2003 and their expansion in 2012 and has also advised Saudi Aramco on several similar large scale transactions in recent years, including a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and The Dow Chemical Company completed late last year to build and operate a $20 billion world-scale integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia.
White & Case has represented Saudi Aramco and its predecessor company, the Arabian American Oil Company, for more than half a century.
