Regulatory

When your operations aren’t confined within a single country, you need counsel experienced with the regulatory law everywhere your business is – or may take you. We have significant experience with regulatory requirements associated with construction, siting and operation of gas and oil pipelines and electric transmission facilities located around the globe. In the US, we have successfully advised clients on obtaining authorizations for border-crossing facilities from the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Department of State under the Natural Gas Act, the Federal Power Act and related Executive Orders. We also represent clients in connection with cross-border regulatory issues between countries in Europe and Latin America.

There is no substitute for legal advice from people experienced with every aspect of the law regulating energy companies and utilities in the country in which you operate. Our lawyers provide counsel and serve the transactional needs of public and private energy companies of all sizes. We have experience in counseling on the establishment of rates for electricity and national gas transmission, obtaining market-based rate authority, Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) rules including exempt wholesale generator (EWG) and foreign utility company (FUCO) status, regulatory reporting requirements and other administrative matters. We have experience in all aspects of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certificate proceedings, including cost recovery methodologies for expansion facilities and environmental review. Our large environmental practice group has expertise in the full range of environmental and regulatory issues affecting the energy industry.

Representative Experience

• Advising on US regulatory (competition) aspects of the €67.257 billion (US$105.6 billion) merger of two major European utilities to create the world's second largest utility, a Paris-based company serving about 214 million gas, water and electricity consumers across four continents, also fending off a hostile bid for our client. The deal was recognized as the #2 deal by Deal Week in their three-year roundup of top deals for European Energy, Mining and Utilities Deals (March 2005-March 2008).
• Representing a global energy company in connection with the development of an LNG facility in Altamira, Mexico. Our work on this project included the preparation and negotiation of permit applications for the construction and operation of the terminal including the general terms of service and rate methodology; the preparation of various requests for engineering, procurement and construction contracts relating to the terminal; the preparation and negotiation of various land purchase, land assignment and right of way agreements relating to the terminal; and analysis and revision of tender documents and draft contracts issued by the Mexican Federal Electric Commission for the purchase and sale of natural gas stored and regasified in the terminal as well as negotiation of back-up gas arrangements.
• Assisting a leading UK-based oil and gas well management business with licensing issues in Algeria.
• Advising local energy utility companies in Germany on the German merger control aspects of the re-acquisition of a district heating infrastructure and related assets, and the acquisition of a CHP plant and related assets.
• Advising an energy distributor in southern Poland on various aspects of unbundling regulations.
• Handling contract and FERC issues for the subsidiary of a Texas-based natural gas company with respect to an LNG facility in Georgia, and for a marketing affiliate with respect to the capacity it held in a Maryland LNG facility.
• Advising the government of Lithuania with respect to the corporate and regulatory restructuring of and privatization of its energy sector.