Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises export credit agencies and lenders on the €2.5 billion financing of Phase II of the Nord Stream gas pipeline project

The 1220 km long Nord Stream Phase II pipeline will transport gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany with this second of two pipelines providing a transmission capacity of about 27.5 billion cubic metres a year.

The sponsors of the project are Gazprom (51%), BASF/Wintershall (15.5%), E.ON Ruhrgas (15.5%), Gasunie (9%) and GDF SUEZ (9%). The debt for Phase II is divided into four tranches.  SACE is providing cover for a  €500 million tranche. Hermes is covering a €750 million tranche and the German Government will provide untied cover for a loan tranche of  €500 million through UFK. Finally, there is an uncovered tranche of €750 million.  Twenty-four international banks are lending to the project.

The Clifford Chance team has advised the export credit agencies and commercial banks on all aspects of the financing for both pipelines. Due diligence was conducted across several jurisdictions involving Clifford Chance offices in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and the UK (and coordinating counsel in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland).  The teams covered a variety of issues in areas of energy regulation, competition, real estate, corporate, derivatives, environment, insurance, corporate trustee, tax, arbitration and international law and financing.

The Clifford Chance team was led by partners Anthony Giustini, Nicholas Wong and Russell Wells with principal assistance from associates Rinku Bhadoria, Debra Counsell, Matthew Meyerink, Nadezhda Varbanova, Raluca Petrea, Sara Agah-Tehrani and Rosa Rotko.

Victoria Bortkevicha, Dietrich Stiller, Jaap Koster and Yves Herinckx led the teams in the Moscow, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussels offices respectively.

Nord Stream was advised by White & Case.