Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises lenders on acquisition of oil and gas assets in Nigeria

International law firm Clifford Chance advised lenders and investors in respect of the financing of the acquisition of a 45 per cent participating interest in Nigerian oil licence OML 17 and related assets, through TNOG Oil and Gas Limited (a related company of Heirs Holdings and Transcorp), from the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Total E&P Nigeria Limited and ENI. The acquisition will see TNOG Oil and Gas Limited (now Heirs Oil & Gas Limited) become the operator of OML 17 which it now holds in a joint venture with the Nigerian national oil company.

The transaction is one of the largest oil and gas financings in Africa in the last decade, with a financing component of $1.1 billion, provided by a consortium of global and regional banks and investors with Standard Chartered Plc as global coordinator which involves Schlumberger as a technical partner and Shell’s trading arm as an oil offtaker. The Clifford Chance team advised the junior lenders, structured noteholders and revolving facility lenders.

Olamide Oladosu comments: "This was an important transaction with a very innovative and complex acquisition financing structure that made it possible to close even in the current challenging environment. It presented another opportunity for our cross practice teams to demonstrate the strength and depth of our knowledge of the Nigerian energy market and ability to work with such structures. We are delighted to have been a part of the transaction."

The deal team was led by Russell Wells and Olamide Oladosu (Energy & Infrastructure) and David Bickerton assisted by Halim Uddin (Capital Markets).