Hunton & Williams Advises in Freeport LNG Deal which Wins IJGlobal’s 2014 Americas Award for North American Oil & Gas and Global Overall

NEW YORK — March 18, 2015 — The record-breaking energy financing Freeport LNG liquefaction (Trains 1 and 2) deal, for which Hunton & Williams served as transaction counsel to a coalition of lenders, has been awarded Infrastructure Journal’s 2014 Americas Award for “North American Oil & Gas and Global Overall.”

Closed and funded on November 25, 2014, the transactions represent the largest fully non-recourse project financing in history. The deal was also named Project Finance International’s 2014 “Deal of the Year–Americas.” Freeport LNG brought together a range of equity and debt investors with aggregate commitments of approximately $11 billion, making it the largest financing of any project in 2014.

A team led by energy and infrastructure partner Raj Pande represented Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), and a group of commercial banks on a $4.37 billion senior secured project debt finance, letter of credit and working capital facilities to finance the construction and operation of Train 1 of a multitrain natural gas liquefaction and export facility to be located near Freeport, Texas. For Train 1, financing will be used to develop Freeport LNG Expansion's first liquefaction train in Texas. For Train 2, financing will be used to develop its second train, 70 miles south of Houston, Texas.