Full legal support for Energy, Natural Resources, Mining & Infrastructure sector companies

What we do/ Specific Areas of Focus

Our professionals’ experience includes advising on all transaction and regulatory aspects in the natural resources, oil & gas and mining sectors:

Our practice covers the entire oil & gas industry chain: production, storage, transportation, processing and sales. Our legal support includes assisting clients with project development and implementation, construction, financing, setting up of JVs, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and dispute resolution.
We also provide full legal support for mining sector companies, at all production cycle stages, from exploration, appraisal and development of minerals through construction of mining works to refining and marketing, from corporate financing of business operations to the world’s biggest project finance transactions of gold mining companies, multi-stage reorganisations of mining groups and M&A deals.

The global energy, natural resources, mining and infrastructure team at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner consists of more than 150 lawyers at 31 firm offices, including 27 energy, natural resources, mining and infrastructure lawyers in the Moscow office.

The Moscow-based Energy, Natural Resources, Mining & Infrastructure Practice is an established team with a sterling reputation in the marketplace and more than 20 years’ experience representing clients in natural resources and mining sectors on large-scale projects and high-profile deals.

For more than ten years running, the lawyers of the Practice have been top-ranked (Band 1 / Tier 1) in Natural Resources/Mining by all the leading Russian and international legal guides, including Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, Best Lawyers and Who’s Who Legal; they also lead the rankings of these legal directories in Energy and Hydrocarbons.

The Legal 500 2020
Very well-established reputation in the oil and gas market.

Clients include major national and international, publicly-traded and state owned oil & gas / petrochemical, oil service, energy and mining companies, funds, various governments, as well as offtakers, traders, debt providers, and investment banks and brokers specialising in the sector.

Our teams in Europe, the US, Russia, Asia and the Middle East have been at the forefront of some of the biggest Energy, Natural Resources, Mining & Infrastructure projects over the last two decades. We have an excellent understanding of regional and global business specifics rooted in our profound knowledge of local regulatory frameworks and broad experience of cross-border transactions.

For more details about our international experience in energy and natural resources, please click here.

Experience

Energy, Natural Resources, Mining & Infrastructure

Advised RusHydro on a joint venture with Voith, an Austrian industrial group, for the construction of manufacturing facilities for the production of turbines in Russia.
Represented RusHydro on a joint venture with JSC Electric power stations (Kyrgyzstan) providing for construction of four hydro power plants in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Advised RusHydro in connection with a strategic alliance and joint venture with Alstom.

Advising Rosatom/ Akkuyu on construction of a nuclear power station in Turkey, including drafting of the EPC contract, project finance, etc. (in cooperation with the US law firm Pillsbury).

Advised a joint venture partner of the Georgian Co-investment Fund on development and operation of a hydro power plant in Georgia, including bespoke structuring analysis based on advice on the laws of 5 jurisdictions (Russia, Georgia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK), as well as analysis of Georgian and European tax treaty policy developments, in order to anticipate possible treaty renegotiations that might affect the structure.

Real estate & construction

Advised Uralkali, one of the world’s largest potash producers, on its global review of employment arrangements. The comprehensive review covered a number of jurisdictions on most of the continents relevant to operations of the client.

Employment, pensions & benefits

Advised Nord Stream AG, Nord Stream 2 AG on the legal aspects of construction of the Russian component of the submarine gas pipeline. Matters advised on included international law, environmental aspects, re-categorisation of forest and agricultural land, liaisons with government authorities, permission documentation, construction, permits, authorisations and licences.

Advised and represented NOVATEK, Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer, in a dispute with NEFTE PETROLEUM LIMITED in relation to their joint venture YARGEO, the Yarudeyskoye oil field operator in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area. The project involved our legal assistance to the client at the pre-trial dispute resolution stage and representation of NOVATEK before the first instance and appeal courts, which considered the claims for NEFTE PETROLEUM LIMITED to be excluded from YARGEO LLC. Our client's claims were satisfied in full, following which, during the appeal proceedings, the parties reached an amicable agreement.

Advised South/ TurkStream on construction of the Russian Sector of the South/TurkStream Offshore Pipeline project from Russia to Turkey: land acquisition, spatial planning, environmental, corporate, financing arrangements, constructions, permitting and regulatory, liaisons with government authorities, authorisations and licenses, etc.

Advised INPEX, a major Japanese oil & gas company, on its acquisition of a minority equity stake in a Russian oil & gas venture company set up in Irkutsk Region by JOGMEC, a Japanese government entity, and ZAO INK, a medium-sized Russian oil company.*

Asia Practice

Advised Russian Platinum Group on a number of strategic and tactical aspects of a project to develop one of the world’s largest mineral deposits, including support and representation on a number of disputes with the local authorities and in Federal Antitrust Service.

Representing Russian Gas Turbines (a joint venture of General Electric, Inter RAO and United Engine Corporation), we proved that the importer was entitled to apply customs benefits to imported goods (power plant gas turbine components) even when the goods’ designated purpose underlying the benefits was formally confirmed by a competent authority only after the goods had already been cleared through customs.