Clayton Utz congratulates Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) and its sponsors on the successful close of the US$8.5 billion financing for APLNG’s liquefaction plant and facilities on Curtis Island.
This is Australia’s largest ever project financing and the first time that the export finance arms of the United States and China (which together will contribute at least US$6 billion of debt) have co-operated on an Australian project.
Appointed by APLNG in 2008, Clayton Utz has helped to structure, document and negotiate the APLNG project: from the Surat and Bowen Basin fields development and the 530km gas transmission pipeline, to the two-train 9 million tonnes per annum liquefaction plant and related facilities at Curtis Island near Gladstone.
Clayton Utz Energy and Natural Resources partner Andrew Smith commented: “We have been pleased to act as project counsel for APLNG and its sponsors on such a groundbreaking deal. The size and complexity of the APLNG project has seen Clayton Utz draw together a seamless multi-disciplinary and multi-office team to deliver whole-ofproject services.”
Clayton Utz Corporate / Energy and Natural Resources partner Graham Taylor, who negotiated key transaction aspects such as the equity purchases by Sinopec, and the 20-year plus LNG sales contracts, said of the deal: “It’s a tribute to the depth of energy and natural resources talent at Clayton Utz and our relationship with APLNG and its sponsors that this project has come to the market in, by international standards, a very short period.”
Clayton Utz Project Finance partner Bruce Cooper, who led the Clayton Utz finance team, said he was pleased to have played a part in the complex project financing. “The closing of this transaction shows that even in difficult funding markets, a well-structured deal with quality sponsors and good fundamentals will still generate keen lender interest.”
