Energy Briefing: Synthetic Ownership Structures in the Energy Sector

摘要

In this article Renad Younes and Nicholas Ross-McCall, senior lawyers at Ashurst LLP, explore innovative farm-in and acquisition structures in the upstream oil and gas and refining or petrochemical sectors. Completion of these transactions is typically conditional on government and regulatory consents. Where there is a substantial risk that these consents may not be forthcoming, the participants may wish to explore other structures that give them similar economic benefits. This article examines structures where, in the case of upstream oil and gas assets, the participant takes equity in a company which itself has the "direct" rights to the asset and, in the case of refining or petrochemical assets, where a participant has neither direct rights to the asset or shares in a company which holds such rights, but rather derives rights equivalent to those which an "equity" owner in the project would expect to have, pursuant to an offtake agreement.