Client: Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC (HEP)
Date: November 9, 2016
Value: US$353.3 million
Deal Description: Counsel to Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC (HEP) in a US$353.3 million project financing for the construction of the Nueva Era pipeline project. A 50-50 joint venture between HEP and Mexico-based energy and services firm Grupo CLISA. The Nueva Era pipeline project will connect HEP’s existing Webb County Hub in South Texas directly to Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. The banks that provided financing for the Nueva Era project include MUFG, Santander, Societe Generale, SMBC and Caixa Bank.
Firms involved:
Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enriquez counsel to HEP lead partner Santiago Sepúlveda and senior associates Ana Amado and Vanessa Gimenez. Other team members Jorge Correa (tax partner);
Latham & Watkins US counsel to HEP;
Milbank, Twee, Hadley & McCloy US counsel to the lending banks;
Galicia Abogados counsel to the lending banks.
Additional information: Construction activities began earlier this year on the approximately 200-mile Nueva Era pipeline, which will provide seamless transportation service for approximately 600 cubic feet per day of natural gas, connecting producers in South Texas directly with end-users in northern Mexico.
The Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) (CFE) is the anchor shipper on the Nueva Era Pipeline project, having committed to transport 504 million cubic feet of natural gas per day on the system for a 25-year term, to help fuel combined-cycle power plants in Escobedo and Huinalá, near Monterrey.
The project is expected to be completed and in service in the second half of 2016.