© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate – (November 10) – Two Houston-based companies – Plains All American Pipeline, LP and Occidental Petroleum Corporation – recently announced their plans for a deal in which PAA will purchase Occidental’s 50 percent interest in BridgeTex Pipeline Company LLC for $1.075 billion.
The other component of the deal involves BridgeTex’s agreement to sell the southern leg of the pipeline system, which runs from Houston to Texas City (the “Texas City Leg”) to Magellan Midstream Partners, LP, which currently holds the other 50 percent interest of the pipeline. Magellan has agreed to purchase the southern leg for $75 million as well as enter into a long-term capacity lease with BridgeTex pursuant to which BridgeTex shippers will have access to capacity on the Texas City Leg.
Houston and Washington, D.C. partners Rell Tipton, Alan Beck, Joe Dilg, John Lynch and Billy Vigdor of Vinson & Elkins led the transaction for PAA. They also received assistance from Houston associates Jay Blackman and Will Burns.
In October 2013, V&E represented PAA when it entered a merger agreement to acquire all shares of PAA Natural Gas Storage, LP for $2 billion. V&E advised PAA again in December 2012 when the master limited partnership purchased crude oil terminals from U.S. Development Group for $500 million.
PAA General Counsel Richard McGee led the in-house team on the deal. Before being named GC in 2012, McGee was the vice president of business and legal development for PAA’s Natural Gas Storage business. In-house lawyers on the deal team also included Carol Sandvick, Brad Wright and Kolbi Blanchette.
Occidental General Counsel Marcia Backus hired Houston attorneys from Baker Botts to lead Occidental’s end of the transaction. The deal team included Houston partners Hugh Tucker, Jason Rocha, James Chenoweth, Josh Davidson and Paul Elliott and associates Coleson Bruce, Bryan Cory, Kristen Smith, RJ Malenfant, Erin Hopkins, Zach Pullin, Jonathan Bobinger, John Craven, Daniel Kruger and Leah Burcat; Dallas partner Matt Larsen; and attorneys from the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.
Houston attorney Michelle T. Boudreaux of Caldwell Boudreaux Lefler PLLC also represented Occidental in the deal by providing FERC advice to the company.
In addition to Backus, in-house counsel for Occidental who were on the deal team included Ulrik Damborg, the assistant general counsel of M&A and projects, and Gregory Romero, the managing counsel of OXY Energy Services, Inc., which is an Occidental subsidiary.
Tulsa lawyer Jeffrey Hassel of GableBotwals and Magellan General Counsel Doug May represented Magellan for its end of the deal.
The BridgeTex pipeline is a new 300,000 barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline system that extends from Colorado City in West Texas to Texas City. At Colorado City, the BridgeTex pipeline is connected to PAA’s Basin Pipeline System as well as PAA’s Sunrise Pipeline. An affiliate of Occidental is the anchor shipper on the BridgeTex pipeline.
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