NOVA Chemicals Corp. announced this week that it hired Byron Romain as vice president and general counsel. He replaces Bill Mitchell, who recently retired.
Romain most recently was a partner at White & Case in Houston. He joined the firm a little over a year ago from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he led the firm’s North American oil and gas acquisition and divestiture practice. He was at Simpson for around two years.
According to White & Case spokesperson, “We can confirm that Byron Romain has left White & Case to take an in-house position with a firm client. We very much appreciate Byron’s contributions to White & Case and wish him well in his future endeavors.”
NOVA said Romain will be responsible for leading all legal operations, including in-house attorneys, external legal affairs, intellectual property rights, corporate and commercial matters, compliance and governance.
“Byron is a seasoned attorney [who] brings deep industry experience that will serve us well as we continue to build on our position as a leading player in the North American petrochemical market,” CEO and president Todd Karran said in the release.
In private practice, Romain has represented major and independent oil and gas companies, sovereigns, quasi-governmental agencies, private equity sponsors and portfolio companies on acquiring, divesting and developing oil and gas projects in the exploration and production and infrastructure sectors.
Before Simpson Thacher, Romain worked for five years as a senior attorney at Marathon Oil, where he was the sole legal support to the company’s business development group. He handled projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, West Texas, New Mexico and Canada.
While at Simpson, Romain advised on two Marathon deals: The company’s purchase of acreage in the Permian Basin’s northern Delaware basin from NGP-backed Black Mountain Oil & Gas and others for $700 million; and other Permian acreage from BC Operating Inc. – which was backed by Quantum Energy Partners, Post Oak Energy Partners and Wells Fargo Energy Capital – for $1.1 billion.
From 2009 to 2012, Romain worked in the United Arab Emirates for two different companies – Supreme Global Services and Mubadala Development Co. – and for King & Spalding. He also was an associate at Baker Botts for four years in Russia and Houston.
Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, NOVA is owned by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. It develops and makes chemicals and plastic resins.
In January NOVA agreed to sell its 50% stake in joint venture Novealis Holdings to Austrian partner Borealis for an undisclosed sum, giving Borealis full ownership (Vinson & Elkins advised Borealis). Borealis was 64% owned by Mubadala and 36% held by Austrian oil and gas company OMV.
The JV was formed in 2018 to own 50% of Bayport Polymers, a polyethylene facility the companies were developing with France’s Total SA, which owned the other half. But NOVA subsequently formed a 50/50 joint venture with Total to work on the project. Orrick counseled Borealis and NOVA on forming that JV while Jones Day assisted Total.
In 2017, NOVA also bought Williams Partners’ 88.5% ownership interest in a Gulf Coast petrochemical facility for $2.1 billion, with Orrick advising NOVA and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher counseling Williams.
Reuters reported this past summer that Chevron Phillips Chemical had offered to buy NOVA for $15 billion, including debt, citing sources. The report said that Mubadala had been exploring a sale of the company since the beginning of the year, the sources said. The parties didn’t respond for comment.