When Michael Monroe joined the Hunt Oil legal department in 2002 as a senior lawyer, company leaders had developed an innovative idea – some called it far-fetched – about building a massive, multibillion-dollar energy operation in Peru.
During the past 15 years, Monroe and the legal team for the privately-held Hunt Oil devised and implemented a complex set of business structures that took “an idea on a drawing board” and made it become a highly successful reality.
Joint ventures and consortiums were created. Licensing agreements were negotiated and signed. Construction contracts were reached. More than $1 billion in bond offerings were finalized. And a $4 billion natural gas liquefaction processing plant was constructed, which is the largest infrastructure investment in the history of Peru.
“It has been a unique and extraordinary opportunity to follow a project of this scale from being a mere idea all the way to fruition,” Monroe told The Texas Lawbook in an exclusive interview. “And I likely will be working on this project when I eventually retire.”
Promoted to general counsel in 2015, Monroe has legal duties far behind the Peruvian LNG project, including E&P projects on four continents. Hunt Oil has expanded his duties in recent years to include land and commercial development activities and various corporate compliance issues.
The Texas Lawbook and the DFW Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel are pleased to announced that Monroe is a finalist for the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel’s General Counsel of the Year Award for a Midsized Legal Department. The finalists will be honored and the winners announced at the 2018 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards event on Thursday, Jan. 24, at the George W. Bush Institute.
“Michael and the Hunt Oil legal team structured a complex chain of commercial agreements that underpins the export of natural gas from Peru,” Sidley Austin partner Yvette Ostolaza said in nominating Monroe for the award. “They have provided the legal and commercial support for the issuance of nearly $5 billion of project and bond financing related to Hunt’s interests in Peru, including over $1.5 billion in bond financings in 2018.
“In addition, Michael and his team continue to actively manage their interest in Yemen LNG during a period of unprecedented instability and uncertainty in Yemen,” Otsolaza said. “Michael and his team support Hunt Oil’s growth and development in West Texas, which continued and accelerated through the recent industry downturn.”
Monroe was born in southern Louisiana just outside of New Orleans. Both of his parents were ministers. There were no lawyers in the family.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up, except that I did not want to be a minister,” he says.
A counselor in high school advised him to get a college degree “in the language of business.” As a result, he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in taxation from Baylor University.
A defining moment in his life, he says, came in the 10th grade when he met the woman he would marry.
“It was significant in every possible way,” he says. “She supported my every move, including worked when I went to law school. She was a year older and a class ahead of me, so I took college courses at night and during the summer so I could catch up with her.“
A college professor also gave Monroe some critical advice: “Don’t inflict yourself on any future law firm without getting a job first.”
Monroe followed the recommendation and worked two years in the tax group at Arthur Anderson and became a certified financial planner.
“It was great advice and set me up to be more successful in law school,” he says.
Monroe received his law degree from the University of Texas in 1999 and then spent three years practicing M&A and corporate securities law at Thompson & Knight and then Vinson & Elkins.
“I knew I wanted to be a transactional lawyer,” he says. “Unlike most other young, aspiring lawyers, I had no interest in being Perry Mason or fighting it out in the courtroom.”
A second defining time for Monroe came during the summer of his first year of law school when he interned for Centex Homes General Counsel Brian Woram.
Woram was involved in negotiating a deal, but every request he made was rejected by lawyers for the other side. In response, Woram wrote a note to opposing counsel: “Clearly, we have run up against the abominable no man.”
“The note helped break the ice and disarmed the other side and allowed the conversation to move forward,” he says. “Brian gave me incredible insight by allowing me to tag along. He showed me how he perfected his trade. Being able to witness it first hand was an incredible education that I still use 20 years later.”
In 2002, Hunt Oil hired Monroe to handle its corporate transactional matters. He was promoted to GC in September 2015 and now oversees eight lawyers in the U.S. and eight attorneys in Peru.
But nothing has been an exciting as the Peru LNG project, which is 50 percent owned by Hunt Oil. Shell has a 20 percent interest. SK Innovation Co. has a 20 percent ownership stake and Marubeni Corporation has a 10 percent interest.
Monroe and the legal team started by creating a joint operating agreement called the Camisea Consortium, which allowed them to purchase licensing agreements related to the largest natural gas producing fields in Peru called the Camisea Fields.
Then came the development, construction and now operation of Peru LNG, which is the first natural gas liquefaction plant in South America and the only such plant on the Pacific Coast of South America. The construction of the LNG processing plant is the largest infrastructure investment ever made in Peru.
In the first half of 2018, both Peru LNG and Hunt Oil Company of Peru refinanced all of their outstanding debt. Hunt Oil Company of Peru closed its bond offering for US$600 million in March 2018. Peru LNG’s bond offering was US$940 million, the largest private-sector corporate bond issuance out of Peru, and closed in May 2018.
“I love my job because lawyers at Hunt have long been business advisors and not just legal advisors,” he says.