JERA, Japan’s largest importer of LNG, announced Thursday that it has inked a $1.5 billion deal to acquire a natural gas field in the Haynesville Shale from Williams Companies and GEP Haynesville II, its JV with The Woodlands-based GeoSouthern Energy.
On Friday, Baker Botts said its lawyers advised JERA Americas on the deal. Kirkland & Ellis said it advised GEP Haynesville II. And Haynes Boone advised Williams on the sale of a $398 million portion of the overall transaction.
The deal for the South Mansfield assets in Western Louisiana follows JERA’s announcement in June of a series of 20-year agreements to purchase up to 5.5 million tonnes of LNG per year from the Gulf Coast facilities of NextDecade, Commonwealth LNG, Sempra Infrastructure and Cheniere. Those deals enhanced JERA agreements already in place for offtake from Venture Global CP2, Freeport LNG and Cameron LNG.
The assets, acquired in part from the 2020 bankruptcy of Chesapeake Energy, include producing wells, 200 undeveloped locations along with an established gathering, processing and transportation infrastructure. And in addition to the $1.5 billion purchase agreement, JERA said it plans to enhance production in the field, doubling output from 500,000 cf/d to 1 million cf/d.
“The U.S. energy sector is leading the way in the global LNG market and JERA’s investments have lined up accordingly,” said John O’Brien, JERA Americas’ chief executive officer. “The upstream Haynesville Acquisition is a strategic addition to our asset portfolio, enabling us to advance our unique supply chain expertise while deepening our commitment to Americas’ energy future.”
The Baker Botts team advising JERA Americas is led by partners Gerry Morton and Rebecca Seidl Inglesby, both of Houston. Other lawyers on the energy projects side include Alia Heintz (Houston), Janice Cline (Houston), Megan Young (Houston), Haekyong Min (Houston), Andrew Crayden (Houston) and Kat Iverson (Houston).
The team also includes Elizabeth Singleton (Houston) on environmental issues; Jon Lobb (Houston) and Katie McEvilly (Houston) on taxes; Jeffrey Oliver (Washington, D.C.) and Michael Bodosky (Washington, D.C.) on antitrust; Matthew Larsen (Dallas) on state taxes; Paul Luther (Washington, D.C.) on international trade issues; Clay Brett (Houston) on corporate governance and Jason Loden (Dallas) and Cynthia Washington (Houston) on executive compensation and benefits.
Kirkland’s was led by Chris Heasley from Austin, with Albert Jou and John Pitts from Houston, with assistance from Luke Strother (Houston), Chelsea Daku (Houston), Rachel Miller (Houston) and Braxton Iden (Dallas).
The Kirkland team also included Mary Kogut (Houston), Layton Bell (Dallas), R. Grant Gannon (Houston), Hope Rovner (Dallas), David Wheat (Dallas), Joe Tobias (Dallas), Brooke Schafer (Dallas), Jonathan Kidwell (Dallas), Courtney Tibbetts (Dallas), Chuck Boyars (Washington, D.C.), Matthew Wheatley (Washington, D.C.), Joe Krisko (Chicago), Christie Alcala (Houston), Paul Vasiloff (Boston), Alexandra Mihalas (Chicago), Jack Amaro (Chicago), Drue Santora (New York), John Kabealo (Washington, D.C.), Chad Crowell (Washington, D.C.), Nick Perez (Washington, D.C.) Hayley Hollender (Chicago) and Shayne Henry (Austin)
The Haynes Boone team was led by Houston partner Austin Elam along with Reem Abdelrazik (Houston) and Will Johnson (Houston) with support from Danielle Marr (Dallas), Bradley Potts (Houston) and Sam Richards (Houston).