V&E Leads Buckeye Partners Acquisition of New York Harbor Petroleum Facility

By Brooks Powell, Staff Writer
brooks.powell@texaslawbook.net

February 10, 2012 – Buckeye Partners, L.P., a Houston-based petroleum pipeline company, announced Friday the $260 million acquisition of a terminal and storage facility on New York Harbor from Chevron USA, Inc.

Vinson & Elkins represented Buckeye in the transaction along with the company’s in-house counsel, William H. Schmidt, Jr. Chevron USA was represented by their in-house counsel.

Buckeye is a publicly-traded mid-stream energy logistics partnership with refined oil and gas product transportation assets principally in the northeastern and midwestern U.S. The company owns more than 100 petroleum terminal locations with an aggregate storage capacity in excess of 64 million barrels. The acquisition of the Chevron facility, located in Perth Amboy, NJ., will add four million barrels to their storage capacity. Buckeye plans to invest between $200 million and $225 million in growth capital in the facility.

The New York Harbor site also includes four docks and surrounding undeveloped land for future development. Access to waterways will allow Buckeye to link its land-based pipeline infrastructure to maritime transport and its Bahamas Oil Refining Company International (BORCO) facility, of which the company purchased 80 percent interest from First Reserve Corporation for nearly $1.4 billion in December 2010.

The deal will close in the latter half of the second quarter of 2012, and will include an equity offering to fund part of the purchase.

Vinson & Elkins M&A partner Caroline Blitzer of New York and environmental partner Chris Amandes of Houston led the acquisition for Buckeye, with assistance from associates Roxanne Almaraz (Houston) and Carson Sieving (New York). New York V&E capital markets partners E. Ramey Layne and Brenda Lenahan will lead the equity offering, aided by associates Doug Lionberger (Houston) and Chris Mathiesen (NY).

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