by Jessica Huseman, staff writer
(FT. WORTH) NOVEMBER 7 — In early August, Vinson & Elkins represented EQT Infrastructure in its acquisition of a 70 percent stake in Peregrine Midstream Partners, a Houston-based natural gas storage company.
This week, Peregrine announced that the Houston-based law firm also served as lead counsel to Peregrine in its successful efforts to get $145 million in project financing to complete the Ryckman Creek Project, a depleted oil and gas reservoir in Wyoming that is being converted into a natural gas storage facility. The project financing officially closed on Nov. 4.
ING Capital and RBC Capital Markets were joint-lead arrangers and co-book-runners. ING also acted as Administrative Agent. Locke Lord partner Steve Peterson of Houston is primary outside corporate counsel for Peregrine and Porter Hedges partner Nick Sorenson of Houston represented ING Capital.
Legal experts say that the Peregrine transaction is one of the only project financings in North America during the second half of 2011.
“It was challenging to close an infrastructure project financing in the face of all the bad news in Europe, the perceived threat to the credit markets, and the swings in the stock market — down 300 points one day and up 250 the next,” said Mark Spradling, energy transactions partner at Vinson & Elkins in Houston. “But Peregrine’s management, EQT and ING kept the pressure on and got the deal done. It was a great cooperative effort.”
Assisting Spradling with the project financing were V&E associates Bryan Murphy of New York and Katy Gottsponer in Washington, D.C.
Jessica Huseman is a staff writer for The Texas Lawbook. Her email is jessica.huseman@texaslawbook.net.