© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Houston-based Apache Corporation announced Thursday that it will sell one-third of its Egyptian oil and gas business to Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation for $3.1 billion.
The transaction is the first step in the company’s new global strategic partnership to pursue joint upstream oil and gas projects.
Though the current political turmoil in Egypt is the worst in the country’s modern history, Apache’s exploration and production operations are located in remote, unpopulated areas, so “they remain unaffected by political events in the region,” Apache’s statement says.
The Egypt partnership is subject to customary governmental approvals. It is expected to close during the fourth quarter.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is advising Apache, with Dallas managing partner Glenn West as the lead attorney. Dallas associate Ryan Gorsche is also assisting on the corporate side, along with Beijing partner Steven Xiang, Shanghai partner Suat Eng Seah and Beijing counsel Wenfeng Li.
Partner Jared Rusman and associate Mark Dundon are handling the tax issues of the deal. Both are based in Weil’s Dallas office.
West, who has also been involved in AMR Corporation’s $11 billion merger with U.S. Airways Group, declined to comment on the transaction.
In 2010, Weil represented Apache’s board of directors when the company purchased $3.25 billion of assets from BP.
Vinson & Elkins is representing Sinopec in the deal. Attorneys involved are not known at this time.
The firm has represented Sinopec in multiple of its previous overseas investments. Last year, V&E advised the company when it purchased a 20 percent stake in a Nigerian offshore block from Total S.A., valued at $2.5 billion.
In 2011, the firm represented Sinopec in its $2.9 billion acquisition of Canadian oil and gas company Daylight Energy Ltd., and its $3.5 billion acquisition of Brazilian assets from Portuguese oil and gas company Galp Energia SGPS S.A.
A year before that, V&E represented Sinopec when it acquired Addax Petroleum for $7.2 billion.
Sinopec is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese oil giant, China Petrochemical Corporation (also known as Sinopec Group).
Apache’s general counsel is Anthony Lannie, who has served that position since 2003 and has been the company’s executive vice president since 2009. Before joining Apache, he was president of Kinder Morgan Power Company. He has also served as vice president and GC of Coral Energy (an affiliate of Shell Oil Company and Tejas Gas Corporation) and Tejas the companies combined in 1998.
Lannie could not be reached for comment.
More details to come as the story develops.
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