Wragge & Co advises on £323m oil and gas deal
BIRMINGHAM law firm Wragge & Co has advised a syndicate of banks on a lending facility worth up to $500m (£323m) for exploration and production company Petroceltic International.
Wragge & Co’s energy and infrastructure team worked with a group of banks as well as local counsels in 13 jurisdictions and a number of other parties.
Petroceltic is an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Dublin. It has interests in Egypt, Bulgaria, Algeria, Italy and the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Wragges partner Kieron Dwyer said: “This was a fantastic transaction to be involved in. It demonstrates our ability to advise leading lenders in the upstream oil and gas industry on significant exploration and production transactions, especially in emerging markets.”
Director Joe Levin added: “The deal cements our relationship with the upstream oil and gas team at HSBC and begins our relationship in this space with IFC, Standard Chartered and Nedbank – all very active and successful oil and gas teams in the market.”
Wragge & Co is on HSBC’s panel of preferred law firms in the UK. This is the third largest oil and gas deal on which the firm has worked with HSBC.
The law firm advised the bank on a $300m bridge facility for the newly-merged entity of Melrose Resources and Petroceltic International. It also advised on a $50m borrowing base financing for Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Sea Dragon Energy to fund further development of Sea Dragon’s two petroleum concessions in Egypt.
