Kirkland & Ellis is advising Apollo-managed funds on their acquisition of a non-controlling stake in bp Pipelines TAP Limited, a subsidiary of bp (NYSE: BP, LSE: BP.L) that holds a 20% share in Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP), in a transaction valued at approximately $1 billion.

TAP AG is the owner and operator of the final 880-kilometer leg of the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline system that transports natural gas from the bp-operating Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to markets in Europe such as Greece and Italy – it is a key infrastructure asset for meeting European energy demand.

The Kirkland team is led by corporate partners Monica Gemes, Toby Parkinson, Sara Pickersgill, Nick Appleton, Adam Larson and Stephen Noh and associates Tom Lawless, Toshi Mahapatra, Patrick Lingwall and Nicholas Rinehart; debt finance partners Mary Kogut, James Boswell, James McGivern, Shan Khan and Jeffrey O’Connor and associates Christina Godard, Chiara Song, Kaitlin Schock and Aaron Shubert; tax partners Peter Abbott, Siv Devakumar, Mark Dundon and Thomas Evans and associates Weiwei Chen and Alexandria Solomou.