Clifford Chance advises Harbour Energy on US$11.2 billion acquisition of Wintershall Dea assets

London: Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised Harbour Energy on the acquisition of a portfolio of assets belonging to natural gas and oil company Wintershall Dea from BASF and LetterOne. The attributed value to the acquisition is US$11.2 billion.

The portfolio of assets includes all of Wintershall Dea’s upstream assets in Norway, Germany, Denmark Argentina, Mexico, Egypt, Libya and Algeria as well as its CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) licences in Europe. Wintershall Dea’s Russian assets are excluded.

The acquisition is expected to transform Harbour Energy into one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse independent oil and gas companies, adding material gas-weighted portfolios in Norway and Argentina and complementary growth projects in Mexico. Harbour will also benefit from an increased reserve life and improved margins with lower operating costs and greenhouse gas (“GHG”) intensity.

Clifford Chance’s cross-border, multidisciplinary team was led by London-based corporate transactions partner Steven Fox and Finance partner Simon Williams, and primarily involved Clifford Chance’s UK and German teams with additional support from the Washington D.C. office. Key transaction support was provided by partner Graham Phillips and senior associate Olivia Higgs in London and partner Dominik Hess in Düsseldorf and counsel Axel Wittmann in Frankfurt. Teams across the firm’s included the Capital Markets practice (led by partner Simon Thomas), Employment (led by partner Chinwe Odimba-Chapman), Incentives (led by partner Sonia Gilbert), Pensions (led by partner Clare Hoxey), Tax (led by partners Nicola Hemsley, Dominik Engl and counsel Claus-Peter Knoeller) and Sanctions (led by partner Michael Lyons in London and counsel Philip Angeloff in Washington D.C.). Antitrust support in London was provided by Greg Olsen and Chandra Ghosh and Dimitri Slobodenjuk in Germany.