White & Case LLP - Lawyers - Mark Castillo-Bernaus

Practice Experience

Mark Castillo-Bernaus is a partner in the Energy, Infrastructure, Project and Asset Finance Group in London.

Mark has acted for banks, international financial institutions, export credit agencies and borrowers in a number of large banking and finance transactions, mainly in the area of project finance with particular expertise in the oil & gas, mining and telecoms sectors.

Representative transactions include:

Advising the Sponsors, BHP Billiton, Mubadala, DUBAL and Global Alumina on the US$3.5 billion alumina refinery project in the Republic of Guinea;
Advising the Sponsors, Qatar Petroleum and Shell, on the US$6 billion Qatargas 4 LNG project financing;
Advising the Sponsors, Qatar Petroleum and ConocoPhillips, on the US$5.8 billion Qatargas 3 LNG project financing (including financing from commercial banks, US-Exim and JBIC);
Advising the Sponsors, Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, in relation to the financing for the US$11.2 billion Qatargas II project (including financing from commercial banks, US-Exim and SACE together with an Islamic facility);
Advising Nord Stream AG in connection with the financing of the US$9 billion Nord Stream gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea;
Advising several international financial institutions (EIB, IFC, ADB, AFD & KfW) on the finncing of the EASSy telecoms cable project in Africa;
Advising the lead arrangers on the US$200 million financing of a UK listed company with oil and gas assets located in Russia & Kazakhstan;
Advising ABN Amro, as lead arranger, in its financing of the Imperial Energy Group;
Advising the lead arrangers, ANZ Investment Bank on its US$31 million bridge and US$100 million project financing of the Chinguetti oilfield in Mauritania - the first ever limited recourse financing in Mauritania;
Advising BNP Paribas as lender in a $100 million reserve based loan facility to Urals Energy Public Company Limited, a Cyprus-based borrower that owns a number of Russian oil production subsidiaries;
Advising the Government of Qatar on the Pearl US$5bn gas-to-liquids project;
Advising the European Investment Bank on its co financing with the IBRD, IFC and commercial banks of a US$2.2 billion oil pipeline project in the Republic of Chad and the Republic of Cameroon;
Advising the European Investment Bank in connection with the US$176 million financing for the Tucuman Power Plant in Argentina;
Advising the lenders (including IFC) on the limited resource financing of a major mobile telecoms operator in Pakistan;
Advising the European Investment Bank in connection with the US$135million financing for the Eldoret Lanet IPP in Kenya;
Advising a global investment bank in respect of its A$100 million financing of an Australian oil and gas project;
Advising a global investment bank on its borrowing base facility made available to a US oil company in respect of its acquisition of certain US assets and ongoing oil development operations in both the US and the Republic of Colombia; and
Advising a global telecommunications company in connection with several vendor financings of 3G operations in various countries.

Bars and Courts
Supreme Court of England and Wales, 1998

Education
LLM, Bristol University
LPC, Oxford Institute of Legal Practice

Publications
"Cutting edge close-up: Chad-Cameroon pipeline opens financing for African projects" International Financial Law Review, September 2001

Languages
English

Citizenship
British