Clark Wohlferd

Partner, New York
[email protected]
LinkedIn profile

Biography

“An experienced project development and finance lawyer who focuses on the oil and gas, infrastructure and power sectors in the Americas and the Middle East.”

Overview

Clark advises sponsors, lenders and other stakeholders on a broad range of domestic and international project finance transactions. His work is complex and global in scope, and he regularly works with teams of lawyers from the Firm's offices around the world to help his clients to complete major, multi-jurisdictional deals. In the oil and gas industry, Clark has significant experience representing sponsors and commercial lenders in project finance, joint venture and merger and acquisition transactions. Notable work in this area includes his representation of Saudi Aramco in a number of major strategic transactions, including the development and financing of the US$20 billion world-scale Sadara Chemicals Complex, and his representation of Freeport LNG in the approximately US$11 billion financing of the first and second liquefaction trains of the Freeport LNG liquefaction project on Quintana Island, Texas. Clark has also developed a strong track record representing lead sponsors and bidding consortia in infrastructure matters, including public-private partnership (PPP) transactions in the Americas. He provides advice on all aspects of such deals, including the bidding processes, equity structuring, debt financing and the negotiation of concession and other management and development agreements. His experience in this area spans multiple asset classes, including airports, roads, bridges, parking and social Infrastructure. Clark also advises numerous commercial lenders and sponsors on project finance transactions in the US domestic power sector. Such work includes his representation of the lenders in the sale and concurrent refinancing of the South Trent Wind Project, and his representation of Bayerische Landesbank in connection with the construction refinancing of the Trans Bay Cable Project.
Bars and Courts
New York State Bar
Education
JD
New York University School of Law
BA
Macalester College
Languages
English

Experience

Project Development and Finance
Energy
Infrastructure
Power
Chemicals
Financial Institutions

Freeport LNG, 2012 – 2015
Clark is currently representing Freeport LNG in connection with the development and financing of its multi-train natural gas liquefaction complex, to be co-located with its existing regasification facility at Quintana Island in Texas. The equity and debt for the first two liquefaction trains closed concurrently in November 2014. The debt facilities were structured without the sponsors' completion support, making this the largest fully non-recourse construction project financing in history. With total debt and equity commitments of more than US$11 billion, this was also the largest financing of any project in 2014. The equity and debt financing for the third liquefaction train is ongoing, and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015."

Magnolia LNG 2014 – 2015
Clark is currently representing the lenders to the Magnolia LNG Project, an 8 million tonne per annum liquefaction and export terminal being developed by Liquefied Natural Gas Limited in the Port of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Rabigh Petrochemical Project Expansion, 2011– 2015
Clark is currently representing Saudi Aramco in connection with the multi-billion dollar expansion of Petro Rabigh's petrochemical complex at Rabigh, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast. Petro Rabigh is a joint venture established between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo in 2006 to develop the existing petrochemical complex. Petro Rabigh is now partially owned by the Saudi investing public.

Petrochemicals producer, 2011– 2012
Clark advised a leading petrochemicals producer in a potential joint venture for an ethylene cracker and downstream derivatives complex to be located in the United States.

Sadara Chemical Company, 2007– 2011
Clark advised Saudi Aramco on the development of the US$20 billion world-scale integrated chemicals complex to be built and operated by Sadara Chemical Company, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical Company, in Jubail Industrial City in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Jubail Refinery and Petrochemicals Project (SATORP), 2008-2010
Clark represented Saudi Aramco in the 400,000 barrel per day Jubail Refinery and Petrochemicals Project, a US$10 billion greenfield joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Total, located in Jubail Industrial City in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The South Trent Wind Project, 2010
Clark represented the lenders in the sale and concurrent refinancing of the South Trent Wind Project, a 101 megawatt (MW) wind power generation facility in Nolan and Taylor Counties, Texas.

The Trans Bay Cable Project, 2010
Clark represented Bayerische Landesbank as lender in the refinancing of the construction financing for the Trans Bay Cable Project, a 53-mile, 400 MW high voltage undersea power cable running under San Francisco Bay, California.

Publications

Freeport Sets LNG Benchmark, 2015 Yearbook, PFI, (co-author, with Jason Webber of White & Case LLP and Brent Wahl, Nicholas Gole, and Aaron Neus of Macquarie Capital, Project Finance International).

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