Chadbourne & Parke represented the lenders on the US$3.691 billion financing of Train 3 of the Freeport LNG liquefaction and export project at Quintana Island near Freeport, Texas. The cost of the Freeport LNG liquefaction project, which consists of three trains, is expected to be approximately US$12.5 billion. The project financings include an additional approximately US$3 billion raised for refinancing costs and contingency funding, making it the largest fully non-recourse construction and buffer lot acquisition financing project ever.

The Train 3 financing closed on April 28, 2015 and includes US$3.691 billion in debt financing and US$924 million of equity financing. The debt financing is being provided by 27 commercial banks and financial institutions under a seven-year mini-perm debt facility. The equity funding is being provided by Freeport LNG. Freeport LNG separately arranged a mezzanine financing to fund its equity contribution.

Train three has a design capacity of 4.64 million tons per year, is being constructed by CB&I, Inc., Zachry Industrial, Inc, and Chiyoda International Corporation and has take-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements with Toshiba Corporation and SK E&S LNG, LLC, and literally hundreds of buffer lots.

Chadbourne previously represented the lenders on the US$4.025 billion financing of Train 2, which closed on November 25, 2014.

“We are delighted to have again represented the lenders on the Freeport LNG project,” said Rohit Chaudhry, the lead Chadbourne partner on the transaction and Co-Head of Chadbourne’s Project Finance Group. “It was impressive to see all parties work collaboratively to achieve financial closing for such a large financing in such an expedited timeframe. The framework set at the time of the Train 2 financing served well for the Train 3 financing.”

“Chadbourne’s strong leadership was essential to closing train 3 on a very accelerated timeline. Rohit Chaudhry and his team have a unique ability to lead a multitude of financing parties through execution on extremely complex transactions,” said John Tobola, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Freeport LNG.

The Chadbourne team working on the project included partners Rohit Chaudhry, Noam Ayali, Marissa Alcala, Eli Katz, Marian Baldwin Fuerst, Robin Ball, Marjorie Glover, Thomas McCormack and Ted Zink; counsels Scott Bank, Donna Bobbish, Sue Cowell, Christy Rivera, and Monika Szymanski; and associates Brian Greene, Greg Lavigne, Deanne Barrow, Kirsten Carlson, Eric Kamerman, Malgorzata Soltys, Carole James, Rebecca Abou-Chedid, and Sarah Katz.