Akin Gump Advises SK E&S in U.S. LNG Deal

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld advised South Korea’s SK E&S in a binding 20-year Liquefaction Tolling Agreement with Freeport LNG Expansion for 2.2 million tons per annum of capacity in the third train of Freeport LNG’s proposed natural gas liquefaction and LNG loading facility on Quintana Island, Texas.

The agreement makes SK E&S the first private Korean company to source U.S. shale gas and establishes a foothold for SK E&S’s expansion into the U.S. market.

The Akin Gump team was led by Houston-based energy partner Stephen D. Davis. It included energy partner Gabriel Procaccini, tax partner W. Thomas Weir, energy regulatory partner Julia Sullivan and energy associates Kate Huggins and Heather Ashour.

This deal represents the latest in a series of deals involving Asia-based energy companies seeking to acquire capacity in U.S. LNG projects. Earlier this year, Davis led an Akin Gump team advising GAIL Global (USA) LNG, a U.S. affiliate of GAIL (India) Limited, in a terminal service agreement for 2.3 mmtpa liquefaction capacity in the Dominion Cove Point LNG liquefaction terminal project in Lusby, Maryland.

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LNG World News Staff, September 10, 2013; Image: Freeport LNG