Blake H. Winburne is the head of the Firm’s global Energy Advisory practice group and is based in the Houston office. He is a transactional lawyer focusing on the downstream and midstream energy sectors.
Blake advises clients on the development, structuring and financing of large-scale energy projects and on energy sector mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures, both in the United States and abroad. He regularly represents multinational energy companies, large private equity funds, project developers and sponsors, borrowers and debt issuers, investment banks, and other capital providers and investors in the energy industry.
Blake has significant experience in the electric power sector, including fossil fuel-fired, simple and combined cycle and co-generation generating facilities; as well as wind, solar (central station and distributed), landfill gas, biomass and other renewable energy projects. He also has represented clients in transactions involving oil, natural gas and refined products pipelines and storage facilities (tank farms and underground), electric power and natural gas transmission and local distribution systems, and alternative fuels production and marketing arrangements.
Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers honored Blake in 2009 and 2010, identifying him as one of only six “leading individuals” nationwide in electric power projects, and calling him a “star in the North America power scene.” Blake’s successful project finance practice has resulted in his inclusion in Euromoney’s Best of the Best USA 2009, and Who’s Who Legal has stated that “Blake Winburne’s project finance expertise earns him a listing; he is particularly well-known for his downstream energy work.”
Blake maintains an active mergers, acquisitions and dispositions practice, in which he applies his experience in the development and financing of energy projects to the purchase and sale of energy assets and private energy companies. His deep understanding of the energy business and the complex commercial and legal issues associated with project development allows Blake to provide insightful and innovative advice, and offer creative solutions, to his clients.
Blake has extensive experience in structuring and financing energy projects and in negotiating and documenting the contractual support for these transactions. That experience encompasses all manner of revenue contracts (e.g., power purchase, tolling and energy marketing agreements; steam host and supply agreements; service agreements; leases; and capacity and transportation agreements); construction contracts; long-term parts and services agreements; operating and maintenance agreements; electric interconnection and transmission agreements; fuel supply and transportation agreements; and ownership, joint venture and equity participation agreements. He also frequently advises clients on complicated financing matters, including nonrecourse project financings, secured credit facilities, structured acquisition financing facilities, tax monetization structures, Rule 144A offerings, export credit agency and other government-guaranteed financing and risk insurance programs, and leveraged, single-investor and cross-border leases.
Blake has been listed in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers (2008, 2009, 2010), Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers for project finance (2009, 2010), Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers (2008, 2009, 2010), and The Best Lawyers in America for international trade and finance law (2008-2010). He has also been recognized in the IFLR 1000’s Guide to the World’s Leading Financial Law Firms.
Blake is admitted to practice in New York, Texas and the District of Columbia.
Representative Experience
M&A and Dispositions
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of equity interest in, an joint venture arrangements for, Enogex LLC, a midstream natural gas pipeline system with over 8,000 miles of pipe, nine processing plants and 24 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capability in Oklahoma and Texas
- Served as seller’s counsel in the partial sell-down and joint venture arrangements associated with the development, construction and operation of a 200-megawatt wind-powered generating facility in Indiana
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition and ongoing operation of oil and natural gas pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition and joint venture arrangements for the interstate Arkoma Connector Pipeline in Oklahoma
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition and financing of a 1.5-gigawatt portfolio of electric power projects in Texas
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of general partner interests in an owner and operator of one of the largest independent refined petroleum products pipeline systems in the United States (measured by volumes delivered)
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of natural gas distribution systems which serve nearly half a million U.S. residential and business customers in the Mid-Atlantic region
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of a portfolio of concentrated-heat solar projects in the Mojave Desert
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of the 520-megawatt Mexican IPP portfolio owned by a Canadian energy company
- Served as counsel to the stalking horse bidder in the Bankruptcy Code Section 363 sale of an IPP portfolio consisting of interests in approximately 2,500 megawatts of generating capacity
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of a portfolio of coke batteries, pulverized coal production facilities and onsite energy and utility services projects
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of a 200-megawatt wind-powered generating facility in Texas
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of a portfolio of landfill gas projects located throughout the United States
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the acquisition of a 570-megawatt generating facility located in New Mexico
- Served as buyer’s counsel in the disposition of a 50-megawatt wind-powered generating facility located in Kansas
- Served as seller’s counsel in the disposition of a 1,050-megawatt generating facility located in California
Project Development and Finance
- Represented project sponsors in the refinancing and restructuring of a project-financed electric generating facility in Texas
- Represented project sponsors in the development and structuring of ethanol and related power generation facilities located throughout Latin America
- Represented various energy companies in the development, construction and financing of wind-powered and other renewable generating projects throughout the United States
- Represented various energy companies in the negotiation and documentation of power purchase, tolling and marketing agreements as well as in the preparation and analysis of bid and procurement submittals
- Represented various energy companies in the negotiation and documentation of construction, term loan, and revolving credit facilities and letter of credit facilities, on a project-finance and corporate-credit basis
- Represented a major energy company in the development and financing of a 1,060-megawatt generating facility in Mexico, a project that was named “Latin American Power Deal of the Year” by Project Finance
- Represented a large energy company in the development, financing and refinancing of a 600-megawatt generating facility in Mexico, which was named “Latin American Merchant Power Deal of the Year” by Project Finance
- Represented international power company in the development, construction and financing (and subsequent refinancing) of natural gas compression facilities located in Huimilpan, Mexico
- Represented a major U.S. automobile manufacturer in the nonrecourse bond financing of a utility and production support services project
- Represented a manufacturer in the sale-leaseback financing of automotive stamping equipment located in several U.S. states
Education
- George Mason University School of Law, J.D., 1995
- Georgetown University Law Center, LL.M. (with honors), 1997
- University of Texas, B.B.A., 1991
