Press Release
Sustainability-Focused Buyer Acquires Assets through Bankruptcy Sale
Press Release
Press Contacts: Erik Cummins, Matt Hyams, Olivia Thomas
09.13.17
A team of Pillsbury lawyers advised Northstar Offshore Ventures LLC (NOV), a Houston-based, wholly owned subsidiary of Orinoco Natural Resources, as it acquired certain oil and gas assets from Northstar Offshore Group, LLC in a Section 363 bankruptcy sale, the companies have announced. In a sale approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur on August 2, NOV paid cash and other consideration for 17 offshore oil fields and two primary-term lease blocks located on the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico.
NOV assumes all of the associated environmental liabilities for the purchased assets, along with the responsibility of decommissioning wells that are no longer productive. The transaction has a total value exceeding $71 million, with the buyer assuming approximately $45 million in surety obligations and close to $13 million in trade liabilities.
Orinoco is a Roanoke, Va.-based natural resources firm owned by Tom and Ana Clarke, who also control the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, Inc. Pillsbury previously advised VCLF in its $860 million acquisition of the bankrupt Patriot Coal Corp.’s assets in 2015. That innovative, award-winning transaction preserved hundreds of coal-mining jobs and was designed to pair subterranean coal mining with carbon credits generated by tree planting and other sustainability efforts.
The Pillsbury team advising NOV in the transaction was led by Insolvency & Restructuring partners Patrick Potter, Hugh Ray III and Andrew Troop and Corporate senior counsel Dan Brown. Also on the team were Insolvency & Restructuring senior associate Dania Slim and associates Jason Sharp and Will Hotze; Corporate associate Naresh Lall; Energy partner Sheila Harvey and associate Meghan Hammond; Finance partner Jonathan Goldstein; Executive Compensation & Benefits partner Howard Clemons; and Environmental & Natural Resources special counsel Reza Zarghamee and associate Darin Smith.