Overview
Investment decisions and regulatory outcomes rely on well thought out assessments of potential markets and inherent risks. To help our clients in this regard, Bates White experts provide a solid understanding of potential markets and revenues, assessments of the costs of building infrastructure and delivering fuel, and evaluations of the risk of competitive alternatives. We also help clients understand their exposure to potential changes in, and between, fuel prices and transportation values. In addition, our experts have developed market assessments or valuations of natural gas and oil distribution companies, LNG vaporization terminals, interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines and storage facilities, fuel supply contracts for electric generation facilities, and fuel procurement and hedging programs.
Bates White’s experts have developed and managed natural gas and fuel oil procurement plans, including auctions and RFPs, under a variety of supply configurations (e.g., AMAs, direct buys, long-term contracts, storage, etc.). We have evaluated and recommended combinations of transportation, storage, and fuel contracts that support the needs of LDCs, electric generators, and other end-use customers. We have used economic theory and econometrics to demonstrate that gasoline wholesalers were appropriately passing the volumetric temperature adjustment along the supply chain to retailers. From evaluating standard form fuel contracts to addressing complex financial issues such as the “debt equivalency” of long-term hedges, our professionals manage the fuel procurement process from concept to evaluation to providing regulatory support for clients’ plans.
Selected Work
- Retained by Macquarie Capital USA to conduct market and commercial due diligence in the acquisition of the partially built Norte III combined cycle power plant, one of the largest of its kind in Mexico, from its bankrupt developer.
- Served as testifying expert before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in a contract dispute involving a major natural gas extraction and LNG project in Latin America.
- On behalf of a consortium of producers in Pluspetrol et al v. Perupetro, provided an expert report and testimony, in a matter before ICSID, regarding the appropriate method for determining the reference price necessary to calculate the royalty payments for natural gas produced and exported as LNG.
- In In re Western States Wholesale Natural Gas Antitrust Litigation, submitted an expert report and deposition testimony in support of the defendants’ opposition to the plaintiffs’ motions for class certification.
- On behalf of an equipment manufacturer, evaluated market penetration of client's versus competitor's vehicle fueling equipment following allegations of lost market share due to false advertising.
- Served as a rebuttal witness in the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) rate cases filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on behalf of the PNGTS Shippers Group.