Iain is a Senior Counsel in our infrastructure and energy and natural resources practice. He advises on all aspects of the infrastructure, energy and natural resources value-chain including M&A, joint ventures, government support, commercial and regulatory matters and engineering, construction, operation and maintenance arrangements. Iain’s experience spans a number of sectors, including oil and gas, traditional power, nuclear and emerging technologies such as CCUS. Iain also has significant experience working on complex commercial contracts.
Highlights include advising:
- Ørsted on various offshore wind farm projects, including its disposal of a 50% interest in the Hornsea 1, Walney Extension, Race Bank, Westermost Rough and Hornsea 3 offshore wind farms in the UK, and the Borssele 1 & 2 offshore wind farm in the Netherlands
- SEGRO on its entry into a joint venture with Pure DC to develop a fully-fitted data centre - an innovative partnership to develop a 56MW data centre in Park Royal, West London, with gross capital investment anticipated to be c.£1 billion
- Government of the Republic of Botswana on the renegotiation of its arrangements with De Beers
- ENGIE S.A. in relation to its negotiations with the Belgian Government concerning a ten-year lifetime extension of two nuclear units
- INEOS on a £150 million bespoke funding package for its Grangemouth site, supported by a £75 million loan guaranteed by His Majesty’s Government and provided by National Westminster Bank PLC, and a £50 million grant from His Majesty’s Government
- Drax on a new low carbon dispatchable contract-for-difference for transitional revenue support for Drax Power Station
- PTTEP in relation to its acquisition from Wintershall Dea of a 10% participating interest in the Ghasha Concession
- INEOS Inovyn on the sale of its shares in INOVYN Produzione Italia, which operates the Rosignano and Tavazzano sites in Italy, to Esseco Industrial
- Centrica plc and its 69% subsidiary, Spirit Energy, on the sale of Spirit Energy’s entire portfolio of Norwegian oil and gas assets and the Statfjord field in two linked transactions
- Hyphen Hydrogen Energy as lead global counsel on the multi-billion US dollar structuring and development of a vertically integrated large-scale hydrogen project including renewable generation, water desalination and transport, electrolysis, hydrogen transport, and ammonia production, storage, and shipping
- BlackRock on its consortium investment in Tata Power Renewable Energy
- Centrica Energy Storage on the extension of the exemption from the requirement to offer access to third parties at the Rough storage facility
- Spirit Energy Production UK in respect of the Morecambe Net Zero Cluster, a planned carbon dioxide storage facility in the Irish Sea
Iain is described as “great at combining expert legal advice with advice on handling and tactics”, “very responsive to client needs” and “great at explaining issues to non-lawyers; always pragmatic and good at zeroing in on issues and on what it would take to get a deal done” – Legal 500, Power (including electricity and nuclear).