Milbank Represents Group Of International Lenders In $692 Million Financing For New Deep Sea Drilling Ship Purchased By Brazil's Schahin Group

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL, December 14, 2011 – In one of the most significant cross-border financings involving Brazil's offshore energy sector this year, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has represented a consortium of major international lenders providing a US$692 million debt facility for the purchase of the Black Diamond I deepwater drillship by Schahin Group. The Brazilian energy and construction conglomerate is purchasing the drillship – to be built by Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries – and will then charter it to Brazil's Petrobras (Petróleo Brasileiro SA). Schahin Group has also entered into an operating agreement with Petrobras. Milbank advised joint lead arrangers The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim), Mizuho Corporate Bank, WestLB AG and Standard Chartered Bank – along with a group of five other lenders from Europe and Asia.

A series of recent offshore discoveries by Petrobras have catapulted Brazil to the front ranks of energy-rich nations – industry watchers project that the country could become the world's fourth-largest oil producer over the next decade. The Black Diamond I drillship – vital in the pursuit of capturing deepwater oil and gas reserves – has the capacity to operate in sea depths up to 3,000 meters (9,800 feet), and drill to a depth up to 10,000 meters, including area beneath the seabed (32,800 feet).

Milbank project finance partner Daniel...