Andrés F. Chaves

Andrés brings more than 20 years of experience advising clients across the energy and infrastructure sector in the United States and internationally. He counsels project sponsors and developers, multilateral and other lenders, private equity investors, and other stakeholders on complex project development and finance matters, with particular experience in offtake and power management agreements, and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) agreements.

Andrés focuses his practice on oil and gas; refinery and petrochemical projects; pipelines and other midstream facilities; mining and natural resources; liquefied natural gas (including regasification terminals); renewable energy; utilities; and manufacturing. Drawing on a background in construction and engineering, he guides clients through the full lifecycle of energy projects — from development and procurement through financing, construction, operations, and exit. Andrés regularly negotiates project and commercial agreements, including power purchase agreements (PPAs) and virtual PPAs, equipment supply and procurement agreements, and build-transfer arrangements. He also handles private mergers and acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, joint ventures, and cross-border commercial arrangements. On the financing side, Andrés work includes secured syndicated bank facilities, development finance institution financings, export credit agency-backed facilities, mezzanine financings, and structured investments in midstream oil and gas.

A native of Colombia, Andrés is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was one of only 10 foreign cadets admitted in his class.

• Represented a leading utility in the U.S. in the over $1 billion secured syndicated financing for the development of a 250 MW photovoltaic solar park in California.
• Represented a leading infrastructure developer in the negotiation of an EPC contract and major equipment supply agreements for a 250 MW PV solar project within the Westland Solar Park in California.
• Represented a private sponsor of a solar park in Texas in its negotiation of a virtual PPA with a corporate electricity buyer and an Operation and Power Management Agreement with an independent asset manager.
• Represented a major utility in the U.S. in the negotiation of the EPC contracts for a greenfield wind farm and solar park, and the Build Transfer Agreements for the sale of such projects to a strategic buyer.
• Represented a private sponsor in the development (including negotiation of an EPC contract) and $224 million mezzanine financing of a 144 MW hydroelectric power plant in Guatemala.
• Represented a publicly traded power producer in the $111 million secured syndicated financing by commercial banks and DFIs for the development of a 100 MW portfolio of PV solar power plants in El Salvador.
• Represented a privately held energy infrastructure developer in the negotiation of an EPC contract for a 136 MW portfolio of eight PV solar power plants and associated interconnection facilities in Chile.
• Represented a privately held energy infrastructure developer in the negotiation of an O&M agreement for its solar generation facilities at its Termonorte power plant in Colombia.
• Represented a multilateral financial institution and a group of private equity investors in their $384 million investment in a midstream oil & gas joint venture in Colombia.
• Represented a joint venture of two South American state-owned oil & gas companies in the negotiation of a $14 billion EPC contract for a greenfield oil refining complex to be built in Ecuador.
• Represented a South American public utility in the $196 million financing from a foreign export-import bank of a 117 MW gas-fired combined-cycle generator and various upgrades to existing generation facilities.
• Represented a South American sovereign in the $260 million financing from a multilateral lender of the capital city’s first metro line.
• Represented a South American sovereign in the $125 million financing from a multilateral lender for the development and construction of new governmental office and administrative facilities in the capital city.
• Represented a South American national oil & gas company in the sale of over 190 million barrels of crude oil to China valued at over $16 billion, with a prepayment structure of $2 billion.
• Represented a private equity-backed developer in the proposed development of an LNG regasification terminal, storage, gas supply system and 3,200 MW gas-fired power project in Vietnam.