Jonathan H. Hines

Jon further regularly advises clients on the application of the current US and EU sanctions on projects and other commercial dealings relating to Russia. He also has experience in arbitration proceedings related to Russia/CIS transactions in Moscow, Stockholm, London, Paris, and Geneva. Jon is currently serving his third five-year appointed term on the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Commercial Arbitration Court (ICAC) at the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and is one of two non-Russians elected to and currently serving on ICAC’s governing Presidium.

Jon has been based in Moscow for 20 years, and has been involved in Russia/CIS region project work for 30 years. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Jon was a partner in the energy transactions practice of another international law firm.

He is fluent in Russian, and is conversant in French, Danish, and Norwegian.

Oil and Gas

Russia

• Current assistance to a major energy company on an LNG project financing in Russia
• Assistance to an Asian oil and gas major on proposed acquisition of strategic minority stake in substantial oil and gas field clusters controlled by a leading Russian NOC
• Assistance to a Russian major in a substantial upstream joint venture project with Mubadala Petroleum of Abu Dhabi and Russia Direct Investment Fund, covering a group of producing fields in Siberia
• Assistance to OMV of Austria on its pending joint venture with Gazprom and Wintershall to develop deep Achimov horizons of the large Urengoi field in the Yamal-Nenets region of Russia’s far north
• Advising a Russian major on its anticipated attraction of one or more foreign partners into development of a prospective field offshore Sakhalin
• Recent assistance to a consortium of India’s five leading NOCs on their pending new strategic minority stake investment into a group of Rosneft’s Vankor cluster licenses (currently on hold)
• For Equinor (formerly Statoil) of Norway, assistance on its large operational E&P venture with Rosneft, encompassing joint development of four offshore Russian blocks in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea and onshore oil fields in Russia
• Assisting a leading global oil services company on various upstream ventures and other contractual and disputes matters in Russia and Kazakhstan
• Assisting Lundin Petroleum in their planned venture with Rosneft to develop the Lagansky block in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea (suspended)
• Itera Holdings on establishment of a strategic joint venture with Rosneft to develop gas fields in the Yamalo-Nenets region of the Russian Arctic, and on the subsequent sale of its 49% share in the JV company to Rosneft for $2.9 billion
• A major energy company in its negotiations to acquire a minority stake in the $18 billion+ Yamal LNG project (controlled by Novatek, and with Total and other potential minority investors)
• Assistance to Equinor (formerly Statoil) (2004-2012) on the proposed $20 billion+ Shtokman First Phase mega-project with Gazprom and Total, planned to encompass development of a Barents Sea gas field (considered to be the world's largest offshore gas field), a 550-km pipeline to shore, an LNG plant near Murmansk and shipments to world markets, and the related overall project financing (project suspended as of late 2012)
• For Eni, the $5.8 billion acquisition of a package of substantial Russian (ex-Yukos) oil and gas E&P assets at auction in April 2007, and the follow-on $4.2 billion sale of one of these assets (a 20% stake in the Russian oil major Gazpromneft) to Gazprom in 2009
• For a European energy major, assistance on various aspects of its $4 billion+ farm-in to a strategic minority stake in the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas E&P enterprise in Russia, with Gazprom; and recent assistance to another European participant in this project on various operational matters
• Sponsor/operator ExxonMobil on many aspects of the Sakhalin 1 PSA project (1993 to 2006); and assistance first to a Japanese participant, and then to sponsor/operator Shell and the consortium company Sakhalin Energy, on many aspects of the Sakhalin 2 PSA project (1992 to 2010). These two projects, which are already in full development, together involve over $40 billion in investment

Central Asia / Caspian

• Assistance to an Asian oil and gas major on participation in auction bid process for acquisition of the ExxonMobil and Chevron stakes in the Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli (ACG) oilfield project in Azerbaijan and the related Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline company
• SOCAR in the successful negotiation and recent signing with the BP-led consortium of IOCs of an amended and restated ACG offshore fields production sharing agreement and related contracts for this super-giant project in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.  There has been over $30 billion in investment by the consortium and over 3 billion barrels of oil produced to date, and the PSA term is now extended to 2050
• For ONGC Videsh of India, assistance in its successful negotiations with KazMunayGas for joint development of the Satpaev E&P block in Kazakhstan’s Caspian offshore zone
• For Chevron, assistance on various important matters relating to its Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) and Tengizchevroil (TCO) investment
• Advising KNOC of Korea with regard to various Russia (and Kazakhstan) upstream ventures
• For CNPC of China, negotiation of a PSA for development of large gas reserves in the Amu Darya Basin onshore Turkmenistan, with gas pipeline from there through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China; also current assistance with certain important operational issues on the project
• For shareholders Eni and ExxonMobil and operators Agip KCO and more recently NCOC, advice on various important aspects of development and operation of the Kashagan mega-oil and gas field complex in Kazakhstan’s Caspian offshore zone, with total investment expected to be over $125 billion
• Assistance to six different international energy companies on proposed (one of them executed) PSA projects for Caspian offshore Turkmenistan sector blocks; and advice on onshore risk service contracts there for two other foreign companies
• Currently assisting the Georgia affiliate of SOCAR on various important aspects of its gas distribution business there

Ukraine

• Advising Ukrainian state-owned energy company Nadra Ukrayny and two of its affiliates as local partners to Shell and Chevron, tender winners on the major Yuzivska and Oleska onshore shale field production sharing agreement (PSA) gas development projects respectively (project suspended)
• Advising a US independent on a proposed production sharing agreement in Ukraine’s Black Sea zone

Mining

• For an investment consortium of Chinese private and state-owned companies, current assistance on proposed acquisition of majority stake in a Russian gold mining company
• An international investment firm in certain aspects of its recent sale of a controlling stake in the Klyuchevskoye Russia gold mining project company to state-owned China National Gold
• For ArcelorMittal, its successful $720 million acquisition from Severstal (Russia’s largest steel producer) of a package of important coal mining companies in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia; and various coal mine tender participations in Russia
• BHP Billiton in the formation of a joint venture with Norilsk Nickel regarding Russian mining and production activities and in other matters
• MMK, the major Russian steel producer, on various aspects of its disposition of a stake in a Russian minerals enterprise, and on a variety of other international business matters
• An India-based private investment company in a proposed diamond mining venture in the Perm region of Russia, and on a gold mining project in Kazakhstan
• Uralkali of Russia, the leading potash producer, on various transactional matters and in defense of a US federal court multiparty antitrust action

Other Sectors

• A European oil & gas major on its successful acquisition of a greenfield renewables energy project in Kazakhstan (Badamsha wind power) – the first-ever wind project in the country.
• A leading global retailer on its proposed $1 billion-plus acquisition of a large Russian retail chain (essentially all work was done; the client was then outbid by a local competitor)
• A leading Asian privately-owned conglomerate on a financing for its real estate holding subsidiary in Russia
• A Scandinavian manufacturer on a range of sensitive operational matters in Russia
• Aeroflot on its complex finance lease arrangements for 10 new Boeing 737 aircraft (involving the US EximBank and an international commercial bank syndicate), as well as operating leases for some Airbus aircraft

Recent publications and other activities (author or coauthor)

• Russia’s Regime of Foreign Investment Restrictions in Strategic Sectors With Focus on Mineral Resource Investments (as of August 2020)
• Russian Mineral Resource Projects: New Legal Developments (as of January 2020)
• "Russia" chapter in Practical Considerations to Negotiate an Enforceable Joint Operating Agreement under Civil Law Jurisdictions book, Second Edition (Wolters Kluwer, 2019)
• Russia Chapter, Arbitration, Getting the Deal Through (2019)
• “Kazakhstan’s New Subsoil Law in Focus,” FSUOGM (Week 48, 5 December 2018)
• “Corporate Disputes Under Russia’s Arbitration Reform,” Global Arbitration Review (April 2016)
• “Russia’s New Advanced Development Territories Law: Far East Focus,” Russia Beyond the Headlines (November 2015)
• “JOAs in Russia” chapter in Joint Operating Agreements: Challenges and Concerns from Civil Law Jurisdictions book (Wolters Kluwer, 2015)
• “Russia Selectively Liberalizes Gas Export Law for LNG,” Oil & Gas Journal (January 2014)
• “Russia’s Offshore Fields Projects: Fiscal (and Shelf Operations) Relief Has Come,” AIPN Advisor (December 2013)
• Speaker and/or co-chairman at several conferences – on oil & gas industry and general investment matters – in Russia, Central Asia, Western Europe, U.A.E., Japan, China and India, 1990 to date