Kirkland Advises Ares on Acquisition of Stake in Rover Pipeline from Blackstone Energy Transition Partners
Kirkland & Ellis advised funds led by the Infrastructure Opportunities strategy of Ares Management Corporation on its acquisition from funds managed by Blackstone Energy Transition Partners of a 32.4% stake in the Rover Pipeline. Rover is a large-scale natural gas transmission pipeline that provides critical connectivity from the Appalachian Basin to high-value end markets across North America. The asset’s footprint spans approximately 700 miles across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan, with transportation capacity of 3.425 Bcf/d that is substantially contracted under long-term agreements with high-quality counterparties. Blackstone acquired its interest in Rover in 2017, supporting the pipeline’s development and completion in 2018. The asset is operated by an affiliate of Energy Transfer LP, a leading North American midstream energy company.
The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Rob Goodin, Jimmy Chalk, Phil Greenfield, Aaron King, Tyler Ciavarra and Colby Gardner; tax lawyers Bill Dong and Griffin Peeples; debt finance lawyers Rohit Chaudhry, Olivia George and Meng Ding; energy regulatory lawyer Drew Stuyvenberg; environmental transactions lawyer Jim Dolphin; and real asset transactions lawyers Chad Smith and Jonathan Strom.
