Alexandre R. Chequer

For over a decade, Alexandre R. Chequer has maintained his position as a top-ranked legal expert in the Oil & Gas sector and has been ranked by prestigious legal publication Chambers Brazil and Chambers Global every year since 2007. His exceptional work in the Oil & Gas sector has recently earned him further accolades, including his induction into The The Legal 500: Latin America’s "Hall of Fame" for the ‘Hydrocarbons’ ranking.

Alex’s experience highlights his versatility and flexibility. The broad range of his work includes mergers and acquisitions, regulatory and project development of large infrastructure projects, including LNG, GTL, Gas to Power, pipelines, FPSOs and refineries, unitizations, exploration, development, and production operations, production sharing contracts, host government negotiations and dispute resolution (litigation, arbitration, and expert testimony.

• Advised Forbes & Manhattan on the acquisition of 100% of the stake held by Petrobras in Paraná Xisto S.A. (as operator of SIX) and associated infrastructure, including a mine located in one of the world’s largest reserves of oil shale, as well as a shale processing plant. In addition to providing legal advice on complex transaction matters, we are representing F&M on several regulatory issues related to the acquisition, including negotiations with the ANP for the decommissioning guarantee to be offered by F&M.
• Advised Diatoms on the acquisition of equity interest in the Landulpho Alves Refnery and related storage terminal and pipeline infrastructure and other related assets from Petrobras in Bahia.
• Represented CNOOC in the landmark transaction of the Transfer of Rights Surplus Bid Round for the acquisition of Búzios field, located in Santos basis, the largest deepwater oilfield discovered in the world so far. The total amount paid by the consortium for the acquisition of the petroleum rights was R$69 billion.
• Represented GDF International, Engie Brasil Energia S.A. and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (“CDPQ”) in the acquisition of a 90% shareholding stake in Transportadora Associada de Gás S.A. (“TAG”) from Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (“Petrobras”) with a value of USD8.6 billion. The acquisition of TAG – the largest natural gas transportation company in Brazil– is Engie’s debut in the natural gas segment in Brazil and CDPQ's first infrastructure investment in Brazil. Our firm played a prominent role in this groundbreaking transaction in a challenging regulatory environment by advising Engie and CDPQ in corporate, regulatory, tax, compliance, litigation, real estate, labor, environment and antitrust matters.
• Barra Energia in sale of its 10% working interest to Equinor in the Carcará pre-salt area (BM-S-8 Block), offshore Santos Basin in the amount of USD390 million.
• Represented Wintershall Dea in the sale to Murphy Oil of a 30% non-operated participating interest in blocks POT-M-857, POT-M-863, POT-M-865 offshore in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
• Represented Chevron in a US$25 million sale of its 30-percent, non-operating stake of the Maromba field in the Campos basin block located in offshore Brazil waters to Oslo-listed FPSO operator BW Offshore.
• Represented Chevron in a US$450 million sale of its 51.74-percent operating stake of the Frade field in the Campos basin block located in offshore Brazil waters to PetroRio, a Brazilian independent oil and gas company.
• Represented Rowan Companies (Valaris) in the acquisition of two jack-up rigs from Petrobras Netherlands B.V. At the time of the acquisition by Petrobras, the two rigs were an investment of approximately USD 360 million per rig.
• Represented Total S.A. in the acquisition of approximately US$ 2.2 billion in assets from Petrobras’ divestment plan. The transaction involved assignment of participating interest in Iara and Lapa pre-salt fields (Santos Basin) from Petrobras to Total; option of assignment of participation in Perdido Foldbelt (Gulf of Mexico) from Total to Petrobras; sharing of capacity of Petrobras’ regasification terminal; and acquisition of equity participation by Total in Rômulo de Almeida and Celso Furtado power plants (Bahia).
• Represented Chevron in the analysis and acquisition of Pre-Salt Blocks in the 4th and 5th Pre-Salt Bid Rounds in the amount of R$3.2 billion.
• Represented SK Energy in the US$2.4 billion sale of its Brazilian assets to Maersk olie ag gas a/s
• Represented the PTTEP in the acquisition of  20 percent participating interest from Shell Brasil Petroleo Ltda in Concession BM-ES-23 in Brazil.
• Represented Parnaíba Gás Natural S.A. (ENEVA), the largest natural gas E&P company in Brazil, in the acquisition of 50% participating interest held by Delp Engenharia Mecânica S.A. (16.665%), Imetame Energia S.A. (16.7%) and Orteng Equipamentos e Sistemas (16.665%)in the BT-PN-1 Concession (Parnaíba Basin).
• Represented Sonangol in the negotiation of contracts for exploration and production of petroleum in the Quaiyarah and Najmah contract areas in Iraq in the amount of USD1 billion.
• Represented Ecopetrol, in its first project in Africa, in the acquisition of Statoil’s 10% participating interest in Blocks 38/11 and 39/11 (Kwanza Basin), located offshore Angola.
• Represented MIR STEEL, a company based in the United Kingdom and owned by a Russian billionaire, in a US$800 million deal for the formation of a joint venture with Companhia Siderúrgica do Pará – Cosipar, in the State of Para, Brazil.
• Represented JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Brasil) Ltda. in (i) the evaluation of the relevant documents regarding the participating interest in Block FZA-M-320 offered by Ecopetrol Óleo e Gás do Brasil Ltda.; (ii) submission of an offer to Ecopetrol Óleo e Gás do Brasil Ltda. for the participating interest as defined by the JX Nippon after the evaluation and due diligence processes; (iii) formation of a consortium to hold interest in such asset; and (iv) preparing of the relevant documents to be executed by the parties and filed with the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), in Brazil.
• Represented Sonangol in the acquisition of the Luanda refinery plus exploration and production rights of the Blocks 15/06 and 17/o6 from Total in the amount of US$1.3 billion.
• Represented Mitsui in the acquisition of shares to consolidate its position as the controlling shareholder of a Swiss company that owns the totality of the shares issued by a leading Brazilian agribusiness company in the amount of US$1 billion.
• Represented a major Maersk olie ag gas a/s in the acquisition of exploration and production rights of Block BM-C 34 from BP, in the pre-salt layer in Brazil, valued at US$300million.
• Represented Encana Corporation in the sale of Encana Brazil for Hydro ASA, valued at US$350 million in Brazil.
• Represented a major Maersk olie ag gas a/s in the sale of a 20% participating interest and transfer of operatorship to OGX in Concessions BM-C-37 and BM-C-38 in Brazil.
• Represented Vale S.A., on the assignment to GDF Suez E&P International S.A. of 20% participation in concessions BT-PN-2 and BT-PN-3 (Parnaíba Basin).
• Represented Petrobras in the post-closing issues of Transportadora de Gas del Sur in the $1.8 billion acquisition of Perez Companc in Argentina.
• Represented Cameron (Schlumberger) in the due diligence and negotiation involving the acquisition of a Brazilian manufacturer of onshore/offshore valves and wellhead equipment in Brazil.
• Represented BP in the acquisition of a 40% participating interest from Petrobras in four blocks in the Equatorial Margin, Brazil.

Project Development:

• Advised Karadeniz Group on all corporate, contractual, regulatory (energy, gas, maritime, port, environmental), tax, labor, immigration and real estate issues related to floating thermoelectric plants – UTE Karkey 013, UTE Karkey 019, UTE Porsud I and UTE Porsud II – winners of the 2021 Emergency Auction.
• Representing Eneva in the structuring and development of the integrated reservoir-to-wire project UTE Jaguatirica with installed capacity of 117 MW in the State of Roraima. Eneva will produce, process and liquefy the gas from the Azulão Field in the State of Amazonas and transport the LNG through trucks for 1000km to UTE Jaguatirica.
• Representing CNPC in the development of the giant Mozambique LNG Project.
• Representing CNOOC in all aspects for the development of the giant Libra oil field in Brazil.
• Representing Golar Power in the development of the Barcarena gas to power project in Brazil.
• Represented GE Energy Financial Services in the modeling and implementation of a gas-to-power project in the State of Sergipe, Brazil with investments over R$5 billion.
• Represented Norsk Hydro in the structuring of an LNG project, which consists in the importation of LNG to be regasified in an FSRU terminal or a regasification plant, which will provide gas to an alumina refinery and potentially to other customers, including thermo power plants.
• Represented Sonangol in one of the largest integrated LNG projects in the world, the Angola LNG project, with investments of more than US$10 billion in Angola and the US.
• Represented Rowan Companies (Valaris) in the organization of its operations and negotiation of drilling contracts in Angola, Mexico and Egypt.
• Represented Weatherford International in the negotiation and organization of 2 joint ventures in Angola for the construction of manufacturing facilities with investments of more than US$100 million.
• Represented Petrobras in the negotiation of joint ventures and in the analysis of two “Contratos de Serviços Múltiplos” for the exploration and production of natural gas in Fronterizo and Cuervito blocks Mexico, for the total amount of US$525 million.
• Represented SINOPEC in a US$1.3 billion fertilizer plant on the border of Brazil and Bolivia.
• Represented a project developer of the first ethanol pipeline project in Brazil, valued at US$1.1 billion.
• Represented SINOPEC  in the construction of a US$2 billion pipeline project in Brazil.
• Represented Sonangol in the project development of a US$1 billion regasification plant in Louisiana, USA.
• Represented Petrobras in the construction and acquisition of power plants in Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico.
• Represented Petrobras in negotiating joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions and regulatory issues in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Angola and Nigeria.
• Represented TEXACO (Chevron) in the due diligence of the privatization of a natural gas utility in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Represented Weatherford International in the negotiation and organization of a joint venture in Argentina with investments of more than US$70 million.
• Represented Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation in the negotiation of 2 PSAs and JOAs with Sonangol EP in Angola.

Regulatory Matters:

• Advised Eneva in drafting and negotiating an unprecedented contract for the purchase and sale of small-scale Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by road transportation with Suzano. This was Eneva's first LNG supply contract with an industrial customer.
• Advised Storengy in the first white hydrogen project in Brazil, advising client before the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), The National Council of Energy Policy (CNPE), and the Brazilian Petroleum Agency (ANP).
• Represented the Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil in the drafting of petroleum law, exploration and production agreement, the organization of the National Petroleum Agency and several decrees for opening the oil and gas sector in Brazil.
• Represented Petrorio in the first and successful negotiation for the reduction of royalties at the ANP. This is a leading case in Brazil.
• represented CNOOC in connection with the 3rd Pre-salt Bid Round and the sensitive discussion held with the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency – ANP during the qualification phase, as there was an understanding that all Chinese state-owned companies were under the same corporate control and, therefore, could not submit offers for the same area. We have convinced the ANP to change its understanding on this matter.
• Barra Energia in the first JOA forfeiture in Brazil with positive result in the arbitration award (exclusion of Dommo of the JOA due to defaults) against Dommo. This is a leading case in Brazil.
• Currently representing Exxon Mobil at the ANP in the legal matters arising out of a default of its partner (OGX) under the JOA and the Concession Contract.
• Represented Petronas in connection with the registrations and qualification processes for the 2nd and 3rd Pre-Salt Rounds and the 14th Concession Bid Round organized by ANP,
• Represented several national and international oil and gas exploration and production companies in connection with the qualification and bidding for exploratory blocks in the ANP Bid Rounds
• Represented El Paso in the first unitization in Brazil on Block BM-CAL-04 with the concessionaire of Block BCAM-40, located in Camamu-Almada Basin, Brazil.
• Represented Total in connection with the Xerelete Field unitization, located in Campos Basin, Brasil.
• Represented Parnaíba Gás Natural S.A (ENEVA) in several Local Content waiver requests to ANP in connection with the procurement of drilling rigs for the company’s exploration activities in certain concessions held by it in the Parnaíba Basin.
• Represented Maersk Oil in the negotiations of the pre-unitization agreement, the unitization agreement and the unit operating agreement for a field in Campos Basin, currently under development offshore Brazil.
• Represented GALP in connection with a unitization involving a concession area (Lula Field – one of the largest Fields of the Brazilian pre-salt layer) that straddles into an area of “onerous assignment” to Petrobras and an open acreage in the pre-salt area. Such unitization is a pioneer case in Brazil, since it involves three different E&P regimes – concession, production sharing and “onerous assignment”.
• Represented the Ministry of Petroleum of Angola in the negotiations of the cross-border unitization of Cabinda area with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Represented Newfield Exploration Company in the first arbitration against the ANP under the Concession Agreement.
•  Represented Petronas on issues arising from a proposed unitization arrangement with neighboring blocks in Su Tu Nau area, in Vietnam, including the revision of the unitization agreement and joint development agreement, assessing the implications of conceding to new rules and regulations and its effects on the rights and obligations under the separate PSC of each block.
• Represented CNOOC in the qualification for the 1st Pre-salt Bid Round in Brazil and all actions related to the payment of the signature bonus and signing of the 1st Production Sharing Agreement in Brazil – named 2013’ Regulatory Deal of the Year by Latin Lawyer magazine.
• Represented Parnaiba Gas Natural S. A (ENEVA) in connection with regulatory issues related to the acquisition of another Brazilian independent oil and gas E&P, case in which for the first time the ANP accepted the return of Performance Guarantees from qualified Operators.
• Represented the Ministry of Petroleum of Angola on OPEC matters and on drafting a variety of legislation, including Angola’s Gas Law, Biofuels Law and Downstream Law.
• Represented the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation in the drafting of the Biofuels Law for Nigeria.
• Represented Sonangol in the drafting Decree Bill regarding amendments on the profit oil shares to Angolan Companies.

• Recognized in Energy in LACCA Approved
• “Alexandre Chequer is seasoned in M&A and joint ventures involving oil and gas players.” – The Legal 500) – Corporate/M&A
• “Alexandre Chequer is brilliant and, when he has an objective, he manages to achieve it in a confident and efficient way.” – The Legal 500
• Ranked as Thought Leaders for Energy in Who's Who Legal
• Ranked as Highly Regarded for M&A and Project development in IFLR
• Recognized in Corporate and UF - Rio de Janeiro in Análise Advocacia
• Respected head of department Alexandre Chequer is frequently sought out for representation in negotiations related to high-profile projects, M&A transactions and regulatory advice. A client says: "Alexandre is an excellent strategist and super experienced." Another client, who "contacts him just for complicated and big issues," concludes: "He is a fantastic lawyer." – Ranked as Band 1 for Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas in Chambers Brazil, 2021 and Chambers Global
• Head of department Alexandre Chequer has an excellent reputation among players in the oil and gas market, with one client asserting: "Alexandre is very well connected and very focused on this practice area. His knowledge and experience really makes us feel like we are in safe hands." Clients, who regularly "ask for his help on major issues," note: "He sees the bigger picture and the critical aspects of the matters. He is proactive and knowledgeable." – Ranked as Band 2 for Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas in Chambers Latin America and Chambers Global
• Seasoned founding partner Alexandre Chequer continues to be recognised within the market due to his expertise in high-end M&A transactions. He routinely advises prominent national and multinational players in connection with LNG projects and farm-out agreements. Chequer is also well equipped to assist with regulatory matters, bidding rounds and arbitration proceedings concerning sector-related contractual matters. In addition, he provides legal opinions to clients seeking to invest in the market. Chequer has notable expertise in lusophone Africa, particularly Angola, where he acts as external counsel to Sonangol. – Ranked as Band 2 for Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas in Chambers Latin America, 2020 and Chambers Global, 2020
• "Name partner Alexandre Chequer heads the practice in São Paulo and earns praise as a talented rainmaker." – Latin Lawyer 250
• "Alexandre Chequer, who is renowned for his oil and gas expertise." – Latin Lawyer 250
• "Alexandre Chequer, who is the point man for a number of major clients and held in very high regard." – – Latin Lawyer 250
• He draws on his extensive track record to advise on major hydrocarbons projects. – Chambers Latin America
• "an incredibly knowledgeable lawyer who has provided us with brilliant and pragmatic advice," –Chambers Latin America
• "He is very responsive and has delivered on every single occasion." – Chambers Latin America
• "He is one of the most renowned lawyers in the oil and gas market." – Chambers Latin America
• Alexandre Chequer is well known for his expertise in the oil and gas industry and remains highly active in M&A, joint ventures and the development of upstream, midstream and downstream projects. He is additionally noted for his experience advising on heavy industries and LNG projects. – Chambers Latin America
• "heads the team and is considered to be a respected figure in the oil and gas sector" – Chambers Latin America
• "an excellent developer" – Chambers Latin America
• "accomplished lawyer" – Chambers Latin America
• "experience, knowledge and availability" – Chambers Latin America
• "is acknowledged in the market for his expertise in the oil and gas sector" – Chambers Latin America
• "He also has experience conducting joint ventures " – Chambers Latin America
• "He's able to handle and anticipate our needs [...] a very solid lawyer." – Chambers Latin America
• "A renowned dealmaker, able to be both a top rainmaker and an excellent technical lawyer. A great choice for oil & gas companies. They are always very diligent, answer my requests quickly and are available to attend meetings to improve the strategy that should be adopted. [...] excellent expertise." – Latin Lawyer 250
• "Alexandre Chequer is renowned for his oil and gas expertise." – Latin Lawyer
• "Alexandre Chequer is also prominent." – Latin Lawyer
• "Alexandre Chequer is point man for a number of major clients." – Latin Lawyer
• "Leading name.” – WWL
• "Alexandre Chequer is an acclaimed oil and gas lawyer who also stands out in infrastructure. He's very good at representing clients before the regulatory agencies," say sources, "and he puts all his resources into helping them achieve their goals." "Alexandre Chequer is much acclaimed for his industry expertise and focuses his practice on M&A, joint ventures and infrastructure development." "Alexandre Chequer wins clients praise as a superb relationship partner, who is very practical and energetic with a can-do attitude and an agreeable personality." – Chambers and Partners
• "Alexandre Chequer combines strong corporate and project expertise with deep knowledge of the Oil & Gas industry. He co-heads a gloal energy industry team across Mayer Brown." – Chambers and Partners
• "…rainmaker for oil and gas issues and is noted for his experience, technical knowledge and great client service..." "…outstanding lawyer with strong presence and real authority… he has in-depth knowledge and passion for the subject…" – Chambers and Partners
• "The 'exceptional' practice head Alexandre Chequer is 'extremely dedicated to clients' and a 'savvy negotiator'. Chequer 'understands how to mediate between Brazilian and international expectations'." –The Legal 500
• "Clients value his extensive knowledge of the Brazilian legal system and his ability to bridge the cultural gap for companies based abroad." – Chambers Directory 2011, Latin America’s Top Twenty Oil & Gas Experts