Sidley represented Cenovus (NYSE: CVE), a Canadian integrated oil and gas company, in the sale, indirectly through wholly-owned subsidiaries, of its 50% interest in joint venture WRB Refining (WRB) to its joint venture partner Phillips 66. The consideration will consist of US$1.4 billion, subject to customary closing adjustments.
The WRB joint venture includes the Wood River Refinery in Illinois and the Borger Refinery in Texas, which have combined crude throughput capacity of 495,000 barrels per day (bbls/d), or 247,500 bbls/d net to Cenovus. After divesting its interest in WRB, Cenovus’s downstream business will be comprised of the Lloydminster Upgrader, Lloydminster Refinery, Lima Refinery, Toledo Refinery and Superior Refinery. Total crude throughput capacity of the business will be 472,800 bbls/d with approximately 55% heavy oil throughput capacity.
The team was led by Atman Shukla and Cliff Vrielink, with assistance from Courtney Beloin and Harris Dubin (all Energy and Infrastructure). Additional support on the transaction was provided by Environmental partner Heather Palmer and Tax partner Angela Richards.
