Energy

Stikeman Elliott's energy practice spans the breadth of the Canadian oil and gas, electricity and renewable energy industries.

Oil & Gas

Stikeman Elliott's Energy Group participates in a broad range of transactions in the oil and gas industry. Our work in this area includes mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, debt, equity and project financings, restructurings, marketing arrangements for oil, gas and other petroleum substances and derivative products related to those marketing activities. Our Energy Group includes several of Canada's most prominent business lawyers.

Our clients include the developers, owners and operators of oil and gas properties and midstream and downstream facilities, large industrial gas users as well as investors in and lenders to participants in the oil and gas industry. We also represent marketers of petroleum substances and entities providing oil and gas field services including seismic, drilling and well fractionation services.

Our oil and gas practice has a significant international dimension. We represent Canadian companies seeking to invest worldwide and for international investors seeking to invest in Canadian oil and gas assets. Our expertise and the strong relationships we have built with our clients allow us to efficiently manage legal issues within the context of our clients' strategic business objectives in order to achieve successful outcomes.

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Electricity & Power Generation 

Lawyers in our Energy Group have significant experience in electricity matters, including with respect to generation, transmission, marketing and regulation or electricity. Among other significant mandates, Stikeman Elliott has acted for both the Ontario Power Authority and independent power providers in connection with power procurement processes and negotiations and ongoing mandates for the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and the Ontario Energy Board.

The firm gained formative experience as counsel to the Market Design Committee responsible for establishing the framework for electricity market deregulation in the province of Ontario and to the Transmission Administrator in Alberta. The Energy Group also has extensive experience in the nuclear power sector. We have an understanding of the legal and practical issues affecting electricity generation and electricity transmission in Canada and internationally.

The Group also has extensive experience in connection with project development, construction, financing and public-private partnership arrangements in the industry. Our lawyers also frequently advise with respect to strategic acquisitions, dispositions and consolidations of assets and companies in the electrical sector.

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Renewable Energy

Our Energy Group's experience in the energy sector extends to alternative sources of energy and to renewable energy. We have acted for clients with respect to wind, solar and hydroelectric power projects, in addition to projects in emerging areas involving ethanol, biomass, geothermal and methane.

We are counsel to the Ontario Power Authority in its recent procurement process for renewable energy RFP and have acted for a number of alternative energy producers and proponents on a broad number of mandates including structuring, financing, development, acquisitions and divestitures, supply and distribution activities. We have also assisted a number of foreign alternative energy suppliers in their establishment of Canadian operations.

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Recognition for Our Work

The firm has been recognized as a Canadian leader in the Energy sector. International legal directories such as Chambers Global's Guide to The World's Leading Lawyers for Business and PLC Which Lawyer? have endorsed Stikeman Elliott's Energy Group, while the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory notes the firm is "repeatedly recommended" in the industry. Individual accolades for lawyers in the group have come from these directories, as well as The Best Lawyers In Canada and the Lexpert/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada.

Among our individual Energy Group lawyers:

• Glenn Cameron has been recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the areas of Corporate Commercial Law, Energy (Oil & Gas) and "Repeatedly Recommended" in the areas of Energy (Electricity), Private Equity, Mergers & Acquisitions and Project Finance; in The Best Lawyers in Canada in the areas of Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, Natural Resources Law (Oil & Gas) and Securities Law; and in Lexpert / American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the areas of Corporate Commercial Law and Energy (Oil & Gas).
• Christopher Nixon has been recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the areas of Corporate Commercial Law, Corporate Finance and Securities, Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions; in The Best Lawyers in Canada in the areas of Corporate Law (Finance) and Mergers and Acquisitions Law; and in Lexpert / American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the areas of Corporate Commercial Law, Corporate Finance and Securities and Mergers & Acquisitions.
• Lou Cusano has been recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the area of Energy (Electricity); in The Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of Energy Regulatory Law (Electricity); and in Lexpert / American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the area of Energy (Electricity).
• Jim Harbell has been recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory and the Lexpert/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada as a leading practitioner "Most Frequently Recommended" in the area of Energy (Electricity).
• Erik Richer La Flèche is recognized by Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Project Finance Lawyers and The International Who's Who of Public Procurement Lawyers. He is also included as a "leading lawyer" in the project finance sector of the IFLR1000 Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms.

Recent Group Activities

Energy blog launches
The firm's new blog resource CanadianEnergyLaw.com is the latest addition to our blog lineup. The site provides real-time information and commentary on relevant topics including oil and gas, climate change, electricity, emissions trading, pipelines and storage, regulatory and renewable energy from a variety of our leading lawyers across Canada.