About

Number of years practice: 33 Principal practice areas: Energy and infrastructure projects, private equity, M&A and financial services Bar admissions: Texas Languages spoken: English, French, German and Spanish

Seasoned practitioner Ken Culotta is at the forefront of domestic and cross-border investment, and commercial and financial transactions in the energy sector. Head of King & Spalding’s projects and infrastructure practice, he is a true ‘Americas-specialist’ – although his activity is not limited to the western-hemisphere. His practice focuses extensively on the oil-and-gas, LNG and petrochemicals sub-sectors but also reaches into other areas such as housing and telecoms. As head of the global transactions practice he manages a 60-strong group of projects, transactional and regulatory lawyers in seven countries. Nevertheless, Culotta continues to devote a substantial part of his practice to Latin American matters and has an increasing participation in Mexico-related work, particularly mid-stream oil-and-gas. Advising a broad range of clients on domestic and cross-border energy and infrastructure investment, financing and monetisation transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, project development and finance, he also handles the public and private law issues involved in structuring, documenting and negotiating these transactions, as well as working on commercial agreements for site acquisition, revenue generation, the hedging of financial exposure, raw materials and feedstock inputs, and the construction, financing and operation of facilities. His current mandates include co-leading on a Mexican hydrocarbons import project involving terminal development and associated pipeline matters. Other mandates have seen him advise a Mexican private-equity portfolio company on the development and financing of a proposed marine fuel import terminal, transport pipeline and inland distribution terminal; and assist Tejas Gas Company with the structuring and documentation of its participation in two gas transportation pipeline projects in Mexico, along with the obtaining of associated relevant permits.