Find Lawyers in Italy for Energy Law

Energy law is the field of law regarding all the legal matters related to conventional and renewable energy sources.More particularly, energy law covers the following sectors: (i) oil & gas exploration and production (so-called “upstream”); (ii) liquefied natural gas; (iii) power generation from conventional and renewable sources; (iv) oil, gas, and electricity transmission, distribution, and storage (so-called “midstream”); (iv) refining; (v) trading and marketing of energy commodities (so-called “downstream”); and (vi) environment protection.

Energy clients are typically oil and gas providers, power producers both from conventional (such as oil, gas, coal, etc.) and renewable sources (solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal heat, etc.), pipelines companies, transmission system operators and other regulated players (e.g. local distribution companies), as well as energy service companies (e.g. in the field of the energy efficiency), commodities traders, energy intensive end-customers, investors (e.g. infrastructure funds),  and financiers (e.g. lenders, ECAs, etc.) active in the sector.

Energy law practitioners must be able to handle all legal aspects of a project or transaction, providing inter alia assistance on:

• specific regulatory matters (in the energy field, in fact, many activities are regulated by national and international authorities, for instance, ACER, ESMA, etc.);

• energy industry contracts (e.g. production sharing and joint operating agreements, EPC and O&M contracts, drilling contracts, storage and pipeline transportation agreements, tolling agreements, power purchase agreements, gas and electricity supply agreements, inventory financing agreements, energy efficiency contracts, etc.)

• all phases of the projects development, including permitting, private or public tendering procedures and concession agreements;

• in the context of a M&A transaction, legal due diligence process with specific advice on regulatory, permitting, and real estate issues, as well as special industry contracts in addition to general corporate advice;

• contracts with lenders providing the financing of the project (either in the context of acquisition financings or project financings);

• antitrust and competition matters.

It is essential, therefore, a lawyer assisting the client in this field has a perfect knowledge of the sector with specific regard both to the applicable regulatory framework and prevailing market practice, taking into account that the sector is significantly cross-border oriented.

In addition, energy lawyers must offer to their clients an interdisciplinary service given that energy projects and transactions require skilled expertise in a full range of legal areas (general corporate and contract law, M&A, international trade law, administrative public law, environmental law, project and acquisition finance, energy and finance regulations, real estate, tax, international arbitration, etc.).

With particular reference to Italy, energy law is mainly regulated by European legislation, both in terms of compliance (e.g. REMIT and EMIR, MiFID, MAR, emission trading and local regulation Directives) and general energy policy (e.g. in the field of energy efficiency, renewables, etc.), national legislation and resolutions issued by the energy regulator (Autorità per l’energia elettrica, il gas e il sistema idrico). In addition, with respect to permitting, also regional laws and local regulation may apply.