Juan Carlos Garantón-Blanco

Practice Areas

Corporate

Energy

Expropriations and Nationalizations

Project Finance

Mergers and Acquisitions

Real Estate and Construction

Commercial and Corporate

Mining

Taxation

Career

• International Hydrocarbons Business Management Program. IESA. 2015

• Master’s in International Taxation. New York University (NYU). 2003.

• Post-graduate Degree in Financial Law. Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. 1994.

• Lawyer. Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. 1991.

Professional Memberships

Juan Carlos is a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) since 1998, and a founder of the Venezuelan Chapter in 2007, where he currently serves as Co-Coordinator of the Permanent Scientific Committee. He is also a member of the following organizations: Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN); International Bar Association (IBA); Venezuelan Tax-Law Association (AVDT) and Lataxnet.

Experience

• Legal and tax advice in the structuring and restructuring of international companies (both basic and intermediate industries, and in the financial, service and trade sector in general) to and from Venezuela, to protect and optimize investments in areas such as energy, agro-industry and public works.

• Advice in corporate, contractual and tax matters relating to public works contracts, including subway lines, power plants and highways.

• Advice in public works and services concessions projects, in both privatization processes and private management of public services, and advice in tax matters

• Advice and support in matters of the mining and hydrocarbons legal system, as an expert witness or in support of experts in both institutional arbitration (ICSID) and commercial arbitration (ICC), in matters of nationalizations, migrations and/or expropriations.

• Advice in the negotiation of drilling contracts for the offshore exploitation of gas, and in the structuring of businesses for the contractors/operators.

• Support and development of computer businesses and their structuring, including the generation and transformation of software and knowledge of platforms and electronic mediums.

• Advice and support to mixed companies in matters of corporate public law, contractual matters in processes of migration of investors under operating agreements into mixed companies, and of association agreements for the development and upgrading of crude oil from the Orinoco Oil Belt.

• Advice to lenders in PDVSA loan operation led by JBIC, Mitsui and Marubeni in the amount of USD 3.5 billion, guaranteed by oil revenues.

• General advice to local investor in the “Golfo de Paria Este” Project, regarding a project for the extraction of medium-weight crude oil between 1999 and 2000.

• Advice provided to BP, Amoco and Arco in the structuring of a regulatory and tax framework conforming to the needs of the sector, including the Income Tax in matters of depreciation, foreign currency accounting, the Wholesale Tax, exoneration during the pre-operations stage and municipal taxes, among others. From 1997 to 2001.

• Advice to Petrozuata S.A. in legal and tax matters from 1997 to 2008. Includes advice and negotiation of income tax determinations based on its migration to mixed company.

• Advice to PDVSA Gas in the preparation of the regulatory framework for the gas transportation system in Venezuela.

• Advice to the borrower in the issue of financing notes for PDVSA Finance Ltd. in the amount of USD 1.8 billion (1998) and USD 500 million (2001).

• Advice in the financing of the Hamaca project for the extraction of extra-heavy crude oil from the Orinoco Oil Belt for its upgrade and commercialization, both to the sponsors (Arco, Phillips Petroleum, Texaco and PDVSA), and to the project participants. Advice was further provided for the contracting of senior debt in the amount of USD 1.1 billion.

• Advice in completion processes for the financing of Orinoco Oil Belt projects Cerro Negro, Sincor and Hamaca.

• Advice in project finance for the development of a Urea and Ammonia plant for Fertilizantes Nitrogenados de Venezuela, C.E.C. to contract senior debt in the amount of USD 450 million and issue bonds in the amount of USD 250 million, for an aggregate of USD 700 million (1998) and for its restructuring in 2003.

• Advice in the financing of the Cerro Negro project for the development of extra-heavy crude oil in the Orinoco Oil Belt and its upgrade and commercialization to the sponsors (PDVSA Cerro Negro and Mobil Cerro Negro) to obtain senior debt in the amount of USD 300 million and the issue of bonds in the amount of USD 600 million, for a total of USD 900 million.

• Advice to Intevep and Intesa in their restructuring and in the formation of vehicles of association and outsourcing.

• Advice in Explorations Round I project “At-Risk Exploration and Shared-profit Development Agreements”, during the process of preparation of regulatory, public law and tax aspects leading to the structure to set up areas for bidding under at-risk exploration and shared-profit development systems. Eight areas were awarded to various investors and investment consortia, in amounts of USD 4 billion. From 1994 to 1996.

• Advice to Association Agreements in the Orinoco Oil Belt (Vehops) - Conoco and Maraven (Petrozuata) - Lagoven (Cerro Negro) - Maraven (Sincor) - Arco (Hamaca) – in general and specific to associations (joint ventures), to their participants, and to the contractors and operators; and participation as counsel to the investment bank (Citibank) during the process of structuring of the oil belt projects for the development of extra-heavy crude oil, its transportation and upgrading. Such projects collectively represent an investment of close to USD 15 billion (1992-1996).

• Advice to the VLNG Project, (previously Cristóbal Colón and now Mariscal Sucre) and the structuring of the tax, project and authorization aspects relating to a liquefied natural gas project for the Northern Coast of Paria.

• Attend the Third Round of Operating Agreements (PDVSA), review public law and tax regulations concerning the participation of private persons in reserved activities.

• Advice to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and its subsidiaries Maraven and Lagoven, in matters of financial and tax structuring, consulting on specific tax aspects and reviews of the structuring and adaptation to the applicable norms.

• Advice to the Venezuelan Investment Fund (FIV), along with Ashurst, Morris & Crisp, in the project for the privatization of the electrical generation, transmission and distribution facilities and operations of the State of Nueva Esparta Power Grid (Sene). 1995-1996.