The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) issued a revised Handbook for examination of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Lending on March 16, 2016 (the “March 2016 Handbook”). This March 2016 Handbook replaces and significantly revises the OCC’s prior version issued April 9, 2014, which is no longer available on the OCC website (the “April 2014 Handbook”) ...
On June 10, 2020, the NASAA Franchise and Business Opportunity Project Group (“NASAA Franchise Project Group”) issued a statement on the importance of accurately disclosing financial performance representations amidst the worldwide impact of COVID-19 ...
As part of a now-infamous 1972 monologue, comedian George Carlin listed the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” colorfully repeating each throughout his routine. While many of those words remain unacceptable for the airwaves, they may now be suitable for federal trademark registration, thanks to a recent decision from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ...
Today, the federal government enacted the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (the “PPP/HCE Act”) to provide additional funding for loan and grant programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PPP/HCE Act modifies and increases funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, as discussed in greater detail here ...
On, May 27th, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law what has become known as the Texas “Hailstorm Bill ...
As registrants prepare for the upcoming proxy season,Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14I(the “Bulletin,” or “SLB 14I”), recently issued by the SEC Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”), provides helpful interpretations by the Division’s staff and reveal a number of relevant changes in the way certain shareholder proposals will be evaluated ...
After several delays, the Department of Labor’s (the “DOL’s”) final “fiduciary” rule expanding the definition of who is an investment advice fiduciary became effective on June 9, 2017 ...
After almost 13 months of negotiations, on August 27, 2018 the United States and Mexico reached a preliminary commercial understanding, which they have termed an “agreement in principle,” to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”). Canada has not yet joined in the agreement, and the question of Canada’s ultimate participation will affect the substance of the deal, its posture under the U.S ...
The unprecedented arrest of two public officials in connection with alleged municipal bond fraud further escalates the government’s relentless patrol of the municipal securities industry. On April 14, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed civil fraud charges against the town of Ramapo, New York, the Ramapo Local Development Corp ...
In January 2018, Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published several Guidelines as part of the applicable rules for the Wholesale Power Market (“WEM”) in the Federal Gazette. This Haynes and Boone alert is important to all participants of the WEM, including qualified users, suppliers, marketers, non-suppliers and generators. 1 ...
On May 15, 2020, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published a Policy on Reliability, Safety, Continuity, and Quality for the National Electric System (the “Policy”) in the evening edition of the Federal Registry (“DOF”). The purpose of the Policy is to promote the sustainable development of the power industry and guarantee its continuous, efficient, and safe operation for the benefit of users under the principle of Reliability ...
On December 7, 2017, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) announced the first bidding process for the financing, installation, maintenance, management, and operation of the Baja California Electric System interconnection with the National Grid (“National Grid”). This is the first power transmission project allowing private participation in power transmission lines in Mexico. The estimated investment will be US$1.1 billion ...
The Mexican government announced, on July 19, 2017, the fourth bid of Round Two. This will be the 14th upstream bid round in Mexico since passage of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 2.4) comprises 30 offshore blocks for exploration in the Perdido Belt, the Salina Basin, the Mexican Ranges (Cordilleras Mexicanas), and the Yucatán Platform in the Gulf of Mexico, covering collectively 70,844 km2, with prospective resources of approximately 4 ...
The National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) published the call for the second bid of Round 3 on January 25, 2018. This new bid round (Round 3 ...
The Mexican government announced on September 28, 2017 the first bid of Round 3. This will be the sixteenth upstream bid round in Mexico since the enactment of the energy reform in mid-2014. The new bid round (named Round 3 ...
On December 15, 2015, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos or, “CNH”) in a successful public bid for Mexico, awarded all of the 25 available blocks of License Agreements for the Production of Hydrocarbons in on-shore contract areas. A total of 41 formal bidders submitted effective proposals ...
On November 13, 2017, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published the Outage Scheduling Guidelines (Manual de Programación de Salidas) (“Guidelines”), establishing the principles of calculation, instructions, rules and procedures that Market Participants, Transporters and Distributors shall observe to schedule their outages and obtain the corresponding authorizations from CENACE; as well as the criteria that CENACE must follow to schedule mid-term outages an
On February 12, 2018 the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (“SCT”) published the draft of Mexican Environmental Standard PROY-NOM-036-SCT3-2017 in the Official Daily Gazette, which sets forth the maximum allowable limits of noise generated by aircraft. Within the next 60 calendar days, any interested party may provide comments to the National Consultation Committee of Air Transportation Standardization ...
On February 9, 2018, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) published in the Official Federal Gazette the “Guidelines for Interconnection of Power Plants and Connection of Load Centers” (Manual para la Interconexión de Centrales Eléctricas y Conexión de Centros de Carga) ...
The technical guidelines described below are a follow up to the order establishing the strategy for the reopening and return to social, educational, and economic activities published on May 14, 2020, which was subsequently amended (the “Order”). Our alert on the Order and its amendment can be found here and here ...
The order described below is a follow-up to the order published on April 21, 2020 (the “Order”), that extended the immediate suspension of all non-essential activities in the public, private, and social sectors until May 30, 2020. (Our alert on the Order can be found here) ...
The National Hydrocarbons Commission (“CNH”) announced on April 26, 2018, the so-called “farmout” bid process CNH-A-C6-7 Asociaciones/2018. This new bid round comprises seven onshore conventional blocks for exploration and production that are located in the states of Veracruz, Tabasco and Chiapas, covering collectively 4,580.8 km2. CNH estimates these blocks have conventional prospective resources of approximately 405.1 million barrels of crude oil equivalent ...
We have previously reported on the order that adopted the extraordinary measures under the COVID-19 health emergency declaration, published on March 31, 2020 (the “Order”), and the Technical Guidelines regarding certain essential activities described in Order, published on April 6, 2020 ...
Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Center for Energy Control (“CENACE”) notified users of the Market Information System of its “Order to guarantee the efficiency, quality, reliability, continuity and security of the National Electric System, motivated by the recognition of the epidemic of the illness caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus (COVID-19),” (the “Order”), via the Public Area of the Market Information System of its official web
On January 31, 2018 the National Hydrocarbons Commission (“CNH”) conducted the long-awaited event for submission and opening of bids for the Deep Water “Round 2.4” E&P license contracts. The bid round comprised 29 offshore deep waters blocks and the overall result was very successful for Mexico ...
