Our work

Kupe Gas Field development
Bell Gully is New Zealand counsel to Origin Energy Resource (Kupe) Limited, operator of the Kupe oil and gas development. Bell Gully advises on many aspects of the development, including infrastructure, construction and operational contracts involving joint venture partner Contact Energy.

Central North Island geothermal projects
Advised Tauhara North No. 2 Trust as the owner of the Rotokawa geothermal field and development right holder of the Nga Tamariki geothermal field in the Central North Island in the commercialisation of these fields, including the joint venture for the construction of the 140MW Nga Awa Purua geothermal power station. Nga Awa Purua is the largest geothermal power station built in the world in the past decade and features the world’s largest single-shaft geothermal turbine. The development is regarded as a role-model project for Maori land owners of geothermal resources and aims to develop the resource while protecting the Trust's guardianship of the land and resource. It was named Project of the Year at the prestigious Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards.

Contact Energy - Origin proposed merger
Bell Gully advised Contact Energy, New Zealand's second largest listed company, on its proposed A$8 billion merger with Origin Energy to create Australasia's largest integrated energy company. The merger was structured to occur by way of an innovative dual-listed company (DLC) structure run by a common board and unified senior management team. The merger did not proceed.

CKI's purchase of Vector's Wellington assets
Bell Gully acted as New Zealand counsel to Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), the largest listed infrastructure company in Hong Kong, in relation to its successful bid to purchase Vector's Wellington electricity network.

Power stations
Advising the sponsors on the construction of the Taranaki Combined Cycle (TCC) power station, a 375 MW gas fired combined cycle power station located near Stratford in Taranaki. This included advising on the partnership arrangements, fuel arrangements, offtake arrangements, operations and maintenance arrangements and the project financing of the power station.

Swift Energy New Zealand assets
Bell Gully acted for Origin Energy in relation to its purchase of most of the upstream oil and gas assets of Swift Energy. This included a number of producing on-shore Taranaki interests and in addition to certain offshore interests.

Hawke's Bay Wind Farm Development
Bell Gully acted for joint venture participants in the development of a 60-80 turbine wind farm producing 180-220MW of wind powers from its site on the Maungaharuru Range, north of Napier. This will be New Zealand's largest wind farm.

ABB's electronics industry acquisition
Bell Gully advised international power and automation technology group ABB on its acquisition of the business assets of New Zealand company Vectek Electronics. Vectek has developed technology to improve the quality of the power supply in industrial installations and will operate as part of ABB's Automation Products division.

Contact Energy's acquisition of Rockgas
Bell Gully advised Contact Energy on its acquisition of the Rockgas LPG business, providing Contact Energy with a unique platform to supply not only electricity and reticulated natural gas, but LPG for those homes and businesses which are not connected to gas networks or wish to use LPG to manage peak energy demands.

Alinta Infrastructure Holdings initial public offering
Bell Gully acted as New Zealand legal counsel to Alinta Limited on the A$900 million initial public offering of Alinta Infrastructure Holdings.

Transworld Exploration
We acted as New Zealand counsel for Transworld Exploration, Inc, in the sale of its interests in a petroleum exploration company, New Zealand Overseas Petroleum Ltd, to AWE and Mitsui of Japan.

Siemens (NZ) Limited smart metering joint venture
Bell Gully advised Siemens (NZ) Limited on the establishment of a joint venture with Vector Limited, New Zealand's leading owner and manager of network infrastructures, to deliver advanced smart metering technology and operational services to customers throughout New Zealand.

General Cable
Advised General Cable on a joint venture with Industrial Research Limited to develop and commercialise a high-temperature superconducting wire for use as a component in AC power transformers, DC generators and large electrical motors.

Alcatel-Lucent NZ agreement with Transpower NZ
Bell Gully advised Alcatel-Lucent NZ on its telecommunications network life cycle management agreement with Transpower NZ, the electricity national grid operator.

Contact Energy Limited
We acted for Contact Energy Limited in a judicial review challenging the Electricity Commission's pricing methodology for the North and South Island link of the electricity transmission grid, which the High Court upheld and subsequently set aside. This was a joint challenge with Meridian Energy Limited and was the first court challenge to the newly established Electricity Commission.