In 1989, I published in the American Bar Association's journal, The Business Lawyer, a paper on project finance, which at the time was the first widely circulated primer on project finance techniques. I was overwhelmed by the kind reception of “A Practical Guide to Transactional Project Finance: Basic Concepts, Risk Identification, and Contractual Considerations,” and I was overwhelmed by how quickly it became outdated and how much more information existed than could be conveyed in a brief article.

Since its publication, much has changed in the financing method called “project finance.” In this work, I have undertaken the sometimes daunting task of assembling in one volume the wealth of experience, resources, and scholarship that have appeared in the last seven years concerning project finance. I have also undertaken to broaden the usefulness of this work beyond the legal community while recognizing nevertheless that it is a financing technique based on contracts. It is my hope that this book will be useful both as a training tool for those new to the world of project finance, a research tool for those needing a heretofore absent project finance treatise, and a structuring and drafting tool for those involved in transactions.

The topic of this book is the considerations for project finance counsel, lenders, government agencies, project sponsors, equity investors, and other project finance participants, when structuring a nonrecourse or limited recourse project financing, and drafting, negotiating, or reviewing documents for use in the financing.