Shearman & Sterling's London arm has advised the debt -providers on an $800m (£408m) Omani power and water project.

Shearman London managing partner Kenneth MacRitchie led the team advising HSBC and SMBC. The firm won the mandate through its relationship with projects sponsor, Suez Energy International.

MacRitchie's team, which included Abu Dhabi associate Ben Shorten, partner Patrick Clancy and counsel Greg Page, began work on the finance documents at the end of December 2006.

The project involved the acquisition of and refurbishment of a former power plant (Al-Rusail) and a separate development of a greenfield site (Barka). The finance was divided up as $113m (£58m) for the existing plant, $603m (£308m) for the new site and a $78.6m (£40m) bridge loan.

Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, led by London-based projects partner Kathy Marsh, advised Suez.

Berwin Leighton Paisner advised the Omani Government fielding a team under projects partner Sohail Barkatali.

Shearman has previously worked with Suez, which acted on the Al-Rusail and Barka projects as a consortium with Mubadala Development Corporation and National Trading Company. The firm advised Suez on its involvement in a $500m (£255m) Omani water and power project in 2004.

MacRitchie told Legal Week: "We were fortunate in having advised the lenders to Suez on a couple of previous deals and we have got a track record of advising them."