Linklaters and White & Case have signed off the world's largest limited recourse oil and gas financing deal, worth $5.3bn (£2.7bn).

The deal, which closed last week after eight years, saw Linklaters acting for Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC) on the phase-two financing of the $20bn (£10.2bn) Sakhalin 2 liquid natural gas (LNG) project in Russia.

The magic circle firm was instructed for SEIC and the sponsors – Gazprom, Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui – in 2000, with a team led by projects partner Stuart Salt and corporate partner James Douglass. The team worked alongside SEIC's in-house finance counsel, Barbara Blum and Jacob Cameron, after winning a beauty parade for the initial mandate.

White & Case, meanwhile, was instructed for lending bank Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) and the commercial lenders, with London senior partner Peter Finlay taking the lead for the firm. The team, which also included London energy partners Jason Kerr, David Baker and Doug Peel, was originally instructed in 2002. JBIC provided $3.7bn (£1.9bn) to finance the project, with a consortium of international banks supplying an additional $1.6bn (£813m) in funds.

Douglass said: "The project has suffered a number of delays and has taken a long time to complete. It is a significant deal for the Russian market and has seen a large number of our international offices involved in one way or another over the years."

As well as being the largest limited recourse oil and gas financing to date, the deal also represents Russia's largest-ever foreign investment and project financing. The venture involved the financing of an integrated oil and gas production project consisting of three offshore platforms, onshore processing facilities and two 800km pipelines. There will also be an oil export terminal and an LNG production facility on Sakhalin island in the far east of Russia.