White & Case and Clifford Chance (CC) have taken lead roles on a €2.5bn (£2.2bn) debt transaction that has completed the financing of the Nord Stream pipeline project.

The loans pave the way for the second phase of construction of the natural gas pipeline which will run from Russia to Germany, with the total cost of the project estimated at around €7.5bn (£6.5bn).

White & Case has advised the Nord Stream joint venture – led by OAO Gazprom – and the sponsors on the construction and financing of phase two, with the firm's cross-border team including around 30 lawyers from its offices in London, Moscow, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt and Brussels. City project finance partner Jason Kerr (pictured) took the lead role for White & Case.

CC, meanwhile, advised the export credit agencies, Euler Hermes and SACE, as well as advising Germany's UFK, and a commercial bank syndicate of 24 international banks including Barclays and BNP Paribas.

The CC team was led by Paris-based project finance partners Anthony Giustini and Nicholas Wong and City finance partner Russell Wells.

Kerr commented: "It was especially exciting to advise on the transaction because it was a project which had a compelling commercial rationale but which required the raising of a large amount of debt in the middle of a banking crisis. For a deal to succeed under the current market conditions it needs to be extremely well structured and I think we managed to pull that off very well."

The sponsors of the project are Gazprom (51%), BASF/Wintershall (15.5%), E.ON Ruhrgas (15.5%), Gasunie (9%) and GDF SUEZ (9%).