Thomas is a partner in the energy transition and infrastructure finance team in London.
He is one of the most experienced lawyers in the English law upstream oil and gas financing market. Over more than 20 years he has worked on a very large number of financings and refinancings in the sector, across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and North and South America. His experience also extends to complex project financings and restructurings in the energy sector.
Thomas' experience includes advising on the lender-side of deals involving all the major oil and gas banks in the market. He also regularly acts for borrowers, giving him a balanced understanding of the expectations of all parties. His approach is commercial and pragmatic, with a focus on finding solutions to structuring issues and points of negotiation to allow deals to proceed to closing efficiently.
Thomas has recently worked on a number of acquisitions in the upstream sector, for banks and private equity funds, and on a number of deals involving non-bank lenders.
Early in his career Thomas undertook a secondment to the commercial team of a leading oil and gas bank, giving him valuable commercial insight which he has carried forward and developed through his career. As a senior associate he was seconded to the firm's Middle East practice, working on a variety of project financings, Islamic financings and restructurings.
Thomas is ranked by Chambers in the area of Energy and Natural Resources: Oil & Gas, as well as being recommended by Legal 500 and IFLR. He is described by clients as "excellent counsel with a strong track record, patience and commercial awareness'. Thomas and his work is a major contributor to the firm's band 1 rankings in oil & gas in both Chambers and Legal 500.
Background
Thomas holds an M.A. in law from the University of Cambridge and is listed as a ‘Leading Individual’ in Legal 500 UK, recommended for Trade Finance, Bank Lending and Acquisition Finance.
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- the lenders on the financing of the US$3.9 billion sale of Engie's exploration and production business to Neptune Energy
- Trident Energy on a reserve-based lending facility in connection with its acquisition of oil and gas assets in Equatorial Guinea and Brazil
- the lenders to Oando on the financing of their acquisition of upstream assets from Eni in Nigeria
- the lenders on a US$2.2 billion acquisition bridge facility and a US$3 billion secured reserve-based facility for Det Norske to finance its acquisition of Marathon Oil's Norwegian assets.
- the lenders to Noreco on its acquisition of Shell’s upstream oil and gas assets in Denmark.
- a group of 23 lenders on a US$5 billion secured loan and letter of credit facility and multiple prior refinancings of this facility for Lundin Petroleum, based on oil and gas assets in France, Malaysia, Norway and The Netherlands
- Black Sea Oil and Gas on financing aspects of the development of the Ana and Doina gas fields offshore Romania
Sectors
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