Oliver is an experienced corporate/commercial lawyer with significant expertise in energy and commodities. He has over 25 years’ experience acting for banks, trading houses, energy companies, utilities, private equity funds and start-ups.
Oliver’s practice covers a wide variety of areas including acquisitions & disposals of energy and commodity assets, energy and commodity finance, joint ventures, structured transactions, supply, storage and offtake transactions, physical trading and shipping, financial derivatives and regulatory matters. He also regularly acts for clients on a “virtual” General Counsel basis advising on ad hoc day-to-day trading issues affecting their businesses.
Oliver has previously occupied senior management and leadership positions in the legal departments of BP plc, Morgan Stanley, RWE and Castleton Commodities.
Expertise
- Energy and Commodities (oil, gas, power, LNG, coal, renewables, base and precious metals and soft commodities)
- Commodity trade finance
- Acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures
- Physical trading and shipping
- Financial derivatives
- Commercial contracts
- Regulatory matters (financial, anti-corruption and sanctions-related issues)
Experience
Oil & Gas
- Advised Q8 on the legal impact of COVID-19 on its oil storage and supply arrangements.
- Advised Q8 on its vessel vetting policies.
- Advised an investment bank and a utility on the acquisition and disposal of various power generation assets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and the UK.
- Advised iSquared Capital in connection with its 45% investment in Rubis Terminals.
- Acted for Morgan Stanley on the sale of its global oil merchanting business.
- Advised a US Commodity trading company on the sale of its pan-European jet fuel supply business.
- Advised Morgan Stanley on the sale of its portfolio of gas trading contracts.
- Advised on a joint venture involving the acquisition of crude oil from a Nigerian trading company and refining and marketing the product internationally.
- Assisted a trading house in restructuring certain supply contracts in relation to a deteriorating financial position of its North American counterparty.
- Conducted numerous reviews of physical General Terms & Conditions and Tender Terms.
Power and Renewables
- Drafted and negotiated long-term biomass supply agreements for a German power generation company.
- Advised Morgan Stanley on the portfolio sale of power supply and trading contracts.
- Advised a wholesale supplier on its gas and power supplies to First Utility and related security arrangements.
- Acted for a renewables trading startup in connection with its establishment of a fintech investor platform to allow investment in traded emissions allowances.
- Advised new market entrants on the set-up of oil, gas and power trading capabilities in the UK and other European countries.
- Advised Morgan Stanley and a new market entrant on route to market/direct market access to enable the commencements of gas and power trading.
Commodity Trade Finance
- Advised a US trading house on a large loan facility to a Malaysian oil operator secured against, inter alia, future revenue stream due from a Malaysian oil field in which the borrower had a participation share.
- Drafted and negotiated a large prepay facility offered to a North Sea upstream producer and secured against future offtakes.
- Structured and drafted trading documentation for numerous re-po structures over metals in (non-LME) warehouse and oil in tank or afloat.
- Drafted and negotiated agreements for the provision of finance to the acquirers of an Indonesian mine.
- Advised on and negotiated a transaction involving the financing of waterborne cargoes with a view to providing the client with finance to support ongoing commodity trading activities.
- Drafted and negotiated a prepay facility agreement with related crude oil offtake terms with an oil producer situated in Argentina.
- Drafted and negotiated a US$5m two-leg prepay and deferred payment arrangement for the sale and purchase of steel billets for an international investment bank.
- Drafted and negotiated numerous letters of credit and other general-purpose trade finance facilities.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Career
Oliver qualified as a solicitor in 1993. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2020, he worked at the following firms:
- Castleton Commodities International
- RWE
- Morgan Stanley
- BP
- DJ Freeman
- Kennedys
- Lovell White Durrant (now Hogan Lovells)