Thomas Bethel

Practice Areas

Energy transition and infrastructure finance

oil & gas

Career

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 refinancing's 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.