Senior Counsel

Thomas J. Moore

Corporate & Securities, Global Energy, Projects & Infrastructure

Overview

Thomas J. Moore is senior counsel in Mayer Brown's Houston office and is a member of the Infrastructure Investment and oil and gas groups, and the Corporate & Securities and LNG practices. Thomas brings a wide range of corporate, commercial and financial experience to the energy and infrastructure industries. He has played a lead role in many major energy assignments worldwide, with a special emphasis on LNG trading and marketing, the chartering of LNG vessels and floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) and the development of FSRU and land-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Africa, the Caribbean, South America and the United States.

Experience

LNG Experience

  • Represents a North Asia LNG importer in respect of its RFP for LNG supply, including the negotiation of a detailed term sheet and long-term LNG sale and purchase agreements.
  • Represents of a Chinese importer of LNG in the negotiation of a long term LNG sale and purchase agreement with a major Australian LNG producer.
  • Represents Excelerate Energy in its long-term and medium and spot LNG Sale and Purchase Agreements and LNG shipping matters, including proposed long-term LNG sales contracts in Brazil, Chile, China, Hawaii and Namibia.
  • Represents the Republic of Benin in the negotiation of a 15 year purchase agreement for the purchase of regasified LNG from Total.
  • Represents the owner of an LNG terminal in the Caribbean Basin in respect to LNG supply and the sale of regasified LNG
  • Represents CNPC International, a participant in Mozambique’s Area 4 LNG project, including with respect to LNG sales issues.
  • Represented an international trading company in the negotiation of a 15 year LNG sale and purchase agreement with a US producer of LNG.
  • Represented Excelerate Energy in the time charter of FSRUs for use in Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Hawaii, Kuwait, Namibia and Puerto Rico.
  • Represented Excelerate Energy in the commercial aspects (including LNG sales agreements and agreements for the sale of tolling capacity) of its development of an LNG liquefaction project and related header pipeline in south Texas (project terminated because of market conditions).
  • Represented RWE in its acquisition and subsequent sale of a 50% interest in Excelerate Energy.
  • Led the representation of the Angola LNG project, an incorporated joint venture of Chevron, Sonangol, BP, TOTAL, and ExxonMobil (later replaced by Eni) to monetize associated natural gas produced in Angola's off-shore oil production, including all development activities of the project in Angola, the development of a subsea, high pressure gas pipeline system, the purchase of LNG regasification capacity for the project in the United States, development of the LNG and gas sales agreements to be used by the project and the establishment of an LNG marketing company to sell the project's LNG output in the international markets.
  • Represented Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company, in its proposed acquisition of LNG regasification capacity in the United States and in the development of the terms of use of a virtual LNG storage and regasification terminal.

Recent Power Experience

  • Represented John Hancock Life Insurance Co., U.S.A. in its $415 million acquisition of a minority interest in Duke Energy’s commercial renewable energy portfolio, consisting of 1.2 GW of wind, solar and battery storage assets.
  • Represented John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) in the $400 million acquisition of a 49 percent interest in ExGen Renewables Partners, LLC, which owns a portfolio of wind and solar generating facilities, from an affiliate of Exelon Corporation.
  • Represented PGGM, a Dutch pension fund manager, in its acquisition of a minority interest in Puget Energy, the largest electric and gas utility in the State of Washington.
  • Represented PGGM and members of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company family in their acquisition of a minority interest in DQE Holdings LLC, the parent of Duquesne Light Company, the electric transmission and distribution utility serving the greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area, for a purchase price in excess of $700 million.
  • Represented GE Energy Financial Services in power plant acquisitions, development and financing around the United States, including in respect of fuel supply and sale of power and tolling capacity, totaling more than 4,000 MW. 
  • Represented companies ranging from Duke Energy, MCN Energy, Enron, Semco Energy and a number of investment funds in the development and acquisition and divestiture of gas-fired power assets of all kinds and in the development and financing of power plants and other energy infrastructure assets.
  • Represented an investor group led by Macquarie Bank in the acquisition and subsequent sale of part of the Michigan electric transmission grid.
  • Represented National Grid USA in its efforts to create a for-profit Regional Transmission Organization in the Midwestern part of the United States.

Government Experience

  • Led the representation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its natural gas initiative, an initiative to fund natural-gas-based economic expansion through foreign investment. The NGI consisted of three "core ventures" each of which contemplated the development of a full natural gas value chain from exploration and production, to gas treatment and processing and the development of pipelines, to development of independent power and desalination facilities and petrochemical complexes. (The NGI was put on hold because the expected non-associated gas resources were never discovered.)

Recent Oil and Gas Experience

  • Represents an Australian oil and gas firm in its efforts to develop non-conventional gas resources in the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern territory of Australia.
  • Represents a Korean private equity fund in the acquisition and development of a significant shale gas and liquids position in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, including midstream assets. 
  • Represented Harvest Natural Resources in the sale of its oil and gas interests in Venezuela and Gabon.
  • Represented Chinese and the Korean national oil companies in acquisitions in Angola, Gabon, Nigeria, Brazil and Iraq.
  • Represented United Energy Group, a Hong- Kong listed company, in its acquisition of BP's Pakistan upstream assets.
  • Represents a member of the Hashoo Group of companies (a Pakistani merchant group) in the acquisition of the oil and gas assets of BHP Billiton and other western oil and gas companies in Pakistan.
  • Led the representation of The Eastern Petrochemical Company (SHARQ), a joint venture between Saudi Arabia Basic Industries (SABIC) and a Mitsubishi-led Japanese consortium, in a $3.5+ billion petrochemical plant expansion and JBIC- led financing in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

Recognition

  • Recognized by Chambers Global, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
  • Recognized by Chambers USA, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
  • Recommended in The Legal 500 US, 2013
  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2013

Education

  • University of Minnesota Law School, JD
  • University of California, Berkeley, AB

Admissions

  • Texas
  • Colorado
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