William Breeze
William advises on natural resources projects and structured commodity trade finance transactions.
William leads the firm's finance energy, natural resources and infrastructure finance team in London. He has advised lenders and offtakers on the largest structured commodity trade finance transactions in recent years, working on the structuring and execution of such financings. William's execution speed and structural expertise are especially valued by clients.
Based in London, William works with clients around the globe. William is a recommended individual in Legal 500 2013-2026 inclusive, with rankings for acquisition finance, investment grade and syndicated lending, trade finance and emerging markets.
Legal 500 has described him as “impressive, outstanding and experienced”, a “senior figure with considerable experience in trade and commodity finance”, and a “key partner for trade, project and upstream energy finance work”, as well as noting his “excellent legal knowledge” and ability to anticipate commercial issues. He is recognised as a “standout partner” and a “first choice lawyer for ESG issues in the mining finance and renewables sectors”, with a global practice including a strong focus on Latin American energy and projects matters.
William was also named a Thomson Reuters “Standout Lawyer” from 2023 to 2025. He is "highly regarded" by IFLR 1000 2018-2025 for energy, oil & gas, banking, project finance and trade finance.
William specialises in energy finance work, with a particular focus on extractives and commodity matters, ranging from natural resources project finance to structured commodity finance expertise. He also advises on power and infrastructure finance, as well as general bank debt work. His clients include sponsors, trading houses, project developers, lenders, export credit agencies and multilateral agencies.
William works especially closely with traders and lenders on structured commodity trade finance transactions, assisting clients on the structuring and execution of such financings. He also has considerable experience in project finance, reserve-based lending and upstream finance more widely.
William is a key member of our market-leading team considered as the 'platinum' standard in the energy, natural resources and infrastructure sectors for providing top quality service to clients. Our sector specialists deliver expert support on some of the most complex energy transition and decarbonisation projects (including CCUS), renewables and power projects, world-class mining projects, large-scale oil and gas projects and first-of-a-kind infrastructure projects. We continue to support our clients, and have done over many years, in navigating the systemic shift in interest in green and sustainable financing.
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
- African Export-Import Bank on an up to US$750 million reserve-based loan to Heirs Energies to refinance its existing reserve-based loan
- the lenders on the refinancing of Ithaca’s $1.8 billion revolving credit facility
- bp on the refinancing of a $1,500,000,000 hybrid capital instrument
- Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief U.A. on the refinancing of its reserve-based lending facility in respect of Nigerian assets
- Mercuria Energy Trading SA on a US$1.25 billion prepayment, offtake and cross border security package linked to QAC’s acquisition of Kazakhmys
- easyJet on a sustainability-linked term loan facility of $1.75 billion, supported by a partial guarantee from UK Export Finance under the Export Development Guarantee scheme
- IFC on a €200m loan to Tilemaster Investment Limited and Brightstar Investment Limited, in relation to a greenfield glass project in Tanzania and a ceramics operation in Ghana
- ABSA Bank Limited, African Export-Import Bank and Standard Chartered PLC and the other senior lenders on the provision of secured term loan and revolving credit facilities to Heirs Holdings Limited to finance the acquisition of a participating interest in OML 17 in Nigeria (African Deal of the Year, PFI Awards 2021: Heirs Holdings acquisition of a 45% stake in OML 17)
- MUFG, Vitol and the other lenders on a US$1 billion prepayment financing (and the subsequent upsizing of the facility by US$1 billion) to KMG Kashagan, based on flows from the Kashagan mega-field (Energy Finance Deal of the Year – TXF Perfect 10 Awards 2018)
- the lenders on a US$1 billion hybrid pre-export financing to Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production LLC (OOCEP) (Middle Eastern Commodities Finance Deal of the Year – TXF Perfect 10 Awards 2018)
- BTMU, Vitol and the other lenders on a US$3 billion prepayment financing and the subsequent upsizing of the facility by US$1 billion to KazMunayGas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company (APAC Structured Trade – Oil & Gas Deal of the Year: Trade Finance Awards 2017 and European Structured Finance Deal of the Year – EMEA Finance Achievement Awards 2016)
- Woodside Energy and its joint venture partners in relation to the development and project financing of the SNE Project, offshore Senegal
- Intesa Sanpaolo and the other lenders on a US$4 billion PXF facility for Petroleum Development Oman (Trade & Export Finance Deal of the Year: Bonds, Loans and Sukuk Middle East 2016, EMEA Structured Trade – Oil & Gas Deal of the Year: Trade Finance Awards 2017 and Middle Eastern Commodities Finance Deal of the Year – TXF Perfect 10 Commodity Finance Awards 2016).
Background
William graduated from Oriel College, Oxford.
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