Physical Commodities

Making sense of the
physical commodities
world—contracts
cargoes, and
everything in between.

Iter Consulting advises clients across the full spectrum of physical commodities trading. The work is technical, often fast-moving, and occasionally opaque—but the aim is always simple: to give clients clear, grounded guidance on which they can act.

This isn’t abstract finance.

It’s cargoes at sea, vessels stuck in transit, price exposures changing by the hour, and contracts that need to stand up to scrutiny under pressure. Iter Consulting brings legal clarity to this world—whether clients are locking in offtake agreements, negotiating long-term supply deals, or responding to real-world disruptions like sanctions, shipping delays, or credit events.

The practice covers the full lifecycle of trading:

Pre-trade risk allocation, contract drafting and negotiation (including bespoke GTCs and industry-standard forms like SCOTA, EFET, GAFTA and BP Ts&Cs), performance and operational advice, and dispute prevention and resolution. The scope includes spot and term contracts, structured deals, tolling arrangements, and collateralisation structures across jurisdictions.

Clients include commodity producers, trading houses, banks, utilities, and midstream infrastructure providers.

Iter Consulting also supports institutions that interact with the commodities sector indirectly—whether via physical hedging, financing, or regulatory exposure.

The approach combines practical trading-floor insight with a detailed understanding of legal mechanics.

Having worked inside complex institutions and alongside trading teams, Iter Consulting offers more than black-letter law: it brings context, prioritisation, and calm under pressure.

Because in commodities, legal advice is only part of the solution—risk, reputation and rights under a contract must be looked at as a whole to define a path forward.

Examples of our work

  • Advising a major commodities trade house on the development of template documentation for trading energy under an EFET Master Agreement.
  • Advising an international commodities business on its expansion into trading of base metals. This involved review and preparation of standard contract templates for purchase/sale; review and negotiation of warehouse contracts; training on exchange-traded and OTC physical contracts; and training on the operational and legal aspects of trading LME Warrants.
  • Negotiation of physical trading contracts and offtake agreements across the commodities complex for numerous international commodities trade houses and financial institutions, including coal, base metals, precious metals, agricultural commodities, oil and refined products.
  • Negotiation of LNG MSPAs for a global financial institution with a range of international buyers/sellers of LNG.

My phone
+65 9689 3021

Contact me via e-mail
oliver.pearson@iter-consulting.com

Contact us