Virtual Seminar: Efficient management of energy arbitrations

Energy arbitrations include commercial and investor-State arbitrations in relation to energy assets or energy contracts.  The stakes involved can be very significant, often with macroeconomic consequences for the countries involved.  Energy disputes are also often politically sensitive.

Energy disputes frequently involve complex technical issues with which arbitrators may, or may not, be familiar.  A major challenge in managing energy arbitrations efficiently is optimising the time and resources dedicated to the dispute by the tribunal and parties while still permitting the tribunal to devote adequate time and expertise to the fundamental issues at stake.  Moreover, the parties may or may not have the same interest in achieving efficiency:  a party with a weaker case may perceive an interest in distracting the decision-maker with irrelevant detail while a State respondent may have an understandable interest in ensuring that other factors than pure business expertise – the right to regulate for the public good, for example – are taken into account.  This seminar considered these issues as well as specific measures that parties and tribunals can take to achieve or enhance efficiency.

 

The speakers for this seminar were:

Funke Adekoya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and partner and head of the arbitration practice at ǼLEX, a Lagos Nigeria based law firm with offices in Accra, Ghana. She has been in active legal practice for the past 45 years and presently focuses on acting as counsel or arbitrator in commercial and investor-state arbitrations. Her appointments have been both ad hoc and institutional under the LCIA, ICC and ICSID rules, where she has acted as sole, party appointed or chaired arbitral panels in disputes in the energy and natural resources sectors.

She is a Chartered Arbitrator of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a past Council member of the African Users Council of the London Court of International Arbitration as well as a Governing Board member and  past Vice President of both the International Council of Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and the ICC Court of Arbitration, and is currently a member of the ICC Africa Commission. She is listed on the panel of arbitrators of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the Kigali International Arbitration Centre and the Lagos Court of Arbitration. She is ranked in Chambers Global and in Who’s Who Legal Arbitration, is listed on the Chairman’s Panel of Arbitrators at ICSID and is a member of the World Bank Sanctions Board.

 

Peter D Cameron, a barrister (England & Wales) and independent arbitrator, sitting at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). He is one of the world’s leading authorities on petroleum and energy law, specializing in investment issues, and associate tenant at Landmark Chambers, London. His textbook on petroleum and mining law and policy, commissioned by The World Bank, has been downloaded almost 40,000 times since it was published in 2017.

Peter Cameron is regularly asked to act as an Expert Witness in international arbitral proceedings and litigation. He has given oral testimony in proceedings before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the ICC in Paris, the London Court of International Arbitration and the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chambers of Commerce. He has also testified as an expert before the High Court in London and the Central Criminal Court in Milan, Italy.

He is also currently Professor of International Energy Law and Policy and Director of the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee in Scotland UK. The Centre was ranked first among the top ten energy law LLMs internationally in February 2020.

He is co-Director of the International Energy Arbitration Centre, a joint venture between CEPMLP and the Scottish Arbitration Centre. The latter is host to the postponed 2020 ICCA conference to be held in February 2021 in Edinburgh, for which Peter is on the official programme as a speaker. In 2013 Peter was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2018 he was nominated as a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

 

Tim Martin (Managing Director, Northumberland Chambers, Calgary, Canada), has extensive experience as an arbitrator with particular expertise in the energy, oil & gas, project infrastructure and construction sectors. He has been a sole arbitrator, party appointed arbitrator, institution appointed arbitrator and tribunal chair in institutional and ad hoc arbitrations. He has also acted as counsel, mediator, expert witness and strategic advisor in the resolution of a wide range of disputes.

Tim has more than 40 years of experience as general counsel, country manager, finance director, commercial manager and economist, working in more than 50 countries on some of the largest energy projects in the world. He has wide-ranging experience in various legal systems including the common law, civil law, Shari’ah law and the communist legal system. His business sector experience includes: energy, oil & gas, refining, petrochemicals, mining, infrastructure, construction, international trade & investment, regulatory & administrative, compliance (anti-corruption, sanctions and boycott law), and finance & banking.

Tim is a Fellow and Chartered Arbitrator of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a member of numerous arbitrator panels in arbitration institutions around the world. Tim was President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), a leading international petroleum organization. He is Chair and Founder of the Journal of World Energy Law & Business, the leading journal on international energy and the official journal of the AIPN, which is published by Oxford University Press. He established and chairs the leading international conference on O&G disputes, which is co-sponsored by the AIPN and global arbitration institutions. Tim has spoken and published extensively on dispute resolution and energy issues throughout the world.

 

This event was chaired by Graham Coop, Partner at Volterra Fietta and former General Counsel to the Energy Charter Secretariat.  Mr Coop is qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand and as a solicitor with higher rights of audience (Civil) in England and Wales. He advises and represents companies, governments and international organisations on international dispute resolution and public international law, with a particular focus on the energy, natural resources and infrastructure and banking sectors. He currently represents an EU member State in relation to banking measures taken in response to developments arising out of the 2008 global financial crisis.  He has appeared as counsel, advocate and expert before a wide range of international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, ICSID, the PCA and the ICC. He is on the UK Attorney General’s list of public international law practitioners

For any queries regarding the content of the seminar, please email graham.coop@volterrafietta.com.