H.E. Gabriel M Obiang Lima
Minister Delegate for Mines,
Industry & Energy, Equatorial Guinea

Hon. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah
Deputy Minister of Energy, Ghana

Hon. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, MSc. is the Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of the Petroleum sector in Ghana. He is also the Member of Parliament for the Ellembelle Constituency in the Western Region of Ghana. As a Deputy Minister, his duties include the regulation of the sector, development of policies and practices to e ensure the judicious management of the oil and gas resource.

Hon. Buah has over 20 years working experience in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining the Ministry of Energy, Hon. Buah worked as a Senior Customer Service Manager with the USPS in Washington DC and later as a Postmaster with the United States Postal Service in Clinton Maryland.

He also worked as a Financial Consultant for Ameridebt Inc. a financial firm in Maryland, USA after successfully managing Frankfield Enterprise Ltd in Ghana.

Hon. Buah holds a BA. (Hon)  Law from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and a Master of Science (Management) degree from the University of Maryland, USA.

Engr. Farouk Sai'd
Group General Manager Gas & Power Sector, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

Sandeep Kohli
Sector Lead, Sub-Saharan Africa for Oil, Gas & Chemicals IFC, United Kingdom

Sandeep Kohli is Sector Lead of Oil, Gas & Chemical Sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa, for IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Mr. Kohli has nearly two decades of experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors, having worked in project development, asset management, power, pipelines, gas related infrastructure, renewable energy, and most recently the oil, gas and chemical sectors. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the India Institute of Technology, and graduate degrees from Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and  the French Petroleum Institute. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst since 2006.

Tim O'Hanlon
Vice President,
African Business, Tullow Oil

Tim O’Hanlon is from Ireland. As a young Reservoir Engineer fresh from Imperial College, London, he joined Irish start-up Tullow Oil in the mid 1980’s. He has been with this exciting and ambitious company ever since, living in Senegal for many years. More recently, as Vice President African Business, he has helped to drive Tullow’s rapid expansion on the Mother Continent which includes Tullow’s well-timed and velvet acquisition of Energy Africa and more recently the take over of Hardman Resources. Before long the enlarged African Portfolio yielded unprecedented success on two fronts simultaneously – Ghana and Uganda. As Tallow’s “Mr. Africa” you are far more likely to bump into Tim on the streets of Kinshasa, Kampala, Luanda or Accra than anywhere close to his office at Tallow’s London HQ or his home in Dublin, Ireland.

Joseph Pili Pili
Secretary General, Ministry of Hydrocarbon, Congo DRC

Juan Ndong Ondo
Director General, Sonagas, G.E

Juan Antonio has been involved in the gas industry of Equatorial Guinea since the year 1993. He obtained his master degree in Chemistry and PhD at the University of Patricio Lumumba, Moscow, Russia (1981-1992). He became a chemistry analyst in the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbon of Equatorial Guinea (1993-1994), Director General of National Universities of E.G. (1998-2001), Managing Director of the Equatorial Guinea Oil and Gas marketing, GEOGAM (2001-2002). Juan Antonio has been involved in negotiation with the neighboring countries of the Gulf of Guinea for gas projects development in the Region. He is at the present day, managing Director of the National Society of Gas of Equatorial Guinea (SONAGAS G.E.).

Speaks: Spanish fluently, Russian very well, French very well, English normal

Vice President - International Production Operations

Marathon Oil Corporation

Gretchen H. Watkins is vice president of International Production Operations for Marathon Oil Company. In this role she is responsible for Marathon's businesses in Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Angola, Poland, Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Norway and the UK. She joined Marathon in 2008.

Prior to joining Marathon, Ms. Watkins held a number of international leadership positions at BP. These included director general for BP Vietnam and China E&P in Ho Chi Minh City, vice president of the North American Natural Gas Liquids Business at BP Canada in Calgary and president of BP Netherlands Energy E&P in The Hague. She also worked at BP's corporate offices in London within the Group Marketing organization, and held supervisory and managerial positions in Pipelines, Crude Oil Supply and Trading. She began her career with Amoco (later BP) as a facilities engineer in the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Watkins earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State University

 

 

Al Houseynou Wane
Exploration Advisor, Petrosen

Philippe de Pontet
Head of Eurasia Group's Africa practice

Philippe de Pontet is the head of Eurasia Group's Africa practice. His focus is on the frontier markets of east and southern Africa. He leads the firm's risk analysis in key mineral-rich nations including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and on the emerging energy producers outside of West Africa, including Sudan. He also has a background in development, foreign assistance and donor relations in Africa. Philippe has worked as an Africa analyst since graduating from Georgetown's Master of Foreign Service (MSFS) program with a master's degree in 2001. He earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1993.

Prior to joining Eurasia Group, Philippe worked as an Africa analyst for Intellibridge Corporation, focusing on open-source intelligence for government- and private-sector clients with interests in Africa. He also worked at Leucadia International as Latin America and Africa frontier markets analyst. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he taught at universities in Mexico and China. Philippe is proficient in French and Spanish, and can read Portuguese.

Chief Steve Ugochukwu Ahaneku
Hon. Commissioner for Petroleum & Environment,Imo State, Nigeria

Chief Steve Ugochukwu Ahaneku is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who was called to the Nigerian Bar 30 years ago. He has had extensive, wide-ranging and qualitative experiences as a Lawyer and professional, nationally and internationally, in both the private and public sectors. Prior to Chief Ahaneku’s appointment by His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, OON as the Honourable Commissioner for Petroleum and Environment, he was the Principal Partner in the thriving and renowned full service law firm of A &E Law Partnership and headed the Natural Resources practice of the firm. Chief Ahaneku among other positions held in the past was the Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s Senate President between 2000- 2003.
Chief Ahaneku received an LLB(Hons) degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1980 and was called to the Bar in 1981. He has received extensive post graduate training in oil and gas and attended many professional development courses and conferences at leading institutions around the world including Harvard University. He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the American-Nigerian Economic Institute, the Association of Petroleum Negotiators-AIPN, the Institute for Energy Law.

Mark Miyaoka
CEO, TerraData Geosciences

Mark Miyaoka currently serves as the  Chief Executive Officer for TerraData GeoSciences (TDGeo), where he is actively promoting Depth Imaging services as well “Solving Depth Issues in Time”. Before his current position, Mark served as the Vice President of Strategy and Business Development . Prior to TDGeo, Mark served as the Director of Strategy and Business Development for Resolve GeoSciences, Inc., where he was responsible for developing innovative ways to apply 3D seismic multi-attribute responses to solve a variety of exploration challenges.  Mark also served as the North American Sales Manager for Rock Solid Images, where he was actively involved with clients to apply Rock Physics Diagnostics and 3D seismic Pre-Stack Simultaneous Elastic Inversions to discriminate fluids as well as identify hydrocarbon potentials. Mark also served as the Business Development Manager for SeisLink Corporation, (a spinoff from Unocal), where he was involved with 3D seismic Velocity Modeling, Pre-Stack Depth Migrations and Reflection Tomography. Mark graduated from University of Los Angles California (UCLA EE 1986), and was involved with developing imaging systems prior to joining Unocal in 1993, where he served in a variety of corporate positions and relocated to Houston in 1995 with Unocal’s Exploration and Production Technology (E&PT) group.

Ousmane Fall
Senior Invest Officer, African Development Bank

Bio:  Mr. Ousmane Fall began his career at SocGen in Paris with the Structure Financed Team for Aircraft and Shipping industries worldwide. Ousmane joined the ADB in 2008 and was a specialist in the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department with a strong focus on the Power sector where he worked on projects spanning in North, West and Central Africa. Mr Fall joined the Oil & Gas Financing team in 2011 as a Senior Investment Officer and has extensive experience in Project and Asset-Based Finance. He is currently on oil and fertilizer projects

Sylvan Odobulu
Vice President and Controller, ERHC Energy

Sylvan Odobulu has served as Controller of ERHC Energy since June 2006 and received his promotion as Vice President, in January 2011. In this capacity, Mr. Odobulu runs the administrative management of ERHC and is also the Principal Accounting Officer . He directs the daily operation of ERHC’s finance function, including treasury, budgeting, auditing, tax, accounting, capital purchasing, investor relations, forecasting and insurance activities. In this capacity, Mr. Odobulu is responsible for regulatory and disclosure issues including preparation of financial statements and other requisite disclosure documents, accounting, payroll, tax and audit matters, including liaison with external auditors, maintenance of financial controls, liaison with various governmental and regulatory agencies, as well as procurement and logistics. Mr. Odobulu provides counsel to ERHC’s President & CEO relating to financial and tax considerations and develops long-range strategies to establish and maintain the Company’s financial self-sufficiency, establishes ERHC’s accounting systems and procedures to ensure they are up-to-date and in compliance with all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, and provides advice and review for compliance with appropriate statutory and regulatory requirements.  Additionally, Mr. Odobulu prepares and issues quarterly and annual audited financial statements and reports. Prior to joining ERHC and since 1999, Mr. Odobulu was employed by Ernst and Young LLP, serving in various capacities, most recently as an Accounting Supervisor. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Texas, majoring in Accounting. Mr. Odobulu is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN

Aderemi Oguntoye
Company Secreatry/ General Counse,l Forte Oil Plc (formerly African Petroleum Plc)

Aderemi Oguntoye started practice in about a decade ago. He commenced his career in the areas of Energy and Infrastructure Law. As a high point in his profession, in 2007 he led a team to advise a major State Government in Nigeria on an infrastructure development project worth over USD $350 million.

In 2008, He negotiated on behalf of a major prospective investor to bid for the divestment of a majority stake of the Federal Government of Nigeria in one of its key public infrastructures. From November 2010 through January 2011,

Aderemi led yet another team in advising a top consortium for the divestiture of major International Oil Companies’ stakes/shares in some Nigerian upstream assets (oil blocks) worth over USD$3 billion. He constantly advises foreign investors on the legal aspects of investment in the Nigerian Oil & Gas industry. Aderemi regularly provides corporate investigations and business intelligence reports on the reputation of Nigerian companies/individuals on multijurisdictional issues for major consulting organizations in the United Kingdom and Europe generally. He has carved a niche for himself as a negotiator of wide-ranged contractual/concession agreements with a knack for commercial government instruments. He also led a team in advising the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources on legal and franchise agreements for the implementation of the Nigerian Gas Master Plan.

Aderemi is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the International Bar Association (IBA), Advocates International and an active member of the International law section of the American Bar Association (ABA). He has attended several international conferences including the Gulf of Guinea (Oil & Gas) conference in the United Kingdom (2009); the Corporate Council on Africa summit, Washington DC (2008) and the recent editions of the Nigeria Oil & Gas (NOG) conference –Abuja (2006-2011). He was specially invited by CWC (UK) Limited to the Gulf of Guinea (Oil & Gas) conference in November 2010 where his paper presentation on “The institutional framework under the Petroleum Industry Bill ” was well received by the international community in London, United Kingdom.

In July 2011, he took a turn in his growth when he joined Forte Oil Plc (formerly African Petroleum Plc) as the Company Secretary/General Counsel.

Gordian Tah
CEO, JET, Cameroon

Senior Counsel, Chevron Global Technology Services Company

Natalie L. Regoli is a Senior Counsel in Chevron Global Technology Services Company, which provides support services to the $15 billion Angola LNG Project, the largest project in Sub-Saharan African history.  The Angola LNG Project involves the construction of a 5.2 million metric ton per annum LNG plant and ancillary related facilities in Soyo, Angola.  The Project will provide long-term marketing of LNG produced from Angola’s associated natural gas resources.  The Project is being developed by Angola LNG Limited, a Bermuda corporation owned by shareholders Chevron, Sonangol, BP, ENI and Total.

Natalie provides legal counsel and support to the Project in various areas of the law, with focus on corporate governance matters; and contractual issues and dispute resolution related to engineering, procurement and construction of the LNG plant, the power generation plant, and a permanent residential housing complex for Project personnel.

Natalie was recruited from her position as outside counsel with the international law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP to join the Project.  Prior to that, Natalie practiced law in the international law firms of Greenberg Traurig LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.  Her practice has concentrated on support to the development, financing, and construction of major capital projects, as well as merger and acquisition transactions, dispute resolution, corporate restructurings and general corporate matters.  She has worked with governmental units, project sponsors, shareholders, investment bankers, credit rating agencies, commercial bankers, and corporate trustees.  She has broad experience in the upstream and midstream energy sectors, and her practice has taken her to countries all over the world.  She has published several articles, including “Protecting Yourself from the FCPA in Major International Projects” and “Baker Hughes Caught in Obama Antitrust Limbo” published by E&P Magazine.

 She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it