Houston, Texas USA

Lauren Wilder

Lauren Wilder is a Commercial Specialist in Hess Corporation’s Global Commercial group. Her present scope of work includes contract negotiations, development of export strategies, and economic analyses associated with both conventional and unconventional exploration/development projects in the Americas. Wilder is also responsible for commercial screening and market studies for New Ventures opportunities worldwide. Wilder has worked within Hess’ Commercial Production organization as well where she was involved in contract negotiations and business/economic support associated with Hess’ production activities in the Americas, with particular emphasis on gas processing and gas export optimization in the Gulf of Mexico, Permian, and Bakken regions.

Prior to her present role in Global Commercial, Wilder was a Senior Negotiator in the Global Negotiations and Business group, where she was involved in new ventures acquisitions and negotiations, as well as asset and joint venture management for a number of Hess exploration projects in South America and West Africa.

Wilder presently serves as the AIPN Young Negotiators Director and is also Chair of the Houston YN committee. In addition, Wilder serves on the University of Alabama MBA Alumni Advisory Board. She holds an MBA in Supply Chain Management and Logistics and has been with Hess Corporation since 2007.

Graham Lowrey

Graham is a Commercial Negotiator in Maersk Oil’s Legal – Commercial Negotiations Department in Houston. He is primarily responsible for contract negotiations and commercial support associated with Maersk Oil’s upstream E&P activities in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and offshore Brazil. Graham has also provided commercial support for an offshore Angola project. Before joining Maersk Oil, Graham worked for a large independent in the offshore Gulf of Mexico in a commercial function.

Graham joined the YN committee in 2010 and is currently the Vice Chair of the Houston YN committee. He graduated with special distinction from the University of Oklahoma with a BBA focused in Energy Management and Finance.

Lindsay Jennings

Lindsay is a Commercial Negotiator for International New Ventures at Murphy Exploration & Production Company in Houston, TX. Lindsay's primary responsibilities include negotiating exploration and production contracts as well as interfacing with host country government agencies. Lindsay helped co-found the Young Negotiators in 2008 and served on the AIPN Board of Directors from 2009 to 2010.

Lindsay earned a BBA from The University of Oklahoma in Energy Management and International Business. She is currently pursuing her MBA from the University of Houston. Lindsay is fluent in Spanish and German and has a passion for tennis, skiing and world travel.

David Sweeney

David Sweeney is a member of the Bracewell & Giuliani LLP's energy, finance, and real estate and projects practice areas. His practice includes all aspects of international and domestic oil and gas operations, from production through sales, including acquisition and divestitures, the negotiation and analysis of joint operating agreements; joint development agreements, farmouts and other joint ventures; and leases and host government arrangements; gathering and transportation arrangements. He is the Vice-Chair of the Institute for Energy Law's Young Energy Professionals Committee and a member of the AIPN Joint Operating Agreement Revision Committee. David been recognized by Chambers USA 2010 as an Associate to Watch in Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional). In addition, he has experience as a landman.

Mariam Zarasvand

Mariam Zarasvand is an attorney working as a Commercial Representative at Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas. Her work has primarily focused on Offshore Exploration matters in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, however she has also extensively participated in Stakeholder Strategy efforts.

She studied Government and French at the University of Texas at Austin and at the University of Paris - Sorbonne in France. Mariam has a passion for learning new languages and cultures, and has travelled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Tiago Cruz

Tiago is an attorney currently heading Miranda Alliance’s Houston liaison office. Miranda Alliance is an international alliance of law firms and lawyers, with local offices in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (P.R. China), Mozambique, Portugal, Rep. of Congo, Sao Tome and Timor-Leste. He is responsible for business development primarily, but not exclusively, within the international oil & gas industry active in said countries. Ever since Tiago joined the firm he became involved in many petroleum upstream and downstream transactions and projects in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Timor-Leste and other countries. Before coming to Houston, Tiago was the attorney in charge of setting up Miranda Alliance’s Equatorial Guinea (2005) and Timor-Leste (2007-2008) offices.

Tiago has a Law Degree and a Post-graduation on Securities Law from the Law School of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). He loves to scuba dive every time he has the chance.

Elvis Angyiembe

Elvis Angyiembe is Associate Counsel at Burleson Cooke LLP where his focus is in domestic and international oil and gas law. He also advises on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and international trade law issues. Prior to joining Burleson Cooke, Mr. Angyiembe worked on complex oil and gas agreements for a large Houston-based oil company. He also worked for an international trade law firm in Dallas, concentrating on export/import control laws and regulations; he drafted export control compliance manuals for oil companies and other companies involved in the manufacture of military-related products. During law school, Mr. Angyiembe was a legal intern for BP Oil, where he rotated through all the legal practice groups.
 

Washington, D.C.

Guly Sabahi

AIPN YN's Representative/Liaison in Washington, D.C., Guly Sabahi, has recently joined SNR Denton as a partner in the firm's global Energy, Transport and Infrastructure group. Guly’s practice focuses on the representation of state-owned companies and international private investors in cross-border acquisitions and joint venture transactions involving oil and gas assets in the MENA and CIS regions. Guly has extensive experience structuring investment transactions in the energy sector, managing complex multi-jurisdictional diligence reviews of oil companies and their upstream, midstream and downstream assets, advising on exploration and production agreements and related legal and fiscal regimes, and negotiating a wide variety of investment agreements, including acquisition agreements, joint venture agreements and joint operating agreements. Prior to joining SNR Denton, Guly practiced at Baker & McKenzie in Washington, D.C. and in Coudert Brothers in Almaty, Kazakhstan and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Guly presently serves as the Lead Course Advisor for an annual training program on International Oil and Gas Development for government representatives and other industry practitioners at the International Law Institute (ILI) in Washington, D.C. Guly also presently serves as a Vice-Chair of the International Investment and Development Committee of the ABA’s International Law Section. Guly earned her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and her J.D. from Fergana State University in Uzbekistan. Guly is admitted to the State Bar of New York, and is not engaged in the practice of law in the District of Columbia.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Chad Roth

Chad is a member of Talisman Energy Inc.'s legal group, based out of the head office in Calgary. As International Legal Counsel, he advises and supports a variety of Talisman's international operations and Kurdistan in particular. Chad also provides assistance to Talisman's Exploration and Global New Ventures groups in the search for new opportunities and acquisitions.

Chad shares responsibility for E&P contract negotiations, including joint bidding arrangements, JOAs, farmout agreements, confidentiality agreements and related documents, in addition to general legal and strategic advice and some supply management support. Prior to joining Talisman, Chad was an associate in the International Energy practice group in Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP's Calgary office. While at FMC he worked on projects and transactions in Kurdistan, Turkmenistan, Madagascar, Kenya, Namibia, Somalia, Guyana, Peru and others. Chad also provided strategic advice on structuring for security of investment matters. Before his legal career, Chad spent a number of years working in Alberta's oil patch with Precision Drilling.

Chad holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New Brunswick (LLB, 2006) and presently serves as Chair of the the AIPN Young Negotiators Canadian Chapter.
 

London, UK

John Stockdale

John Stockdale is an energy specialist in SNR Denton’s London office. He advises on oil & gas transactions and regulatory matters. His experience is broad, from negotiating typical oil & gas contracts (such as transportation & processing agreements, rig contracts and pipeline crossing agreements), through to specialist energy input on major and complex corporate and finance transactions (such as joint ventures, M&A transactions and corporate listings). Typically this has been in the North Sea, Africa, Russia/the CIS and the Middle East. In his time at SNR Denton he has been on a full-time secondment to the firm’s Dubai office (6 months), where he focused on work in that region, and to 2 high-profile industry clients (1 for a year, 1 for 6 months).

Active in the AIPN since training, John is chairperson of the AIPN Young Negotiators Europe/Africa Chapter.
 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Danielle Valois

Danielle Valois is the partner of the Brazilian law firm Trench, Rossi e Watanabe Advogados, associated with Baker & Mckenzie International. Mrs. Valois is based in Rio de Janeiro and she focuses her practice on oil and gas development projects (public auctions, financing and construction of FPSOs, FSO’s, pipelines, refineries), M&A and joint venture transactions involving oil and gas and biofuels companies (shareholders agreements, farm-ins, joint-ventures) and arbitration involving a variety of oil and gas (take-or-pay agreements) and construction (EPC Contracts) disputes. She is ranked by Chambers Latin America 2010 for having an impressive portfolio of oil and gas clients and has worked on numerous project finance projects, M&A transactions and arbitrations involving companies engaged in the oil and gas industryCaracas, Venezuela

Sergio Casinelli

Sergio Casinelli is a partner of Macleod Dixon’s Caracas office. He received his law degree summa cum laude from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, and a master of laws from Columbia University, New York City. He is currently based in Caracas, Venezuela, and specializes on Energy and Corporate matters. As a Corporate partner, his practice focuses on assisting companies, negotiations, drafting corporate documents and a wide range of contracts, and conducting due diligence. He also has broad experience in the national and international Energy area assisting in writing and reviewing several services contracts for oil and gas companies and related Venezuelan regulatory matters, including reviewing and assisting on contractual matters regarding association agreements and services contracts executed in Venezuela, and providing advice in the processes of conversion of previous hydrocarbon projects into new joint venture company projects, among other cases. Sergio has also been involved in energy projects in Mexico and Colombia, and has been recognized with the Roberto Goldschmidt Award for Academic Excellence and as a Leading Individual on Corporate / M&A and Energy & Natural Resources matters by Chambers.

Conrad Müller-Klingspor

Conrad von Müller-Klingspor (28) is an Attorney specialized in Corporate and Oil & Gas law in Venezuela. During the last 2 years of Law School he served as President of the Law Students Association, completing afterwards an International Law Program at Cambridge University in the UK (2006), Diploma on Mining and Hydrocarbon Law at Universidad Monteávila (2008), Specialization on Corporate Law at Universidad Metropolitana (2009) and an Strategic Planning Diploma at Universidad Simón Bolivar (2010). He served the Oil Industry through the law firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLC, moving on to the Venezuelan Hydrocarbon Association and eventually joining INPEX Corporation, Japan’s largest Upstream Oil & Gas company, managing the Legal and Corporate Affairs for the corporation in Venezuela. He also served during 2 years as Director for a regional chapter of FEDEINDUSTRIA, second largest Industrial Business Chamber in Venezuela, and now supports AIPN in developing the Young Negotiators.

Dubai, UAE

Sofia Sattarova

Sofia Sattarova obtained her law degrees in Russia and the United Kingdom. She commenced her legal career at Denton Wilde Sapte’s (now SNR Denton) offices in Moscow (Russia) before moving to London in 2000. In 2004, Sofia moved into an in-house position with BG Group plc. where she spent a number of years working in Egypt and UK. In 2007, Sofia returned to private practice by joining the energy team of Fulbright and Jaworski International LLP in London. In October 2010, Sofia joined Baker Botts L.L.P. in Dubai. Sofia has developed her 10 year energy experience by working on a number projects in Africa, Middle East, Europe and the CIS. Sofia is a member of the AIPN Middle East Regional Steering Committee and a Young Negotiator’s Representative in the Middle East.

Bangkok, Thailand

Renuka Sharma

Renuka Sharma is an Associate at Chandler and Thong-ek in Bangkok, Thailand. She represents owners, contractors, developers and financiers in the development, construction and financing of public/private projects involving oil and gas, power, industrial, and commercial facilities. She attended the University of Surrey, U.K, Inns of Court School of Law, Kings College London, and Chulalongkorn University. Renuka is fluent in Malay, English, Hindi, Russian and Indonesian.

Buenos Aires, Argentina 

Carlos A. Vila Moret

Carlos A. Vila Moret is an attorney specialized in Corporate and Energy law in Buenos Aires. He is currently an Associate Counsel at Alliani & Bruzzon L.L.P., one of the leading law firms in Argentina. As an Associate Counsel, his practice is mainly focused on Corporate issues, M&A, Contracts, and Energy matters, providing full legal advice to a broad scope of clients including major and junior multinational Oil & Gas Companies. He also has broad experience in representing start-up business in Latin America and in conducting Due Diligence proceedings around the world.

Carlos holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), a Post-graduate degree on Oil & Gas Law from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and a specialization Training Course on Stock Exchange investment and Derivative Instruments -Forwards, Futures & Options- from the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange Institute (MERVAL). He presently serves as a Young Negotiator’s Representative in Buenos Aires, Argentina.