Profile: Oghogho Akpata

Project Finance

Biography: Project Finance

Oghogho Akpata is the managing partner of Templars, heading the firm's energy and projects group but with extensive experience in energy and natural resources, infrastructure and project finance, as well as corporate and commercial law.

Oghogho received his law degree from the University of Benin in 1990 and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 1991. He has advised on numerous transactions, including, among many others: the ongoing establishment of a US$400 million independent power project; the acquisition and divestiture of the two largest lifeboat fleets in Nigeria; negotiating the US$65 million EPC contract by Notore Chemical Industries, the operator of the largest sub-Saharan fertilizer plant; and the proposed acquisition of the Apapa container terminal by Hutchinson Port Holdings, the world's largest port operator.

Oghogho was a member of the federal committee set up by the Nigerian Ministry of Finance to advise the government on alternative sources of revenue in 2002 and 2003. He is a published author and has written and presented papers and articles with international recognition. He is established in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and has considerable knowledge advising international oil companies regarding upstream acquisitions as well as representing the largest EPC contractors in Nigeria, thus giving him a unique understanding of the entire energy value chain.

Oghogho is a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

The firm's client base includes financial institutions and some of the largest Fortune 500 companies operating in Nigeria. Oghogho has represented ExxonMobil, Petronas Cagliari, Nosrk Hydro, SINOPEC, CNOOC, Halliburton, General Electric, Ericsson, and many others.