Biography: Oil and Gas

Ayuk's main practice areas are corporate, oil and gas, mining, employment law, contract, ohada, tax and arbitration. Ayuk advises clients on day-to-day legal, tax and operational matters while helping them grow their business. Ayuk's clients include including leading international oil companies, subcontractor, banks and large international organisations. Ayuk primarily represents clients in upstream and downstream oil and gas transactions, with a focus on acquisitions and divestitures of oil and gas properties, shale development ventures, and LNG project development. Ayuk has experience negotiating and drafting a broad spectrum of agreements, including purchase and sale agreements, production sharing contracts, joint operating agreements, joint venture agreements, exploration and development agreements, seismic acquisition agreements and other agreements related to the development of oil and gas assets in domestic and foreign jurisdictions. Ayuk also represents leading engineering and construction companies, recent work includes providing legal advice on the construction of hospitals, conference centres, roads and training academies in Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and South Sudan.

Ayuk also provides legal expertise to the government on legal and judicial modernisation, local content in Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan, as well as on a variety of projects for the World Bank and the UN system. Ayuk is a frequent speaker/trainer/advisor on local content, FCPA compliance and oil and gas negotiations. 
Ayuk began his legal career with Houston-based Baker Botts LLP's Washington office, where he started his career in the oil and gas sector and international business transaction and litigation. He is a graduate of University of Maryland-College Park; New York Institute of Technology and earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from William Mitchell College of Law.
 Ayuk is a current member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), the Institute for Energy Law (IEL) and the Petroleum Joint Venture Association (PJVA). Ayuk is also member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and American Bar Association (ABA), section of international law; international energy and natural resources committee and international anti-corruption committee.