Adewale Atake, SAN is the Head of Templars’ Dispute Resolution Practice Group. In over 30 years of practice, ‘Wale has led some of the largest and groundbreaking commercial arbitrations in Nigeria as well as litigation at all levels of the Nigerian court system.
He is highly regarded as a leader in commercial disputes in the Nigerian energy sector representing commercial clients, including International Oil Companies, in bet-the-company disputes against State entities on a wide variety of subject matters. He directly leads most of the major disputes at Templars and has written and published many articles on Bilateral Investment Treaties, Enforcement of Foreign Judgments, and arbitral awards, Foreign Jurisdiction Clauses, Application of Exemption and Limitation of Liability Clauses and other topics.
Professional and Market Recognition
“Spectacular in mastery of the law”.
– Legal 500.
“He is always thinking ahead and giving a lot of advice on how to find alternative approaches”
– Chambers Global.
“Clients like his availability and his thought processes.”
– Chambers Global.
“Recognised by peers for his significant international arbitrational output.”
– Chambers Global.
“a leader in the firm… really remarkable for his work in energy arbitration”
– Chambers Global.
A Selection Of Relevant Experience
- Successfully represented the Erha PSC Contractor-parties (ExxonMobil and Shell) in arbitration against the NNPC arising from a crude entitlement dispute. Obtained a final award of over US$2.042 billion in favour of ExxonMobil and Shell which was featured as Number 4 on American Lawyer’s ALM Focus Europe list of the world’s 12 biggest arbitral awards of 2011 to 2013.
- Represented the Bonga PSC Contractor-parties (Shell, ExxonMobil, Total and Agip) in arbitration as well as ancillary litigation against the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), which challenged the FGN’s demand for, and purported retroactive recovery of, c. US$14Billion from the Contractor-parties as alleged additional revenue accruing to the FGN as profit oil under the PSC. The basis of the alleged additional revenue appears to have stemmed from the Consent Judgment of the Supreme Court confirming the FGN’s entitlement to additional revenue the moment the price of crude oil exceeded the US$20 (real terms) benchmark from August 2003 to the present date.
- Successfully represented an IOC consortium in a first-of-its-kind cost recovery PSC arbitration against the NNPC, resulting in the recovery of US$1Billion in contested costs on behalf of the IOC consortium.
- Successfully acted for an international oil company challenging the expropriatory actions of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) through the wrongful revocation of the oil and gas assets of its Nigerian Subsidiary in an investment arbitration claim.
- Successfully represented two Delta State Government investment vehicles, obtaining a take-nothing award in a US$4billion multi-party UNCITRAL arbitration over the alleged sale and transfer of shares in a mobile telephone company to a third party in violation of pre-emption rights under a shareholders’ agreement.
- Represented South Atlantic Petroleum Limited against the Nigerian Government in a major oil and gas industry appeal at the Supreme Court of Nigeria over the Nigerian Government policy of the mandatory relinquishment of the unconverted portion of its Oil Prospecting Licenses.
- Successfully represented Africa’s largest telecoms tower company, IHS Towers in an ad-hoc arbitration and post-arbitration litigation arising out of a U$200million claim by SWAP Technologies under a Managed Services and Colocation Services Agreement over, amongst others, IHS’ refusal to exercise pre-emption rights to purchase SWAP. Successfully reduced IHS’ liability to US$2.9million.
- Successfully negotiated an out of court / non-prosecutorial settlement agreement on behalf of Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) and Japan Gas Company (JGC) both members of the TSKJ consortium with the Nigerian Government in respect of criminal charges of illegal facilitation in order to obtain a US$6Billion LNG contract.
- Successfully represented the Heineken subsidiary, Nigerian Breweries Plc (NB), in a successful ground-breaking arbitration arising from its alleged “take or pay” obligations under a Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) between the Nigerian Breweries and its supplier of natural gas for its state of the art gas powered brewery.
Professional Memberships
- Member – Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN)
- Member- Nigerian Maritime Arbitrators Association
- Member – Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
- Member – International Bar Association (IBA)
- Member – London Court of International Arbitration
Expertise
Contact
- [email protected]
