How do you suggest in-house counsel form relationships with business partners?

I firmly believe that the in-house lawyer has a role that goes beyond the legal field, must develop a great capacity for conciliation and negotiation, preventing conflicts, solid knowledge of the industry and its problems, ability to generate a network that contributes the business; it must become an industry reference.

What are the biggest risks facing your industry at the moment, and how are you planning to deal with them?

The main risks that our industry must face are related to the urgent need to generate conditions for intensive exploration, generating a framework of legal certainty for foreign investment and updating the regulatory framework, in addition to the enormous challenge of the energy transition to achieve sustainable development goals of net zero emissions by 2050. In this sense, the legal area has a fundamental role in providing support to these challenges, so we are structuring a discussion with our stakeholders in the legal and regulatory field, in order to generate a work environment through exchanging experiences and possible solutions for the future of the industry. Work groups have been formed to deal with matters of contract extension, government take, regulatory changes, among others. Since last year, we have promoted the implementation of a crime prevention model in addition to the existing compliance programs and we actively participate in achieving the sustainable development objectives promoted by the company.

How is your legal team planning to contribute to the growth and expansion of your organization, over the next few months?

Due to the risks that the industry is facing, our team is contributing to various negotiations with government agents to seek innovative solutions in the regulatory and contractual spheres to attract investment. We have been part of work teams with stakeholders and the members of the legal area are contributing to the company’s growth objectives in different areas: digitalisation of contracting processes, corporate restructuring, drafting legislative initiatives thought industry chambers, working with the teams of net zero emission projects, decommissioning of unproductive assets teams, among others.