About

The 30-person legal department at Promigas, a large Colombian natural gas and electric energy corporation, has played a key role in the strategic direction of the company in many ways. ’To bring a particular example, we successfully brought forth a strategy before regulators, which aimed to shape certain criterion on a company’s vested right which was subject to a highly controversial discussion at the time,’ says vice-president of corporate affairs and general counsel Eduardo Rosado Fernández de Castro. ‘This proposed approach favoured new investments in certain strategic assets and gave Promigas the opportunity to continue its established investment plan without any major setbacks. As a consequence of this, Promigas is now positioned as one of the top 50 companies in the country’. In addition, Rosado’s team has been able to transfer the Promigas performance metrics and the use of technology control tools to all of its affiliate companies, so their own legal departments could properly administer their work in a timely manner. Of note has also been the legal team’s involvement in perhaps the most significant project in Colombia’s energy sector in 2016 and the first of its kind in the country – namely the construction of a floating regasification unit, which processes more than 400 MPCD and enables electricity generating companies to meet their natural gas needs at times of high demand. ‘Members of our legal team were involved in the negotiation of major contracts, as well as in the process of obtaining licenses and permits’, Rosado says. Recently faced with suspension measures introduced by the Constitutional Court of Colombia on key projects undertaken by Promigas, the team has shown the initiative to prove the positive impact on public finances, macroeconomic variables, economic growth, and social welfare in the regions where the suspended projects were sought to be executed.