About

Compañía Española de Petróleo, known as CEPSA, is a Spanish multinational oil and gas company. It operates in several European countries as well as in Algeria, Canada, Colombia, Morocco, Brazil, and Panama. The global CEPSA legal team, led by Ignacio Pinilla Rodriguez, drew praise throughout the nomination process for its support of the company’s recent projects. However, the CEPSA team is populated with such impressive legal talent that three sub-divisions gained nominations as well, each covering different areas of the business in the Iberian region. The downstream legal team of CEPSA Comercial Petróleo is a team of approximately 19 lawyers and two paralegals, which has recently experienced changes in structure owing to the consolidation of separate legal teams into a sole and flexible Iberian team. Indeed, the full integration of the Portuguese downstream business management in the Spanish structure led to the integration of the Portuguese legal team into the global one for downstream projects of CEPSA. Key in developing new tools for the business that are value-adding by nature, this team has been central to the implementation of legislation regarding business in Portugal and Spain, where all of CEPSA’s downstream projects occur. Known as close confidants with the senior management of the business, the team has advised on a whirlwind of external activity threatening the company with regards to legal and regulatory changes, geo-political impacts arising from oil price shocks and new tax regimes, along with the entrance of new and aggressive market players in the retail petrol station business. Natalia Bodalo leads the CEPSA legal team in charge of exploration and production (E&P) activities, where she guides a team of 13 lawyers and four non-legal staff from her base in Madrid. Since 2014 Bodalo’s team has grown exponentially, more than doubling the amount of Madrid-based lawyers. This function is able to use its diversity to serve the business’ E&P projects; the team cover seven languages, five nationalities and has experience in international law firms and multinational companies in the energy sector. Bodalo explains the structure of the team as giving ‘specific legal support to each of the business units within the E&P area, so that the manager of each asset has a lawyer that is responsible for the legal support’. Collaborative by their very nature, the team’s culture emphasises closeness to business people, both supporting and educating them as appropriate throughout all stages of each project and when a potential legal problem arises. Such closeness is the optimal strategy as in the recent case where the E&P team contributed to the negotiation and signature of a global agreement with Sonatrach in Algeria, which will ‘enable CEPSA to continue its upstream operations in the country for another 25 years’ and serves as an example as how a legal team has ‘worked hard to enable that the business requirements are fully reflected in an agreement, combining with all adequate legal protections’. CEPSA’s Trading & Bunker (T&B) legal team is also highly recommended in the market for their proactive provision of support to CEPSA. This team is led by Ruth Breitenfeld, who has a special expertise in trading, bunker and downstream business, and is a highly qualified corporate lawyer with 30 years of professional experience in the industry, including 14 years as senior legal counsel for BP Portugal.