About

With a strong background in the finance sector, having worked as legal advisor at Banco de Credito, Santander Investment and the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC), Gonzalo Raffo also has extensive private practice experience having spent over five years at the well-reputed García Sayán Abogados. At Pluspetrol in Argentina since 2008, he became general counsel of the company’s Peruvian subsidiary in 2010, since when he has grown the legal team, which now counts six lawyers and five other non-legal specialists, in response to complex legal requirements. As Peru’s leading hydrocarbons producer (in large part due to its role as lead partner in the Camisea gas consortium), Pluspetrol Perú occupies a very high-profile position. Given that the Camisea project has been the subject of controversy due to location, and concerns in relation to environmental and indigenous community matters, Raffo has had to manage reputational issues as well as the more usual operational concerns of a general counsel. And while difficulties remain on the latter front, not least the expiry of its concession to operate Block 1-AB in 2015 and a $7m fine for environmental damage (which the company is appealing), in January 2014 he finally secured approval for the go-ahead of the company’s plans for $480m of new exploration investment in Block 88, part of Peru’s largest gas concession.