Oil & Gas
Local content compliance is a procurement problem, not a legal one
The certificate is issued by a regulator. It is earned in your supply chain, twelve months before anyone asks for it.
TETobenna Eze
04 — Practice area
Oil and gas lawyers in Nigeria
We advise operators, service companies and financiers across the upstream and midstream chain. Joint operating agreements are negotiated once and lived with for twenty years — and most disputes we see trace back to three clauses that got an hour of attention each.
Upstream contracting and JOAs
Joint operating agreements, farm-in and farm-out, production sharing arrangements, and the default, forfeiture and pre-emption provisions that decide whether your interest is an asset a bank will lend against.
Licensing rounds and regulatory approvals
Bid preparation, licence applications and the approvals and consents needed to complete a transfer of interest.
Nigerian content compliance
Nigerian content plans assessed on demonstrable spend, employment and capability transfer. The work that moves the number happens in procurement, twelve months before anyone asks for a certificate.
Arbitration and dispute resolution
Cash-call disputes, cost-overrun claims and operatorship challenges — arbitrated under the agreement the parties actually signed.
Common questions
What is a Nigerian content plan and when is it assessed?
It is the plan showing how a project will use Nigerian labour, goods and services. It is assessed on evidence — executed sub-contracts, payroll, a training budget someone actually spent — not on intent.
Can a JOA dispute be arbitrated in Nigeria?
Yes, and most JOAs specify arbitration. The seat, the rules and the constitution of the tribunal are all negotiated in the agreement, which is why those clauses deserve more attention than they usually get.
Writing on oil & gas
All writing →Oil & Gas
Reading a JOA before you sign it
The operating agreement decides who bears cost overrun, who controls the work programme, and how fast you can leave.
TETobenna Eze
Who you would work with
Adaeze N. Obi
Managing Partner — Startup & Corporate
Twelve years across venture financings and cross-border M&A. Sits on the other side of the table often enough to know where it bends.
Writing →Portrait — T. Eze
Tobenna Eze
Partner — Oil & Gas
Fifteen years in upstream contracting and licensing. Reads a JOA the way other people read a menu.
Writing →Portrait — H. Bala
Halima Bala
Partner — Criminal Litigation
Former prosecutor. Now spends her days undoing the case files she once built.
Writing →Portrait — N. Ilo
Ngozi Ilo
Senior Associate — Real Estate
Title work, perfection, and the long unglamorous march through the land registry.
Writing →01StartupFormation, cap tables, SAFEs and priced rounds, ESOPs — and the terms founders sign at 2am and regret at Series A.02CorporateCompany secretarial, M&A, joint ventures, CAC and regulatory filings, board governance and shareholder disputes.03Property Lawnew one nowwwwwwwwwww05Criminal LitigationBail applications, trial defence, appeals — and quiet resolutions reached before a charge is ever filed.