About

Vivek Gambhir is no less than an expert in international energy law. Much of his experience was gained during 12 years as a partner for law firm CMS Cameron McKenna in the UK. In this role Gambhir acted for some of the world’s best-known energy companies on international power matters that covered the UK, India and Hong Kong. This wealth of experience was the perfect foundation for his May 2011 move into an in-house legal role with TAQA, the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Energy Company. Initially founded in 2005, TAQA had a 2016 revenue of AED 16bn and employed circa 2,700 individuals to operate its oil, gas, water and power facilities across 11 countries in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, North America and India. Gambhir joined TAQA at a time when the business was continuing to expand its operations geographically, as well as seeking to align with Abu Dhabi’s Economic Vision 2030 – which has aimed to maintain the Emirate’s posterity whilst diversifying the economy. Gambhir’s ability to advise TAQA on legal and commercial matters has seen him progress from deputy general counsel (May 2011), to acting general counsel (October 2015), and then eventually earning promotion to overall general counsel (May 2017). In his GC role Gambhir helps TAQA contend with its corporate debt portfolio, exposure to commodity price volatility and general operational risk associated with the sectors and countries that it operates in. This is a considerable task given that TAQA has investments in power generation, water desalination, oil and gas exploration and production, pipelines and gas storage in countries as diverse in regulation as Canada, Ghana, India, Iraq, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. Gambhir recently advised TAQA during the commencement of oil production at its Atrush Block in the Kurdistan region of Iraq – considering the history of the country, and the importance the company, this was a project that had to executed with precision and exceptional due diligence.