Socialite, Dorothy Atake has found a pride of place in her husband’s law practice, Eyimofe Atake & Co, a law firm that specializes in maritime law, oil and gas, arbitration and commercial litigation. She is a partner in the law firm.SAN
Dorothy, who is also a lawyer but yet to attain the status of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria like her husband, obviously had the foresight to know when to jump off the ship of Addax Petroleum, an international oil and gas production and exploration company. It is a subsidiary of the Sinopec Group, one of the largest oil and gas producers in China, the biggest oil refiner in Asia and the third largest worldwide.
Dorothy was the General Manager, Human Resources and Administrative Services, Community Relations, Security and External & Government Affairs, before the company ran and ended its rather controversial course in Nigeria. During the week, the company announced that it was finally packing up and leaving Nigeria.
It signed a settlement and exit agreement with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to exit its four major oil mining blocks in the country and transfer its assets to NNPC Limited. The decision to exit Nigeria may not be allegedly unconnected with the revocation by Nigeria’s oil regulator, of the four oil mining licenses it had signed with the company on two occasions within 12 months.
First in 2021, the second time in early 2020. The oil regulator claimed the company was unable to meet its obligation in line with the provisions of the award, noting that the breach meant the annulment of the process of awarding the licences. It added that the licences were cancelled when it was discovered that over 50 percent of the assets had remained underdeveloped, resulting in loss of badly-needed revenue to the Federal Government.
The Department of Petroleum Resources then proceeded to award the OMLs to money bag, Sir Emeka Offor’s largely controlled Kaztec Engineering Limited/Salvic Petroleum Consortium.
However, the decision was overturned by President Muhammadu Buhari who considered the implications on the Nigerian economy and the diplomatic relationship between the country and China if the revocation was not reversed. He also realized that not reversing the oil regulator’s verdict could create an unprecedented level of contingent liability of well over $1 billion for the corporation as the party in contract with Addax, as well as reputational damage to the country.
Well all that is now past tense as Addax has decided to leave the murky waters of Nigeria’s business environment. What that portends for Nigeria remains to be seen but Dorothy at least exited in the nick of time and landed in a safety net. No doubt she will bring her extensive experience in the energy industry as well as in foreign investment, governmental relations and environmental issues to bear on her husband’s practice where she is a partner.
While in Addax, she had a brilliant career where she held several positions. She was the first female General Manager in the company and also the first female Executive Director in four of Addax Petroleum’s subsidiary companies.
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