Richard Blair
Richard is an experienced international General Counsel qualified as a Solicitor in England & Wales, he is also admitted as an Attorney at the Madrid Bar in Spain and licensed as a Legal Consultant in the United Arab Emirates. He is based in Dubai and London.
Richard has over 27 years of in-house corporate and commercial experience on diverse projects in heavy industry, with BP PLC, in renewable energy in Spain and Japan, upstream and midstream oil and gas mega-projects in Russia, India, Iran, Egypt and Angola and LNG and gas to power in Trinidad and Spain.
Richard also worked for Harsco Corp (NYSE) as General Counsel for Europe and MEAP on projects in the steel, infrastructure, rail and manufacturing space and was very active in M&A and Joint Ventures in Central Europe, India, China and the UAE. He also acted as Group General Counsel for Gulftainer in the UAE, a global container port operator, on port acquisition and infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, USA, Brazil, Russia, Scandinavia, Eastern Africa and the Middle East.
Latterly, Richard was Chief Legal Officer at Ports Development Company, an international joint venture amongst Emaar, PIF and Huta in Saudi Arabia supporting the complex development of a significant commercial port in King Abdullah Economic City.
- Joint Venture of BP Solar with Kaneka Corp of Japan to produce thin film silicon wafers in Japan for projects in Spain and USA.
- Joint Venture in Spain for BP Gas & Power in Spain with Repsol, Iberdrola and Gas de Euskadi for the importation of LNG from Atlantic LNG and gas to power projects in Bilbao (BBG/BBE).
- Sakhalin V Gas Project with BP plc and Rosneft in Russia.
- South Pars Iran LNG joint venture and offtake agreements with National Iranian Oil Company and Reliance Industries of India.
- Damietta Egypt upstream supply of gas from BP Egypt.
- Angola LNG joint venture with Sonangol, Texaco, ConocoPhillips, Total, and BP.
- SEC Investigation into BP Iran.
- Acquisition of equity in joint ventures in Saudi Arabia and Romania in formwork and scaffolding entities.
- Development of new joint ventures using US patents in China and India in steel, slag and technology.
- Multi-jurisdictional dispute management in Europe with Arcelor Mittal.
- Arbitration in Australia with Bluesteel.
- Mediation with sovereign group of Saudi Arabia, in London.
- Acquisition of equity and Islamic financing in Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Co Saudi Arabia.
- Managed acquisitions of Port Concessions in Florida and Delaware and CFIUS approvals, Maritime Commission approvals.
- Litigation management of dispute in Delaware Chancery.
- Managed joint venture exit of Gulftainer from Lebanon, Tripoli, and Brazil, Recife and Ust Luga opportunity in Russia.
- Development as MD of a glass manufacturing business in UAE and the negotiation of a steel mill joint venture in Asturias, Spain for US based E.C. Levy and Co.
- Managed as CLO syndicated loan re-structure of PDC in Saudi Arabia, corporate governance, related party transactions, and re-stated EPC contracts.
- L.L.B Combined Honours in English and Spanish Law, University of Kent at Canterbury and Universidad Complutense Madrid (Erasmus)
- L.L.M Commercial & Corporate Law, Kings College, London
- M.B.A. (Dip), Centre for Law Firm Management, University of Nottingham
- Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Madrid
- Law Society of England and Wales
English (Native)
Spanish (Bilingual)
Portuguese (Spoken)
French (Spoken)
- United Kingdom (Solicitor)
- Spain
- UAE (Foreign Legal Consultant)