Emmanuel is a legal, regulatory and policy expert with specialization in natural resources and the environment. He has extensive experience in the Energy sector. He was a legal officer in the Ministry of Energy and a member of the Technical Group on West Africa Gas Pipeline Project. He has also worked with the Public Utility and Regulatory Commission, which has responsibility for electricity, water and aspects of natural gas regulation. He is a member of the Technical Committee of the Energy Commission and has been involved in the development of sector legislation. He has also consulted in various capacities for the Ministry of Energy, Energy Commission, oil and, electricity and mining companies.
Emmanuel holds an LLB degree from the University of Ghana and an LLM in Resources and Environmental Law and Policy from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. In 1999, he obtained a Certificate in Legislative Drafting from RIPA International, London UK. He was called to the Ghana Bar in 1986.
Prior to joining REM Law in October 2009, he had worked in Ghana’s energy sector for close to 20 years. He resigned from the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, the economic regulatory body for electricity, water and natural gas, where he had served as legal advisor and regulatory policy expert since 1997.
From 1989 to 1997, Emmanuel was legal advisor at the Ministry of Energy which has oversight responsibility for Ghana’s electricity and petroleum sectors. He was involved in negotiating financing agreements as well as EPC contracts in respect of various petroleum and electricity sector infrastructure projects. Key among these were downstream oil industry undertakings such as the Tema Lube Oil Blending Project and the Tema Oil Refinery Expansion Project; the Tema to Akosombo Oil Pipeline Project and the Bulk Oil Transportation and Storage Depots. Between 1992 and 1997, Emmanuel was a member of the International Technical Working Group which facilitated the establishment of the legal framework for the West African Gas Pipeline Project. He was also one time Secretary to the governing Boards of the Bulk Oil Transportation and Storage Company, the Accra (LPG)Cylinder Manufacturing Company as well as the then National Energy Board.
Emmanuel was involved in several electrification projects undertaken by the Ministry of Energy in the 1990s in the National Electrification Programme. His participation in the negotiation of loan and the related project agreements as well as monitoring of the electricity and the petroleum sector projects gave him invaluable project management experience.
Emmanuel has a firm grasp of legal policy and technical aspects of oil and gas, as well as the electricity sectors. He was a member of the legal drafting team which prepared the statutes establishing the Ghana Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission in 1997.
He has also consulted for the Energy Commission in the development of subsidiary legislation under that Commission’s rule making powers, including establishing Performance Standards and Rules of Practice for would-be natural gas operators and electricity utilities and has served on the Technical Committee of the Energy Commission.
His international experience includes his participation for several years in the West African Gas Pipeline Project, as well as the West African Regional Electricity Regulatory Project which culminated in the establishment of the Ghana based trans-national regulatory body for electricity in 2008.
With regard to the upstream petroleum sector, during his tenure at the Ministry of Energy, Emmanuel‘s functions included reviewing Petroleum Agreements for awarding upstream exploration licenses in the 1990s.
Emmanuel Sekor adds to the firm a wealth of knowledge of Ghana’s energy sector and several years of practical experience from participating in the structuring of small and large infrastructure projects, facilitation of investments framework through regulation, as well as a deep understanding of the workings of both the public and private sectors.