Michael (Mike) E. Arruda is a senior energy lawyer with over 40 years of experience representing clients in the global energy industry and currently is Senior Counsel at King & Spalding in Tokyo. Mike has practiced in the energy industry for over 40 years, which includes 25 years resident in Asia. His principal focus during this time has been on the upstream and midstream sectors of the oil and gas industry, and today his practice includes low carbon projects, such as carbon capture, utilization and storage, in East and Central Asia. Mike’s work for clients in the energy sector has included transactions around the world, including throughout Asia. His experience in the oil and gas industry has included commercial negotiations and documentation relating to seismic and geological data acquisition, joint studies, joint operations, gas sales, transportation, balancing and storage, facility sharing, and decommissioning. Each of these areas have close analogs to the arrangements required for the successful development and execution of carbon capture, utilization and storage projects.

Mike is the Asia Regional Director for the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) and is active in the AIEN Task Force on Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization. He also is co-chair of the AIEN Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage in the APAC Energy Industry forum to be held in Singapore on January 25, 2024. Mike is in the process of co-authoring an article on decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations that includes a section on the re-use and repurposing of these platforms for carbon capture and storage. Prior to going into private practice, Mike worked as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska and Senior Counsel for BP.

Vera de Gyarfas joined NextDecade Corporation as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in July 2021 and is responsible for all legal and contractual matters affecting NextDecade. De Gyarfas is a skilled corporate attorney with more than 30 years of experience in the areas of energy and natural resources, LNG, general corporate law, contract negotiations, negotiations with host governments, and mergers & acquisitions. Prior to joining NextDecade, de Gyarfas was a partner in Mayer Brown’s Houston office and a member of the Oil & Gas industry group. Previously, she was a partner at King & Spalding and worked with the firm for a total of eight years in the global transactions practice group. De Gyarfas was also a partner at Travieso, Evans, Arria, Rengel & Paz, a large Venezuelan law firm with a strong focus in general corporate, tax, labor, litigation, administrative, regulatory, alternative dispute resolution, and environmental areas. De Gyarfas was recognized as a 2016 Women in Energy Honoree by Texas Lawyer, is ranked in the Legal 500 2019 Power list as an expert in Mexico’s energy sector, and is ranked in Chambers Global 2020 for Energy and Natural Resources as an expert in the US for Venezuela. She was also recommended in Legal 500 Latin America 2018, and listed as a leading practitioner in the International Who’s Who of Oil and Gas Lawyers 2018. De Gyarfas holds a JD from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Venezuela), and a Master of Laws, from University of Houston. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is a frequent author and speaker on energy topics.

Lauren Wilder is a Senior Corporate Negotiator in Chevron’s Corporate Business Development team, specializing in upstream acquisitions and divestments to support Chevron’s Oil, Products, and Gas business in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.   She has previously in supported the Chevron New Energies business with a focus on originating and negotiating investment opportunities related to CCUS and Carbon Offsets.   Prior to joining Chevron in 2022, Lauren was with Repsol for a number of years where she was head of the Upstream Americas Business Development team and executed transactions in a number of jurisdictions including Latam, the Caribbean, Alaska North Slope, and Lower 48.  She began her career at Hess Corporation, in various commercial and negotiations roles of increasing responsibility, supporting exploration and development teams in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ghana, Gabon, Kurdistan, and Gulf of Mexico.  During her nearly 20-year career, she has actively served in various Director and Executive Committee roles of the Association of International Energy Negotiators and was a founding member of the AIEN-Young Negotiators subgroup in 2008.  She holds a BS in Biological Sciences and an MBA in Supply Chain/Logistics, both from the University of Alabama.