On July 1, Jay Cohen, partner and director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ Cambodia practice, shared insights into Cambodia’s increasingly active solar energy market in a webinar organized by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Jay’s presentation was titled “Solar Industry in Cambodia: Overview of Key Issues” and was featured as part of this larger webinar on solar parks and energy storage in the country. The presentation covered a wide range of topics, including the role of the state in Cambodia’s energy sector, the regulatory framework for the solar industry, licensing rules and concerns, resilient business models for solar energy enterprises, and investment incentives for solar energy entrepreneurs in Cambodia. Jay also identified the key government agencies that solar energy businesses need to deal with, discussed the intricacies of electricity tariffs, explained regulations for different types of energy consumers, and offered guidance on how the solar energy industry may develop in Cambodia in the coming years.

A June 14, 2021, article discussing Cambodia’s future as an oil producer features insights from Jay Cohen, partner and director of Tilleke & Gibbins in Cambodia and the country head of Tilleke & Gibbins’ regional energy practice. The article, which was published by Nikkei Asia, considers possible routes forward for exploitation of the country’s oil and gas reserves in light of the recent insolvency of KrisEnergy, which had just begun producing oil from an offshore Cambodian concession. The article explains that KrisEnergy, a Singapore-based company, was forced to declare bankruptcy shortly after they began operating their share of a Cambodian concession they purchased several years ago from Chevron. They found that the concession contained a lower volume of accessible oil than expected, and the revenue would not be enough to cover their mounting debts. Nevertheless, just days later Cambodia went ahead with a ceremony to mark the country’s first drops of oil—produced by the concession to KrisEnergy. The ceremony demonstrates the high hopes that Cambodia has placed on the potential of its oil resources to bring economic transformation, but also highlights the uncertainty facing these plans now that the country is left without an operator to extract the oil. In the article, several experts in the Cambodian energy market discussed the developments and shared their thoughts on where the country’s oil ambitions might go from here. Jay commented specifically on KrisEnergy’s discovery that the concession contained a smaller amount of recoverable oil than originally assumed. He emphasized that the commercial viability of the concession will have to be reassessed to determine whether reviving production with a different operator is a practical possibility. The full article is available on the Nikkei Asia website.

The latest “Women in Law” report from Asia Business Law Journal (ABLJ) includes a profile of Tiziana Sucharitkul, co-managing partner and director of the Tilleke & Gibbins’ dispute resolution group. The special report includes profiles of 20 highly accomplished female legal professionals from the Asia-Pacific region. Tiziana is the only person from Thailand to be included in the feature. Titled “View from the Top,” the profile of Tiziana focuses on her many leadership roles—not only at the helm of Tilleke & Gibbins but also in executive and advisory positions for various global legal associations. For instance, in 2018–2019 Tiziana served as chair of the board of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading global network of independent law firms, and she currently sits on the board of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation and is an active participant in the organization’s Women’s Initiative Network to Success. Tiziana also sits on the International Bar Association’s Law Firm Management Committee, which functions as a global forum for leadership and management in the legal practice. Tiziana also spoke with ABLJ about the increasing profile of women lawyers that she has witnessed during her career, noting that she observed the concern about female representation in law firms grow throughout the 1980s and 1990s all the way until the present day, when more women can be seen in management positions, but are still somewhat underrepresented at the managing partner level overall. To read the full “Women in Law” report, please visit the ABLJ website.

On April 27, 2021, Joseph Tomkiewicz, partner and co-chair of Tilleke & Gibbins’ energy practice, will moderate an online panel discussion on challenges and opportunities facing the rooftop solar energy market in Thailand. The session will open with presentations from Lim Cheong Boon, APAC head of product and marketing for Trina Solar, and Jell Jiang, manager of GoodWe’s operations in Southeast Asia and Pakistan. They will then be joined by Michael Belov, country head of Thailand for Cleantech Solar, and Joseph, who will moderate their panel discussion on trends in the rooftop solar marketplace in Thailand. The guided conversation will also focus on prospects for rooftop solar activities and investment in Thailand, as well as practical considerations to be aware of when selecting sites and preparing to enter the rooftop solar energy market in the country. The webinar is free to attend and will be held from 2:00 to 3:25 p.m. (GMT+7) via Zoom. For more details and to register, please visit the webinar registration page.