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Oil sector: African countries need to accelerate implementation of local content policies
African countries need to start preparing for a possible exit from the continent of international oil companies, an official said urging that the lack of funding for fossil fuel exploitation need also to be taken into consideration.
According to the Negiria´s Content Development and Monitoring Board Executive Secretary, African countries also need to strengthen cooperation ties to overcome challenges they facing in the oil sector.
Mr Simbi Wabote, who addressed journalists Monday in Luanda at the 8th African Oil and Gas Congress, added that local companies must be empowered to take on the responsibility as soon as foreign companies are in the continent.
The congress comes at an end Thursday.
“Among the ways for local companies to stand out in the sector are tax incentives, funding opportunities and investment in research and development”, he added at the roundtable discussion on “African Local Content: Reviewing Policies and Processes in the Implementation of Local Content in Africa”.
“Nigeria began the debate on local content many years ago and during the period of strong restrictions due to Covid 19, production did not fall because already had local human and technological capacity to be independent in oil production”.
In Nigeria, local companies, which benefit from a 5-year tax exemption, are responsible for 15% of oil and 60% of gas production, the West African country government official said.
Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea Minister for Mines and Hydrocarbons said during the event that international financial institutions had announced last year that they would stop financing fossil fuel exploration. Africans have to prepare themselves, Mr Gabriel Obiang Lima
“We will be in the dark if international partners withdraw their technology”, the head of the Association of Angolan Indigenous Oil and Gas Service Companies (ASSEA) also warned adding that it is necessary to speed up the implementation of local content policies on the continent.
“We hardly own anything in terms of production”, Mr Emanuel Bo Dontoni noted.
