Entrepreneurial implications of Nigeria's oil industry local content policy

Author(s):  
Ugwushi Bellema Ihua ◽  
Olatunde Abiodun Olabowale ◽  
Kamdi Nnanna Eloji ◽  
Chris Ajayi

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficacy of Nigeria's oil and gas industry local content (LC) policy, with particular reference to how the policy has enhanced entrepreneurial activities and served as panacea to resolving some of the country's socio‐economic challenges within the oil‐producing Niger Delta region.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were randomly obtained from a questionnaire sample of 120 indigenes in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states; and subjected to factor‐analysis using varimax rotation to identify the most crucial factors likely to influence the success of the policy. Cronbach's α was also applied to ascertain the reliability of the data and overall agreement amongst respondents.FindingsThe study reveals a general level of indifference amongst the respondents, and an insignificant level of entrepreneurial implication, regarding the LC policy. Notwithstanding, the need to create business prospects, jobs opportunities, and establish special quota arrangements to benefit indigenes of the oil producing host‐communities were found to be most crucial in their assessment of the policy's efficacy.Practical implicationsIt is expected that the policy should stimulate and open up more channels for budding entrepreneurial activities, job opportunities and wealth generation. These would mitigate situations of unwarranted militant activities, social disorder and disguised criminalities such as kidnapping and destruction of oil installations, resulting from perceived marginalisation, massive unemployment and poor living standards experienced within the region.Originality/valueThe study provides insights into how the LC policy, if properly harnessed and judiciously implemented, can generate win‐win outcomes for the nation, multi‐national oil companies, host communities and indigenous entrepreneurs.

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 594-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Afriyie Owusu ◽  
Terje I. Vaaland

Purpose The paper aims to identify and analyze the actors and their interrelationships in realizing local content objectives in African oil- and gas-producing nations. Design/methodology/approach The paper includes content analysis of relevant research papers and reports within the oil and gas industry, local content and industrial networks published between 2000 and 2014. Findings The study developed a framework that integrates the literature on local content with the industrial network theory. The framework classifies the various critical actors for achieving local content, proposing that achieving local content requires the development of business network links and a resource alignment among local companies and institutions and foreign companies and institutions, in addition to multinational oil companies. Research limitations/implications The framework of this study contributes to an emerging theory on local content by integrating the industrial network theory, which provides specific frameworks for analyzing embedded business environments, along with the previous economic and legal-based studies of local content achievement. Practical implications The way the relevant actors organize their resources and business networks provides potential for local content in an emerging oil and gas industry in Africa. Originality/value The paper is one of the few to integrate studies of local content with the industrial network theory. The literature review provides a summary window of the research on the subject over a 14-year period.


Subject Increased African offshore exploration Significance Offshore West and Southern Africa is seeing a revival of exploration interest as the upstream oil and gas industry recovers following the 2014 oil price crash. Oil majors such as ExxonMobil and BP have snapped up acreage, while firms that already have a footprint in the region are expanding and announcing new drilling plans. The upsurge in activity will bring a short-term economic boost to the countries concerned but -- as with past waves of exploration -- public expectations of imminent windfalls will have to be carefully managed. Impacts Ports and service companies supporting exploration will see an upturn in activity. Pressure will grow on national oil companies and government bodies to improve expertise and infrastructure for future discoveries. Existing licence-holders will face pressure from regional governments to quickly pursue exploration or risk being replaced.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwesi Amponsah-Tawiah ◽  
Kwasi Dartey-Baah ◽  
Kobena Osam

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the potential impact of the presence of oil resource on the Ghanaian society. Specifically, the paper investigates the relationship between key stakeholders in the oil sector, how stakeholder interactions create the potential for collision and advances measures aimed at turning possible collision into cooperation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a literature review-based approach, drawing on existing literature in a number of areas including corporate social responsibility (CSR), oil and gas industry in Ghana and Nigeria as well as communication. Findings – The paper advances that expectations of stakeholders as regards oil being a panacea to all their problems must be managed to avoid possible collision. Additionally, Ghana’s oil industry must identify and engage all stakeholders in planning suitable and sustainable CSR programmes for economic development, thus fostering a friendly environment for oil companies. Transparency and accountability are also needed to promote cooperation rather than collision among stakeholders in Ghana’s oil industry. Originality/value – This paper raises and brings to the fore critical issues that can lead to potential collisions in the oil and gas industry in Ghana if not well-managed, and thus an innovative work in that regard.


2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
Brent Steedman

The oil and gas industry is facing a period of major transition as national oil companies (NOCs) improve their operating capabilities and change their investment models KPMG’s Global Oil and Gas Centre of Excellence has commissioned a report which analyses this changing environment, interviews senior executives from major NOCs to understand their views and offers our insights into emerging issues for the oil and gas industry. NOCs are moving outside their national boundaries, partially privatising their assets and demanding more from potential partners and investors. The key findings from this survey are as follows: the growing capabilities of NOCs the definite shift from the use of ownership to service contracts; the success of service companies; international oil companies are responding to the changing landscape; and, investment in people and skills is a top NOC priority. The potential impact of the above findings on the Australian oil and gas sector are significant, and include: reduced access to international service companies; shortage of skills increased opportunities for Australian service companies; and, increased focus by international oil companies on upstream opportunities in Australia. KPMG’s report was prepared during a period of rising oil prices. Even during the current period of price volatility, the majority of findings continue to be relevant for participants in the oil and gas industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shafic Suleman ◽  
Joshua Jebuntie Zaato

AbstractThe need to develop and boost the potentials of Ghana’s upstream oil and gas activities has been advocated by policymakers, academics, and financial institutions since the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities. It has been argued that if well implemented, upstream activities have a trickledown effect on the local content policy linkages that apart from taxes, can lead to improved financial and social benefits. In this study, how Ghana can use local content policy in upstream oil and gas operations to maximum economic and social benefits for the good of the Ghana government, citizens, and the Multinational Oil Companies, is the main question to be answered? To address this question, comprehensive analysis of local content laws and policies and stakeholder consultations are conducted. The paper argues that an effective local content policy towards achieving sustainability in the upstream oil and gas industry demands balancing the needs of policymakers, local communities, Multinational Oil Companies, and regulators to succeed. The study recommends a local content implementation master plan; active participation of key stakeholders (government, citizens and Multinational Oil Companies); and integration of forward and backward linkages in the implementation of Ghana’s upstream local content laws and policies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Dziwornu Ablo ◽  
Ragnhild Overå

ABSTRACTIn December 2010 Ghana pumped its first oil and a local content law was passed in 2013 to promote local participation in the oil and gas industry. This paper examines Ghanaian entrepreneurial activities and the dynamics of local participation in the emerging oil and gas sector. We explore Ghanaian entrepreneurs' strategies of mobilising networks to acquire information, build trust, raise financial capital and reduce risk with the aim to gain entry, win contracts and participate in the oil and gas industry. We argue that the resources and strategies activated by entrepreneurs embedded in the context of the Ghanaian business environment are inadequate and problematic when deployed in the context of the international oil and gas industry. The international oil companies' cost-intensive standard requirements and state officials' informal interventions further limit local firms' prospects for participation in the oil and gas industry.


2020 ◽  
pp. 139-160
Author(s):  
Charles Godfred Ackah ◽  
Asaah S. Mohammed

Local content and local participation policy and legislation have come to stay in Ghana’s oil and gas industry. The policy and legislation have been described largely as adequate, promising, and necessary to promote local content and local participation in the oil and gas industry. Implementation of the policy and legislation has, however, produced mixed results, according to industry stakeholders and researchers. Evidence suggests some level of compliance by international oil companies to implement the policy and legislation on local content. Some Ghanaian companies have been awarded contracts to provide essential services and goods to these international oil companies during exploration and production. Several factors, however, militate against effective implementation of the policy and legislation. Notable among these are the low capacity of local firms, discrimination against local firms by international oil companies through vertical integration, and the weak regulatory capacity of the Petroleum Commission to enforce local content implementation.


Subject Prospects for consolidation in the oil and gas industry. Significance Falling revenues and downward reserve valuations caused by the fall in oil prices are producing merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities in the oil and gas sector. However, uncertainty about how long oil prices will stay low is keeping bids and offers apart, amid quandaries over which forms of oil and gas production will prove most profitable once prices revive. Impacts Post-bankruptcy restructured companies may be primary targets, given acquirers' unwillingness to take on elevated levels of debt themselves. Mid-cap companies with serviceable debt loads will gain from increased scale; cost reduction capacity will be a source of value. Shale cost reductions suggest that technology and assets in the shale patch will remain attractive to more conventional oil companies. Values of long lead-time projects, such as conventional oil assets in Africa, will suffer. There is substantial firepower available to private equity buyers who are holding out for lower prices prompted by distressed sellers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 791-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikechukwu Umejesi ◽  
Michael Thompson

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the interactions of the different actors – the state, multinational oil and gas companies, environmental advocacy groups and local people – in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on interviews, observations and focus group discussions, as well as on archival materials relating to the development of the oil and gas industry during the colonial period (i.e. pre-1960 Nigeria). Findings – A cultural theory-based analysis of the environmental risk perceptions of the different actors reveals a profoundly unconstructive institutional configuration, in which the collusion of two “solidarities – the oil companies (individualism) and the state (hierarchy) – has led to the exclusion of the local communities (egalitarianism) who have found themselves impoverished and marginalised (fatalism). With these two “elephants” – individualism/hierarchy and egalitarianism/fatalism – pitted against each other, it has been the “grass” – the natural environment that has suffered. Practical implications – Giving the local communities a stake in the wealth-creating process, from which they are at present excluded, would shift the pattern of inter-solidarity engagement from one in which two “active” (i.e. non-fatalist) voices silence the third to one in which each voice is able to make itself heard and is then responsive to the others. Originality/value – Innovative and current on under-researched topic and geography. The main fieldwork was conducted between 2007 and 2008, with further field visits and updates between 2009 and 2013.


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