Despite Nigerian laws dictating...
Despite Nigerian laws dictating local content policy in the upstream oil and gas sector, Nigeria is said to be losing a whopping $8 billion annually through award of oil service contracts to expatriate companies.
The chairman of Nigeria's Lonestar Drilling Company Limited, an upstream contractor, Chief Humphrey Idisi, blamed it on the massive use of expatriate contractors by the oil multinationals that dominate operations in the upstream sector.
According to Chief Idisi whose company is locked in a fierce competition with a set of expatriate firms over a drilling contract, the local content policy may not yield the target goals if the multinationals in the upstream were allowed to continue dictating conditions and standards for award of contracts.
He explained that the nation's efforts at local capacity building would be a waste if existing capacity was not utilised through contract patronage to make further investments viable.
He added that contrary to official estimates, local content in the upstream oil and gas sector was far less than six per cent, stressing that the policy has not started impacting positively on indigenous operators in the industry.
