How regulators can encourage local content, Investment in oil and gas

As international oil companies strive to adapt to the energy transition, the future of Africa’s oil and gas industry took center-stage in a discussion focused on regulatory frameworks that focused on the promotion of local content and investment.

This was the crux of the discourse at the Africa Energy Week (AEW) 2021’s Day 2, held on 10 November at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town – organised by Energy Capital and Power.

As a session moderated by Centurion Law Group Director, Onyeka Cindy Ojogbo, the discussants focused on regulations to drive investment and the balanced regulatory frameworks required to drive local content in Africa’s energy sector.

Despite regulations limiting operational and investment processes, international oil companies continue to adapt to the changing business environment in the wake of the energy transition.

“The energy landscape is changing rapidly, and regulators must understand that,” stated Zion Adeoye, Managing Director at Centurion Law Group, who also stressed the need for regulators to “employ regulatory innovations to ensure that the industry is still thriving.”

He said, “Now is the time for governments to implement incentives to drive an inclusive and collaborative energy transition, with security and trade regulations being promoted to drive regional strength and facilitate an attractive platform under which regulators may shape the future of the African oil and gas industry.”

Indicating the need for exploration activities to be incentivized through legislation, Megan Rodgers, Director and Sector Head of Cliffe Dekker, said, “Through the African free trade agreement, we may open up access to regional markets.

“We are already in the mindset of ensuring that we incentivize the development of natural resources that we have access to.

“What the energy transition suggests is that we need to disincentivize certain resources while incentivizing hydrocarbon exploration and production to create a balance in the energy mix.”

“People have the right to prosper,” Leonacio Amada, CEMAC President for the African Energy Chamber stated, concluding that, “companies, job creators, and wealth creators understand that people need work. We as Africans should do business between ourselves in order to create strong economies.”