A BRIEF REPORT ON THE GLOBAL LOCAL CONTENT SUMMIT IN OIL AND GAS HELD AT THE LE MERIDIEN HOTELS PICADILLY, LONDON, BETWEEN 24TH AND 26TH SEPTEMBER 2007
The commitment of Babalakin and Co to the Oil and Gas Industry and the professional development of its Counsel such as to be an active part of that Industry, was in evidence with the Firm’s sponsorship of the 2007 edition of the Global Summit in Oil and Gas, which was held between the 24th and 26th September 2007. The summit was an important platform for International and State Oil Companies, policy makers and experts to evaluate the global approach to local content participation in the Oil and Gas Industry.
The summit took the form of a series of papers delivered in a workshop and seminar format, delineated such as to enable the widest coverage of topics and innovative local content policies, currently being practiced in the Industry. The morning sessions were usually held as a single group, with afternoon sessions being in two streams (A and B) covering papers and presentations that were of a technical and managerial flavour. The highlight of these sessions was a presentation by BRASS LNG on its contributions towards the improvement of Nigeria’s engineering and fabrication sectors and the development of new production techniques by local content companies.
The First day featured a series of seminars, kindly opened by the Overseas Development Institute’s paper on “COMMUNITY CONTENT: The Interface of Community Investment Programmes with Local Content Practices in the Oil and Gas Development Sector”. The day featured such eminent speakers as Odd Insterfjord, a Special Adviser to the Norwegian Oil Giant STATOIL, A paper entitled “GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OIL AND DEVELOPMENT” by Messrs Peter Peek and Olivier Brenninkmeijer and our own Mr Adebayo G. Adaralegbe whose well received paper identified the potential conflicts between Nigeria’s treaty obligations in terms of opening up barriers to trade via Bilateral International Treaties (BIT) and its commitments to the improvement of local content participation in the Oil and Gas sector. EXXON MOBIL then treated the delegates to a lunchtime presentation on its own local content development and community responsibility schemes. It was a pleasure to have our Mr Olawale Akoni (SAN) as the Chairman of the day’s seminars as this was further appreciation of the Firm’s efforts towards actualization of the Seminar itself.
The second day, much like the first, featured eminent speakers such as Dr Saheed. N. Ebrahimi, Director of contractual and legal affairs for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), a state owned oil company. His erudite explanations of the Iranian experience was complimented by his counterpart from the Papua New Guinea, whose erudite précis of his country’s approach to local content participation.
The final day was the workshop session, and was held at the opulent surroundings of the CAFÉ ROYAL in Piccadilly. This was divided into two sessions. The highlight of BABALAKIN AND CO.’s participation at the Oil and Gas summit was its workshop in the Afternoon Session, which was hosted by the firm with our Mr Olawale Akoni (SAN) as chairman of the occasion. Mr Adebayo. G. Adaralegbe, as our Head of Oil and Gas, led discussions with his paper on the contractual tools with which an industry player can attain local content compliance without compromising its quality and standards in the Industry. This was once again well received by the participants who were mainly Nigerian. The workshop was also a forum for frank and open discussion on the proposed NIGERIAN CONTENT DEVELOPMENT BILL 2006.
The success of the Summit in London was not only in the content and breadth of knowledge shared between the participants and attendees but the rich variety of experiences, policy approaches and results that were shared by all. The summit no doubt was a resounding success. As one delegate from FRED OLSEN (WEST AFRICA) LIMITED, a Nigerian company put it “for the first time, we’ve had the participation of more experts and lawyers. There seems to be a resolve now to improve this policy, and especially the Nigerian local content Bill (a commentary on the proposed 2006 BILL, which is before the Nigerian National Assembly)”. The summit was no doubt a resounding success in terms of its purposefulness and will serve as a launch pad for the momentum towards future change and the achievement of a balanced Oil and Gas policy not only in Nigeria but also hopefully in other economies
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