Review of Nigerian Experience in Oil Resource Control and Local Content Development

Abstract

The agitation for oil resource control by the Niger Delta States of the Southern Nigeria reached its crescendo after Ken Saro Wiwa and his Ogoni compatriots were tried and executed. The States which took over the agitation later got 13 percent derivation and setup development agencies for the application of the fund for the development of the oil communities in the states. But it bungled up and never brought satisfaction rather it became an eye opener for other forms of agitation. Local content development is one such aftermath-agitation. It was pitched against the multinationals and premised on the need to develop a legal regime that could ensure that oil and gas-associated economic activities had local content bottom-lines. In other words, the human and material resources of oil communities must be deliberately factored into project execution by the oil majors so as to create youth employment and skill acquisition in the sector. Has the Local Content Law achieved this? This paper which adopts the doctrinal method reviews the historical and empirical circumstances of resource control agitations and their relationship with and impact on the legal regimes of local content development in the oil and gas sector of Nigeria. It finds that while there are elaborate provisions in the law for the development of local content, not much has been achieved in practice. The nature of foreign (ownership) interests and technology dynamics in oil business; weak institutions have not enabled content development in the sector.