Local Content an Introduction

Muhongo, Rukonge Sospeter

Local content policies have proliferated in several oil and gas countries, as a means of government intervention into the oil and gas industry. These policies have been used as vehicles of economic transformation in resource-rich countries. Local content policies were first adopted in the 1970s in Norway. But the Norwegian content model has not been successfully transplanted to any other resource-rich country. Countries like Nigeria and Angola have implemented local content policies but they have not produced similar results to the Norwegian content model. The question boils down to how do nascent developing oil and gas economies like Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Liberia implement commendable local content policies like Norway? Using a case study methodology the chapter analyses the policy tools, and how these tools affect the policy design during local content policy adaptation and implementation. The chapter also introduces justice as a theoretical framework for developing local content policies in literature and practice.