Nigeria ties ExxonMobil to support local business

Nov 26, 2017 News

The Government of Nigeria refused to rely on a mere policy paper to ensure USA oil giant, ExxonMobil, give monetary support for the development and support of its local products and services.
The administration ensured that this was negotiated upfront and entered into the contract it signed with the oil giant.
It was this foresight that led to the country drawing down on millions of dollars recently for development purposes.
ExxonMobil provided $975 million to support indigenous operators.
The funds are expected to enable indigenous companies that face many challenges; including limited funding finance, different projects and programmes.
ExxonMobil is one of Nigeria’s highest producers of crude oil, accounting for almost 600,000 barrels per day of crude, condensate and natural gas liquids.
The American company has been in that African country for over 40 years and has a track record of operating a world class facility in the country. It also looks forward to boosting crude oil production there.
Because of the contractual safety nets employed by Nigeria, ExxonMobil was even made to invest heavily on human development in Nigeria.
This was very significant in bringing about competition for national growth. The company was also made to invest massively in community development in areas of education and infrastructural development, while ensuring sustainability on the long-time benefit.
Over 700 graduates benefited from the company’s skilled training. The majority of them have been employed by various oil and gas companies in Nigeria.
Several anticorruption advocates have questioned whether the Government of Guyana has been able to negotiate a similar arrangement with ExxonMobil and have it inserted in its contract with the oil king.
The government has so far insisted that it will not release the ExxonMobil contract.
In the meantime, there are over 50 countries around the world which engage in the practice of making oil and gas contracts open to the citizenry for scrutiny.
This is according to Openoil.net. These contracts are also available for download on that website. Openoil has one of the world’s first comprehensive archive list of oil contracts.
These are pulled from states such as Mexico, Angola, Chad, Guatemala, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Syria, and Ukraine. USA oil giant, ExxonMobil has operations in all of the mentioned countries in which disclosure of contracts is practised.
Officials, who support the Openoil webpage, categorically believe that all contracts which govern publically owned natural resources and the livelihoods of people should be placed into the open for all to access and examine.

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