The data was presented by João Santiago, local content technician at the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG), during the workshop on Local Content, under the theme "The Foundation for the Sustainable Growth of Angolan Business".
According to João Santiago, in 2022, the contracts awarded reached nine billion dollars, representing this year's values, so far, an increase of another five billion dollars.
In his intervention, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, said that the implementation of the Presidential Decree of October 20, 2020, known as the Local Content Law for the Petroleum Sector, constitutes one of the foundations of the executive's policy to guarantee the participation of Angolan staff and technicians and the insertion of national businesspeople throughout the value chain of the oil sector.
Diamantino Azevedo highlighted that, over the years, to respond to the great dependence on foreign technical staff and services provided by foreign companies, the Government approved several legal diplomas, the implementation of which was called the "Angolanization Process" of the oil sector, initially aiming at the recruitment, training and development of national labor.
The minister also highlighted that, with the development of the national oil industry, moving from oil exploration and production in shallow waters to deeper waters, the technical complexity and knowledge required increased, leading to the continuous improvement of diplomas on Content Local.
"Thus, the definition and requirements of Local Content have evolved and, as a result, several new legal diplomas have been approved, aiming not only at the insertion of the workforce, but also at the provision of services by local companies", he said.
Local Content is any activity in the oil sector that includes the participation of Angolan businesspeople and citizens, companies governed by Angolan law, the use of goods and services produced in Angola, the recruitment, integration, training and development of the Angolan workforce , in a consistent and sustainable way, explained the minister.
The diploma establishes three distinct regimes for the participation of Angolan companies, which are the exclusivity regime, with services only for Angolan companies, the preference regime, where Angolan companies with equal technical and financial capacity have priority over others, and the free competition regime, which involves more complex and financially more demanding activities.
The holder of the Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas portfolio said that both operating companies and service providers must give priority to hiring local companies, for services covered by the exclusivity regime, based on a list published annually by ANPG.
According to the minister, the biggest challenge encountered in implementing this law was reconciling it with the Presidential Decree of April 2018 that regulates the processes of contracting goods and services, mainly for contracts with a value below 5 million dollars.
Speaking to the press, the event's spokesperson, Maura Nunes, said that six major challenges have been identified, linked to certification, operationalization, training, liquidity, access to financing, "which is a big topic", and taxation.
Maura Nunes guaranteed that there are opportunities and competence of national companies, but it remains to be analyzed how to leverage them, also highlighting that the presence of Angolan companies in the sector has been increasing, both under reference and exclusivity regimes, the latter with 5 percent of total approved contracts.
"This increase is slow and we have to overcome the various challenges we are facing, so that this number increases more and more", observed Maura Nunes.
