Mozambique Oil & Gas: ENH and Mozambican entrepreneurs formalise promotion of local content

The National Hydrocarbons Company (ENH) will cooperate with the Mozambican Chamber of Commerce (CCM) and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (APME) in promoting local content development.

The three entities yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding in Maputo establishing the basis for a more interactive relationship and fostering cooperation in the provision of services in the hydrocarbons sector.

The memorandum, whose period of validity was not specified, was signed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ENH, Omar Mithá, Inocêncio Paulino on behalf of APME and Julião Dimande for the CCM.

According to ENH legal office director Júlia Dias, the memorandum fosters “alignment” between the needs for goods and other consumables of project companies and the services that can be provided by the Mozambican companies.

“As a result of the memorandum, we hope to be effective not only in participation in the provision of goods and services, but also in training for small and medium-sized national companies to enable them to establish a relationship with the oil companies,” Dias said.

The oil companies, he said, abide by international standards and the memorandum lays the foundations for sharing information on how small and medium companies will be placed in the market and what the minimum standards are.

Dias said it would take time, but based on this conference, there would be more similar initiative, where national business would be able to showcase their products to the oil companies.

The Petroleum Law establishes that holders of rights to conduct petroleum operations should give preference to local products and services when they are comparable in quality to international products, materials and services, available on time and in the required quantities, and when the price, including taxes, is not more than 10 percent higher than that of imported goods.

With this framework of obligations, Júlia Dias said that companies will have to create a register by which, when contracted or requested, they can demonstrate that they have fulfilled their legal obligations.

In this sense, the fact that the association exists is a step in the right direction, but Dias added that SMEs would have to avail themselves of the training initiatives that ENH and the oil and gas sector partners would provide if they were to move up a level and meet the gas industry’s standards.(Source: AIM)