The purpose of this thesis is to explore and understand the ‘localisation’ phenomenon from a geographical, cultural, technical and governmental theme to help explain why the level of local content in the oil and gas engineering and technical services private sector tends to flatten out at specific engineering and management skillsets in order to balance quality and delivery of the service and maintain operational excellence. Five research objectives were developed to achieve the research aim to provide a clear understanding, from a corporate strategic perspective, of the drivers and perceived barriers to successful localisation. For the purposes of this thesis, the term "localisation" is understood to mean “when a local national is filling a required job sufficiently competently to fulfil organisational needs” (Potter 1989). Due to the nature of investigation, this study adopted a qualitative inquiry. Thus, a mix of qualitative data collection methods were used such as document, experienced observation, and interviews with senior managers at the corporate strategic level of the business. An interview guide was developed from a conceptual framework generated from the literature review. The study targeted an ‘elite’ sample of oil and gas executives/ managers who are considered role models in the case study organisation. This study argues that a form of grounded theory/qualitative inquiry is adopted during data analysis using open, axial, and selective coding, leading to an evolved conceptual framework of localisation drivers and barriers. In addition to a thematic analysis, an integrated view from the researcher as an experienced observer resulted in a validated conceptual framework. This framework provides a holistic set of factors that must be considered, and understood, from a corporate strategic perspective as being directly influential in achieving successful localisation of a subsidiary part of the business. It is found that four of the five objectives were met and objective five partially achieved which identified an opportunity for further research to investigate and develop weightings across the four localisation barrier themes to determine an optimised balance of cost, delivery, and local content to maintain the desired operational excellence in the oil and gas services contractor industry. The study appears to have a contribution to knowledge through the evolving conceptual framework of localisation and provides the first holistic view of both localisation drivers and barriers relevant to oil and gas services contractors. A methodological contribution is worth noting since the researcher acted as an experienced observer during the process of this research. No doubt, industrial experience of the research and his access to the senior management has been one of the key contributing factors to a successful completion of the study. Finally, one can argue that this study has made contribution to the policy makers who provided access to the researcher. The findings of this study will provide a better and clear understanding of localisation and its drivers and barriers.

This research report analyses Uganda’s legal requirements on local content, particularly its impact on the rights of women to participate and obtain benefit from extractive industry activities. Regard is had to the fact that much of Africa’s non-renewable natural resources have not been applied to the benefit of its peoples. Resultantly, governments have developed legislation and other requirements to among others, attract foreign direct investment without unnecessarily disadvantaging the nationals. The discussion considers the situation in other common law countries – specifically Tanzania and South Africa – as well as the implications of obligations imposed on member countries by international treaties, agreements and frameworks. The research is anchored on the need to improve on the livelihood of women in extractive industries and thereby examines the implications of the law on their rights. The study then delves into a critical review of the effectiveness of the local content legal framework in Uganda and also draws lessons from Tanzania and South Africa for purposes of comparison. The study narrows the discussion to the problem of law and policy making which end up excluding and disadvantaging women. Recommendations made are intended to contribute to the body of knowledge in the extractives sector generally and on the local content stipulations and their impact on the rights of women specifically. Recommendations include; embracing gender inclusiveness and taking into account women’s views in policy and law making, balancing political rhetoric and agenda with the need to secure women’s participation, as well as setting specific quotas to be complied with by extractives companies are paramount. Further, encouragement of women to participate in extractive industry activities, development of more cohesive and gender inclusive policies as well as adoption of a strategy approach in extractive industry policy making. Also, eradication of archaic practices which exclude women from participating in and taking direct benefits in extractives activities. Much as the local content requirements in Uganda are designed to engender equality and equity, more still needs to be done to enhance women’s rights in the extractive industry. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

The internationalization of production requires each multinational firm to determine the local content rate for his product that is made and sold in a foreign country. In this thesis, we investigate the local content rate and pricing decisions for a multinational firm who competes with a local firm in a market without and with a local content requirement (LCR). We develop and solve a two-stage decision problem in which the multinational firm determines his optimal local content rate and the two firms then make their pricing decisions. Our analytical results show that the multinational firm sets a lower local content rate, when the competition between the product of the multinational firm and that of the local firm intensifies, consumers' valuation is more strongly affected by the quality of the product of the multinational firm, and the reduction in consumers' marginal utility is smaller. We also show that an LCR may induce the multinational firm to increase local content rate and transfer benefits from the multinational firm to the local firm. However, a very high LCR threshold will cause the multinational firm to adopt a low local content rate, resulting in a low demand and profit for both the multinational firm and the local firm.

Enactment of Ghana's Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2013 (L.I. 2204) was intended to regulate the percentage of local products, personnel, financing, and goods and services rendered within Ghana's upstream petroleum industry value chain. Five years after the inception of Ghana's upstream oil and gas industry, a gap is evident between the requirements of L.I. 2204 and professional practice. Drawing on Lewin's change theory, a cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the extent of differences between the prevailing human resource local content and the requirements of L.I. 2204 in Ghana's upstream petroleum industry. The extent to which training acquired by indigenous Ghanaians seeking jobs in Ghana's oil fields affects the prevalent local content in its upstream petroleum industry was also examined. Survey data were collected from 97 management, technical, and other staff in 2 multinational petroleum companies whose oil and gas development plans have been approved by the Petroleum Commission of Ghana. To answer the research questions and test their hypotheses, one-way ANOVA was performed with staff category (management, technical, and other) as the independent variable and prevalent local content as the dependent variable. Results indicated that prevailing local content in Ghana's upstream petroleum industry meets the requirements of L.I. 2204. Further, training acquired by indigenous Ghanaians seeking jobs in Ghana's oil fields affects the prevalent local content in its offshore petroleum industry. Findings may encourage leaders within multinational oil companies and the Petroleum Commission of Ghana to organize educational seminars that equip indigenous Ghanaians with specialized skills for working in Ghana's upstream petroleum industry.

One of the aims of the Local Content Policy (LCP) is the economic development of Nigeria through the utilisation of local personnel and resources in the activities of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Many studies have investigated the LCP, but limited work has been undertaken in investigating the transparency practices involved in the implementation of the LCP in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The study critically evaluates the effectiveness of the LCP and the transparency practices associated with its implementation. A conceptual framework based on accountability was developed and employed in designing the research instrument. This framework was underpinned by the institutional theory, which links accountability discourse to regulatory institutions where organisations within a particular field are subject to pressures to exhibit legitimacy through socially and culturally authorised administrative routines that are intended to render accountability. The study employed a qualitative methodology and the data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with respondents from twenty-three indigenous oil and gas companies, regulatory bodies, international oil and gas companies and non-governmental organizations. The research findings demonstrate that the various LCP stakeholders’ views on the definition and purpose of the LCP differ significantly. These diverse opinions affect the way in which the LCP is perceived and implemented in the oil and gas industry. The study has been instrumental in revealing a number of positive effects the LCP has generated since its implementation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. For example, the LCP compelled IOCs to utilise local resources in their operations, resulting in the domestication of oil and gas activities. However, the findings also reveal that the LCP has been enforced despite the lack of local capacity and capability for its implementation. The findings, therefore, highlight a number of challenges associated with LCP implementation including: the lack of infrastructure; insufficient capital and manpower; absence of trust; and the lack of coordination between the regulatory agencies in the industry. The research findings also reveal that there are different levels of transparency in the implementation of LCP. Determination of the level of transparency in LCP implementation and compliance monitoring is at the discretion of the NCDMB and the oil and gas companies, which unfortunately facilitates corrupt practices. Therefore, this study argues that significant improvements are required in transparency practices in LCP implementation by strengthening the LCP’s monitoring and enforcement process. Further, enforcement should strictly be the responsibility of the NCDMB, with no interference from the Nigerian government. Some further recommendations arising from this research include the need for investment in infrastructure that will facilitate indigenous companies’ participation in the industry. Also, efforts should be made to promote partnership and collaboration between indigenous companies and IOCs, encouraging investment in world-class infrastructure that can compete with international standards. To foster this partnership, the government and IOCs must invest in educational institutions which could boost the knowledge and capacity of Nigerians. The research concludes with the development of two new models: (1) The LCP stakeholder perception model; and, (2) The LCP implementation model. These models, which are the main contributions of knowledge arising from this thesis, will potentially aid the effective implementation of the recommendations arising from this study.

Petroleum-producing companies in Nigeria were forced to increase spending on Nigerian-sourced materials and services from $8 billion to $13 billion since 2010, due to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act. The act was enacted in 2010 to support local firms and improve the companies' performance. However, there is sparse research on how the act affected the companies' performance. This study was an examination of the impact of the act on the companies' performance. Bandura's social cognitive theory was the theoretical framework. The research questions of this descriptive correlational study were used to examine the act's effect on employee and organizational performance. The independent variable was employees' perception of the level of implementation of the act. The dependent variables were employees' perceived task and perceived organizational business performance. Collection of interval level survey data from 372 full-time employees of the 5 major petroleum-producing companies in Nigeria was possible by anchoring only the ends of the Likert scale with words. The Pearson product-moment correlation results indicated that the independent variable correlated positively with each dependent variable. The exploratory factor analysis results indicated that the act had a positive effect on the employees' internal competence factor and the organizations' operational performance factor. The results are significant for Nigerian government officials and managers of the companies in understanding the impact of the act on performance. The outcomes have potential implications for positive social change through improved implementation strategies to achieve the objectives of the act. Researchers could focus on examining the impact of the act on employees' internal competence factor in future studies.

This thesis is an exploration of the fate which has befallen the regional commercial television industry in North Queensland in the wake of the aggregation policy introduced by the Federal Labor Government in 1990. More specifically, it examines the effectiveness of policy outcomes which stem from the Australian Broadcasting Authority's 2001 inquiry into the adequacy of regional and rural commercial television news and information services. The research is primarily concerned with the quality of local content provided by regional commercial broadcasters in response to the implementation of the Australian Communications and Media Authority's points system for broadcast of matters of local significance. The policy outcomes are balanced against an historical context, which traces the regional commercial television industry in North Queensland back to its very beginning. Regulatory reform has resulted in a basic level of news content being maintained. However the significance of elements of this news content to local viewers is minimal. The reduction in local information content, despite being identified in the earliest stages of the ABA investigation, has not been adequately addressed by the reform process.

The broadcasting sector is a subject of continual debate in modern society. One of the oldest segments of the rapidly-evolving information technology and communications industry, it is still the most content rich and the most popular. Australians who watch television spend more time doing so than doing any other leisure activity – except those who fish (ABS 1998). Broadcasting is highly pervasive. Some kind of service is available and used in every Australian household. Everyone is an expert, everyone has an opinion. Since the Federal Government decided to allow the introduction of domestic subscription television in 1992, pay television has been broadly dismissed by its media rivals as being unpopular, unprofitable and unnecessary. In turn, the Australian pay television industry considers that it is over-regulated, especially compared to the free-to-air sector, and that much of this regulation severely constrains its ability to grow its subscriber base. This thesis examines whether the Australian subscription television industry has achieved the aims set for it by the legislators in 1992 – that is, whether it has ‘met its promise’. To achieve this, the thesis first identifies the ‘promises’ of an Australian subscription television industry. In assessing whether the industry has met its promise, the thesis considers various aspects of the industry, including what the industry has needed to do to make itself profitable and ensure its longevity and the environment within which the industry operates. The thesis examines the role that content plays in attracting subscribers and considers whether minimal content regulation has resulted in a paucity of local content on subscription television in Australia. The thesis draws on existing academic literature, government publications, information released by the subscription television industry itself and interviews conducted in the course of the project with the Australian subscription television sector. It also uses and builds on ratings data to examine the programs and channels that are offered by Australian pay television services. In concluding, this thesis makes an assessment of whether the Australian pay television industry has met its promise.

This thesis explores the politics of elite commitment to promote local content and participation within Ghana's oil and gas sector. Since Ghana discovered commercial quantities of oil in 2007, debates over whether it would avoid the 'resource curse' have primarily taken place within a neo-institutionalist frame of analysis that emphasises the importance of establishing certain types of institutional arrangements which can help constrain and shape elite commitment to developing petroleum resources in the national interest. This thesis seeks to go beyond this framing by deploying new forms of political analysis which show that elite commitment is shaped not by institutions but by the wider configuration of power. It employs an extended 'political settlements' framework (incorporating ideas) that explains how elite interests and ideas shape developmental forms of political commitment to governing oil in the national interest. The analysis is based on three main cases - the politics of formulating and adopting local content legislation, the process through which this legislation was implemented and the effort put into building the capacity of Ghanaian firms to participate in the sector. The thesis argues that the underlying tendencies within Ghana's competitive clientelist political settlement (electoral incentives, coalition building, patronage politics and ideas) directly shaped the levels of political commitment to secure greater oil rents. Ghana's competitive political settlement generated incentives for politicians to use local content policy promises as a strategy to bring certain civil society and private sector elites within what would become a ruling coalition. This move, along with the resource nationalist ideology of the coalition in power at the time, in turn helped to generate relatively high levels of elite commitment to developing ambitious targets within the legislation. However, the process of implementation has been shaped more directly by incentives than ideas, particularly in terms of pressures to distribute participation opportunities in line with the clientelist logic of the political settlement, benefitting politically connected firms. In applying an extended political settlements approach, this thesis offers deeper political economy insights into the drivers of elite commitment to governing oil in the national interest, and shows how Ghana's efforts to avoid the resource curse have and will continue to be closely shaped by 'power relations', 'elite bargaining' and 'ideas'.

Local Content is an oil sector governance and sustainability policy that aims at check-mating the dominance of the foreign oil companies in host countries, and encouraging the participation of the local oil firms in the petroleum value-chain. It is a burgeoning concept applied in the upstream petroleum contracts in the developing petro states. This study was conducted to examine the local content accounting, accountability and governance of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the five major International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria (Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total and Agip). The soft and hard accountability of the two principal actors were determined. The work drew on the Chatham House Guidelines for Good Governance in Emerging Oil and Gas Producers (2013) to derive its conceptual and analytical models. The study used the convergent parallel design and a combination of the three accounting paradigms to draw its conclusions. Thematic analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics including the post hoc Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests with Bonferroni Corrected Alpha, and the logistic regression tests were used. The study also applied the mechanistic content analysis methodology on fifty sustainability reports of the selected IOCs in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) sustainability reporting guidelines. Disclosure index and paired-samples t-test were used to determine the existence and trends in the IOCs’ local content disclosure practices before and after the enactment of the Nigeria’s local content law. The study found the local content policy to be an accountabilitybased sustainability driver in the Nigerian petroleum sector. Although the NCDMB’s performance was favourable to a large extent, the study found that corruption, fronting, and non-disclosure of the beneficial ownership of some oil firms remained the major challenges of local content in Nigeria. An expectation gap between the Board and the stakeholders on the financial accountability was established. The study found moderate and consistent local content disclosure indices of the periods before and after the Nigeria’s local content law, but higher volumetric disclosure in the period after the law, signifying likely impact of the local content law on the IOC’s voluntary disclosure. It was recommended that the Board should tighten up its regulatory responsibilities and avoid questionable practices. It was also suggested that the Nigerian local content rules should incorporate more incentives such as unringfencing and crossfencing of upstream costs to encourage more investment. The study also suggested that the accounting standard-setting bodies should issue dedicated accounting standards or expand the existing IFRS 8 and IAS 21 to comprehensively address the preparation and presentation of local content information in the annual financial statements.