Frontline energy law expert and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Professor Damilola Olawuyi, SAN has unveiled his new book titled Local Content and Sustainable Development in Global Energy Markets, published by Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom.

The 400-page book analyses the topical and contentious issue of the critical intersections between local content requirements (LCRs) and the implementation of sustainable development treaties in global energy markets including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, South America, Australasia and the Middle East.  Virtually all oil and gas producing countries across the world, including Nigeria, have developed LCRs – i.e. regulatory measures, contractual provisions, and policies that aim to incentivize and maximize the use of local and in-country goods, services and labour in energy operations. However, in many parts of the world, inappropriately designed LCRs have resulted in multi-million-dollar disputes, negative social, human rights and environmental outcomes, and a misalignment of a country’s fiscal policies and global sustainable development goals.

Featuring twenty-one chapters from leading oil and gas scholars from all continents, the book provides in-depth recommendations to governments, multinational corporations, financial institutions, and their lawyers alike, on the guiding principles of a sustainable and rights-based approach to the design, application and implementation of LCRs in global energy transactions.

Prof. Olawuyi, SAN’s innovation in providing such a comprehensive treatise has received significant commendation from leading scholars and industry stakeholders. Professor Owen L. Anderson, who is the Distinguished Eugene Kuntz Chair in Oil, Gas and Natural Resources at the University of Oklahoma, United States of America described the book as “A thorough analysis of local content. A go-to reference book.” While Professor Barry Barton, Director of the Centre for Environmental, Resources and Energy Law, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand described the book as “a valuable contribution to the scholarship of energy and natural resources law, and it will be a key point of reference globally for anyone interested in the characteristics of high-quality local content requirements.”  On his part, Professor Kim Talus, McCulloch, Chair in Energy Law and Director of Tulane Center for Energy Law, Tulane University, United States stated that “The book is clearly essential reading for students, policy makers and international energy law practitioners.”

Leading industry expert, André Giserman, who is the Deputy Superintendent of Local Content Policies at the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) described the book as “an important book for policymakers, scholars, stakeholders, lawyers and any interested observer”; while Stephen Karangizi, Chief Executive Officer, African Legal Support Facility of the African Development Bank stated that “­­­­­­­­­­the book offers an excellent exposition and comparative analysis of local content requirements in the energy sector.”

On his part, Professor Obiora Chinedu Okafor, United Nations Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity and York Research Chair in International and Transnational Legal Studies, Osgoode Hall Law School, Canada stated that “The book sparkles with disciplinary cross-fertilization, creativity and insight in putting into a highly productive conversation, several bodies of knowledge and policymaking that are all-too-often incorrectly viewed and treated as isolated and disparate. In the result, Olawuyi has produced a work of scholarship that will be just as useful to human rights, environmental, indigenous rights, and sustainable development scholars and practitioners as it will be to their counterparts who focus more closely on fields such as energy, trade, investment, or corporate law and policy.”

While reacting, Prof. Olawuyi, SAN thanked the excellent contributors and the many helping hands at ABUAD for their dedication and support, without which the publication of the book would not have been possible.  He stated that “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it inescapable for the whole world to stay ‘local’, buy ‘local’, and make use of locally available goods and services. There is therefore no better time than now for countries to maximize the full value of local content policies to support homegrown technologies, goods and services in key sectors. In a post-COVID world, global energy markets will need to increasingly embrace local innovation in order to recover better and stronger, and to minimize the impacts of future disruptions and shocks. This book unpacks the guiding principles of sustainable local content policies in global energy markets.”

While reviewing the contents of the book, Prof. Olawuyi, SAN noted that “the book is prepared in a user-friendly style to enhance its utility among its primary audience, namely students, corporations, energy ministries, local content agencies, law firms, arbitrators, courts and international tribunals before whom arguments over local content clauses and policies often come for resolution.”

More information:  http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2021/01/the-importance-of-local-content-policies-in-post-covid-19-recovery-in-global-energy-markets/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=hootsuite&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=IOC_Blog_9781108495370_TW

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