SABA with partners, and members, Kuro Consulting and The Projects Team hosted senior delegations from Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) from Mozambique for a week to introduce them to the local content sector in Scotland, introduce them to SABA members involved in the sector and deliver a bespoke Local Content course. The trip was organised in conjunction with our Mozambiquan partners RSM Mozambique.
INP stated “we could have gone anywhere in the world but wanted to be in Aberdeen as we believe this is the hub for local content and skills training.”
The bespoke course was commissioned by SABA and designed by SABA members, The Projects Team, and was an introduction to Local Content, along with a guide to implementation and national strategies. The course was then delivered by SABA board member and CEO of Kuro Consulting, James Crawford.
Local Content describes the range of policy objectives and programmes relating to the petroleum and mining sectors that are designed to develop, increase use and participation of local capacity, manpower, goods, services, and supply chain, in order that over time more and more value is retained in-country from the extractive process and activities.
The sessions provided delegates with deep knowledge of the local content, how it works and where it doesn’t work. They also gained an understanding of the linkages between local content, oil and gas exploration and production, and national economy and the industrial landscape, as well as links between regulation, implementation and monitoring, relative to the local content agenda and interventions.
It blended a mix of theoretical with practical industry experience tailored to an Africa context so that those attending would be able to apply concepts and best practices to progress local content development for Mozambique.
Alongside the training the delegation visited SABA member training providers and supply chain to begin discussions on partnerships:
Group 1 visited Aberdeen Drilling School where they toured the training facilities and used the simulators, then visited North East Scotland College and ASET, the international energy training academy
Group 2 visited RelyOn Nutec where they toured the training facilities and then went onto visit Baker Hughes where they spent the day learning about subsea manufacturing and meeting the local supply chain
In their closing comments, INP, said: “We´d just like to thank SABA, KURO, The Projects Team and all those involved in the development of the course for the time dedicated to the training, the research and for sharing your relevant experiences with the INP teams on both groups. The conversations surely sparked an interest and have left the group more aware of what their next tasks should be moving forward, particularly in terms of the roadmap for their specific departments. It was fantastic to have the training and then go later and see it in action, in real life. A truly worthwhile course and visit, thank you.”
Courses have now been requested by the Ministry of Energy in Mozambique for new cohorts, as well as further courses for INP, with additional engagement with relevant SABA members.