Introduction

On 20 October 2020, the Angolan government passed Presidential Decree 271/20, ("PD 271/20") approving the new legal framework for the promotion of Local Content in the oil and gas sector. The Decree, like many regulations before it, aims at advancing local knowledge and skills whilst attempting to balance foreign investment commitments. Conspicuously, the Decree repeals Order 127/03 of 25 November on the general regulatory framework for the hiring of services and goods from national companies in the oil industry, to make substantial changes regarding the rules on local Angolan content applicable in the sector. For instance, the new Decree requires that all companies in the oil and gas sector must hire goods and services from local companies including service providers and suppliers of goods and services to the oil sector ("Providers"). This requirement contrast Order 127/03 which only required oil companies (i.e., associates of the National Concessionaire, holders of service contracts with risk and others that work in oil operations - "E&Ps") to source local goods and services. Furthermore, the Decree strongly encourages the replacement of expatriates by Angolan workers even though this objective remains safeguarded under an active regulation ("Decree-Law 17/09") of 26 June 2009 on the rules and procedures for recruiting, integration, training and development of Angolan workers from the oil sector.

Notably, the Angolan government is no stranger to formulating rules on Local Content requirements; in fact, the country has pursued these objectives in earnest since 1979. And over the years, the Angolan government has introduced primary and ancillary regulations regarding the recruitment, integration and training of Angolan personnel and the purchase and the use of local goods and services.

Footnotes omitted from this introduction.