Mozambique: Oil and gas concessionaires required to inform government on salaries, contracts

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Mozambique: Oil and gas concessionaires required to inform government on salaries, contracts

4:18 CAT | 27 Jul 2024

in file CoM

Oil concessionaires in Mozambique are now obliged to provide the government with information on salaries and the contracting of goods and services, including proof of the proposals received in the respective tenders, according to documentation that Lusa had access to today.

The determination is contained in a Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy diploma 55/2024 of July 5th, which came into force on the same day, approving the Guidance Mechanisms for Obligations for Contracting Goods and Provision of Services, Programs of Employment, Training Programs, Association with Nationals and Preferencial Rights, Adjustment of Conduct of concessionaires.

The changes affect foreign concessionaires operating in the oil and natural gas sector in Mozambique, a country that has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa, estimated at 180 million cubic feet.

“Its purpose is to regulate and clarify the obligations of employment programs, training programs, association with nationals, right of preference in contracting goods and services, adjustment of conduct and respective reports,” the diploma explains, adding the objectives of “ensuring jobs” for Mozambican citizens “within the scope of oil operations”, “training natural and legal persons” through “national and international cooperation” and “ensuring the participation of national suppliers in the contracting of goods and services”.

In the general obligations in the contracting of goods and services, the “concessionaires must guarantee compliance with the obligations relating to the association with nationals and the right of preference, as defined in the petroleum legislation”, reads the document, which foresees the obligation of these companies to prove these processes.

The new regulations and forms published in the diploma establish that concessionaires are obliged to provide the state-owned National Petroleum Institute (INP) with “documents proving” the number and list of employees by position, with origin, sex and people with disabilities, alongside “salary scale and respective allowances”.

When contracting goods and services, concessionaires now have to provide information on the nationality of the contracted companies, on right of preference, name of contracted suppliers, association with nationals and modality, including “supporting documents” of public tender notices, “offers of all participating suppliers” in the processes and contracts for the acquisition of goods or services.

Regarding the concessionaires’ workforce, the diploma stipulates that they “must meet the minimum number of national natural persons, in accordance with the level of competence and specialty”, with “at least” 25% in higher positions and 85% in technical-enabled positions”.

“If there is no qualified national workforce and as long as the concessionaire proves the impossibility of hiring national individuals, the hiring of citizens of foreign nationality may be authorised,” the document states.

It adds that concessionaires “must provide training grants”, including at least 1,200 hours in terms of technical-professional and 600 hours of professional training, and also in higher education.

It establishes that during the research and development period, in addition to the obligations set out in the concession contract, concessionaires must, for every 50 million dollars of investment, ensure “minimum amounts of training grants at educational institutions or universities in Mozambique and/or abroad for training” of Mozambicans, namely two for higher education courses, five for technical-professional courses, five for professional training and 200 for “ad hoc courses”, numbers set to double during the production period.

Source: Lusa