May 2017
| What do you do in your day to day role? |
a. I advise the Kenya Government on Local Content through the Kenya Petroleum Technical Assistance Project (KEPTAP), a World Bank funded Kenya Government delivered capacity building project for Oil and Gas.
b. I am in-country lead for the Petroleum Business Opportunities (PBO) project. A capacity building project tasked with raising local industry’s performance standards to facilitate successful business engagement with Oil and Gas.
c. I am a volunteer founding member of the Regional Mega-Projects Coordinating Council (RMPCC) that works to understand the needs and challenges of all large projects planned in Kenya and to promote joined-up development thinking across all the projects.
d. I am a Steering Group member of the DFID/BMZ funded Skills for Oil and Gas (SOGA) project in Kenya.
| What impact do you think the low oil price has had on local content? |
a. IOCs, Oil and Gas Service Providers & EPCs have a renewed interest in cost. This has a variety of repercussions:
i. Local content spend is under greater scrutiny
ii. Interest in Local Content Policies and Regulations is heightened
iii. Resistance to procurement risk is heightened
iv. Project schedules are tighter and more rigidly controlled
As a result, local content is rising ever higher up the risk register of Oil and Gas. That could result in avoidance tactics or more positively in greater engagement.
b. Final Investment Decisions for proposed projects have been slipping to the right of the schedule which gives nascent Oil and Gas economies more time to prepare; to improve local standards and skills and better understand the Oil and Gas sector and the opportunities therein.
| What do you think are the biggest challenges facing local content policy in the upcoming 12 – 18 months? |
a. In Kenya
i. Presidential Elections (August 8, 2017) will affect Oil and Gas Local Content Policies…just how is not clear
ii. Devolution: Alignment of County and National benefits
iii. Aligning political and community expectations of Oil and Gas with the reality of deliverability in a low-price oil environment
b. Globally
i. Increasing collaboration between the Donor network, Governments and the Oil and Gas Sector to deliver local content
ii. Realigning high-price oil local content policies with a low-price oil environment…Brazil as an example
iii. Waking up to the fact that local content should not simply be an Oil and Gas phenomenon
| How did you come to work in the energy industry? |
a. I have worked in and out of the Oil Industry since 1978 when I worked for ARAMCO as a construction turnkey engineer.
b. I joined oil and gas simply out of a desire for adventure.
| What influenced your decision to specialise in local content? |
I joined the Supply Chain Local Content department in Tullow Oil in 2012 to develop a vocational training scheme for Uganda. I became fascinated by the subject and remained.
| If you had 3 wishes that could change the industry globally, what would they be? |
a. Stable prices leading to better planning.
b. Better collaboration between Donor networks, IOCs, Governments.
c. Local content becoming an accepted part of the business model and not something that has to be done to satisfy legislation.
About David Bishop
I am highly qualified with a variety of experiences that combine to form a unique understanding and approach to local content, vocational training and higher education matters in nascent oil economies. My experiences come from from oil and gas upstream and downstream (design, construction, training and local content); high rise and commercial construction project management; higher education and vocational training delivery and management in construction (UK FE sector) and in oil and gas (Chevron/KGOC in Kuwait). I have expertise in stakeholder engagement, hard earned from African communities in frontier locations up to senior government levels including business and development partner leaderships in Ghana, Uganda, Mauritania and Kenya.
I can demonstrate a track record of successfully designed strategic policies and plans, local content business plans for projects and workable design and successful delivery of capacity building projects, training projects and SME development. Additionally I can prove expertise in training unit management, senior management coaching and the design and delivery of talent management systems all linked to building local capabilities.
My experiences in oil and gas, business and training have made me pragmatic and realistic in approach to design and delivery of projects. I am looking for a challenge.
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