Page 7 - DMEA Week 44 2020

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

contract awards as either Exclusive, Preferred operators and other entities awarding contracts
or Competitive – that is, reserved exclusively must meet ANPG’s requirements for registration
for Angolan contractors, weighted in favour of and certification. In turn, the concessionaire will
Angolan contractors or open to all competitors. determine which types of contracts fall into the
Exclusive, Preferred and Competitive categories.
Differences: defining the players
Despite these points of continuity, the decree Duties: the agency and the ministry
differs in some key respects from the previous Presidential Decree 271/20 also differs from the
legal regime. previous legal regime in that it defines the role
For one thing, it covers all local providers of that ANPG, which did not exist until 2019, will
goods and/or services to the oil and gas sector as play in local content-related matters.
a whole, rather than restricting its focus to local More specifically, it calls for upstream opera-
companies that provide goods and/or services tors and other entities to draw up plans for max-
to entities engaged in upstream exploration and imising the use of local content and to submit
production operations. These entities include those plans to the agency at least once a year.
the national oil company (NOC) Sonangol and (Upstream operators must do so on a quarterly
Sonangol’s associates, as well as holders of ser- basis, PLMJ noted.) Additionally, they must sub-
vice contracts that carry risk, according to PLMJ, mit two sets of quarterly reports describing their
a Portuguese law firm with extensive contacts plans for awarding contracts. One set will be due
and experience in Angola. 30 days before the start of the next quarter and
For another, it puts forward a more specific will include forecasts of the contracts anticipated
(and restrictive) definition of a local company. to start in that quarter, and one set will review the
This definition is important, as it determines contracts entered into during the immediately
which entities are permitted to bid for contracts preceding quarter.
classified as Exclusive and which entities are enti- The decree also provides for the parties
tled to preferences when bidding for Preferred in question to draw up and submit human
contracts. (Such preferences include retaining resources plans once a year. (They must also
an edge over foreign companies, even when they review those plans on a yearly basis.) However,
submit offers up to 10% higher, according to an as VdA noted, they will not be working with
analysis published on Lexology.com by the Por- ANPG on this front; instead, they must answer
tuguese law firm Vieira de Almeida, or VdA.) to the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Petroleum
Previously, Angola’s government had defined and Gas (known locally as MIREMPET). This
local companies as enterprises that were at least requirement is designed to maximise opportuni-
majority-owned by Angolan citizens or Ango- ties for Angolan workers, and it covers upstream
lan entities. Under Presidential Decree 271/20, and other operators’ rights and obligations with
though, the only companies that fall into the respect to integrating and promoting Angolan
category of Angolan Commercial Companies employees (and phasing out expatriates) within
(known as SCAs, after their Portuguese acro- the oil and gas sector, the law firm said.
nym) are those wholly owned by Angolan citi- The ministry will also have the authority to
zens or Angolan enterprises. approve ANPG’s determinations on which types
By contrast, PLMJ noted in an article pub- of contracts for goods and/or services fall into
lished by Lexology.com, companies that are the Exclusive and Preferred categories, VdA
majority-owned by Angolan citizens or Ango- said.
lan enterprises are now designated as Commer- As of press time, no word was available on
cial Companies under Angolan Law (known upstream operators’ reactions to Presidential
as SCDAs). Joint ventures are also defined as Decree 271/20. Africa Intelligence speculated,
SCDAs, regardless of whether Angolan investors though, that some of the IOCs involved in
hold a majority of equity, the article said. Angola might bristle under the new legal regime,
Both SCAs and SCDAs must register with which defines Angolan companies (SCAs) more
and secure certification from the government – narrowly and restricts the bidding opportuni-
specifically, from the National Agency of Petro- ties available to entities owned by both Angolan
leum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), which acts as and foreign investors (SCDAs). Even so, it is not
concessionaire – before bidding for contracts immediately apparent how the changes might
with upstream operators. Likewise, all upstream affect any individual projects or companies. ™

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