Blessing or curse? From the public sector perspective, the oil and gas resource provides a unique opportunity for economic development as has been dramatically demonstrated by the Norway experience. In developing countries it has the potential to address the dire needs for improved infrastructure, health care and education. However, such an outcome cannot be taken for granted. The impact of the oil and gas resource in a developing country poses risks that pertain to macroeconomic performance, such as the Dutch disease. It can negatively impact the politics and institutions of a developing country by distortions in the balance between policy makers, civil servants and citizen that can influence and shift the focus of government away from service delivery to personal gain, patronage and ‘corruption’.
Large oil and gas revenues pose special challenges to the public finance management systems of a country with respect to revenue volatility, capacity, revenue administration, discretionary elements of revenue obligations, cash management, especially with regards to tax audit. Further it presents opportunities for corruption. Idilmat’s experts bring direct, wide country, experience in the oil and gas sector to the professional development workshops. Our professional development workshops examine critical issues to the sector through case studies and present effective approaches to oil and gas resource management.
With respect to the private sector, the large flows of funds places a high premium on acquiring and maintaining qualified staff with specialized management skills in areas such as accounting within Joint Ventures, procurement and local content, legal and regulatory compliance. The political and socio-economic challenges have brought the extractive industries to the realization that local content is a crucially important dimension of operations in developing countries: they can respond to economic and social challenges while maintaining efficiency. idilmat is a regional agent for developing capacity and building sustainability for companies operating in a region that is fast becoming one of the major suppliers of oil and gas to the world market. To achieve this, we will endow participants with the know-how and concepts that have proven successful, ones that are directly applicable to extractive industries.