Key highlights from my panel discussion at the 17th Offshore Asia pacific Convention

A. With the global Oil & Gas industry CAPEX recovering, quite a few Asia Pacific offshore projects would be coming to the anvil;

B. These Asia Pacific projects would be jostling with projects coming up in Brazil, Offshore Guyana, the GoM, West Africa and the North Sea for talent from a pool that has got severely constructed by the 2014-18 downturn in the Oil & Gas industry, what with many of the experienced and seasoned personnel downsized and having, since, moved on to other sectors;

C. The announcement of big offshore Oil & Gas project awards in offshore Guyana, Brazil and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean give those projects a head-start vis-a-vis APAC in this search for talent. APAC needs to address this quickly;

D. The Cabotage Law requirements of jurisdictions such as Malaysia and Indonesia- that basically require offshore production assets- specifically, floaters (FPSOs, FSO, FPUs et al)- to carry the flag of the jurisdiction in question (and therefore be majority- 51% or more- held by locals) make it risky for international lenders and financiers to part or wholly finance offshore O&G projects here. It is therefore necessary that a strong tapestry of local financial institutions and banks willing to fund projects originating in these jurisdictions is mobilized to address the needs of project financing, working capital, bank guarantees, performance guarantees and so on; else, a number of these projects would languish pending financial closures;

E. Globally, many jurisdictions are revisiting their long-held requirements for offshore project content localization. Brazil is a particular case in point where upto 3 FPSO projects now being brought to the ordering stage have totally done away with content localization (as against the erstwhile requirement for upto 50 to 60% of the content to be sourced locally). India, too, is following the International Competitive Bidding route to offshore Oil & Gas project tendering with no stringent requirements for content localization. At the other end of the spectrum are regimes such as Nigeria and Indonesia where upto 60 to 70% of the content must be drawn locally. Content localization, while a clear and present need for the development of the local economies, also needs to pass the tests of availability of local talent and local financing to be able to attract international investment interest in their offshore project offerings.