Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The National Upstream Petroleum Local Content Policy (NUPLCP), approved by Namibia's Cabinet in December 2024 and finalised by the Ministry of Mines and Energy in March 2025, requires all upstream petroleum operators to submit Local Content Plans detailing Namibian workforce hiring, skills transfer, and local supplier engagement commitments as a condition of exploration and production licences. The policy is the primary industrial-policy instrument governing Namibia's nascent offshore oil sector, targeting the Orange Basin deepwater blocks (PEL 39, PEL 56, PEL 83, PEL 85, PEL 90, PEL 91) where Shell, TotalEnergies, Galp, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and QatarEnergy have confirmed ~11+ billion barrels of recoverable resource with a 2027–2029 FID horizon and projected peak output of ~700 kbpd by 2030+. Enforcement is initially guidance-based with a dedicated monitoring framework under development; critics note weak enforcement infrastructure as the principal implementation risk.

Oman published its national Green Hydrogen Strategy in May 2024 (with an updated December 2024 release), formalising statutory production targets of 1.0-1.5 Mtpa green hydrogen by 2030, 3.25-3.75 Mtpa by 2040, and 7.5-8.5 Mtpa by 2050. Implementation is centralised in Hydrom (Hydrogen Development Oman), the wholly state-owned subsidiary of Energy Development Oman established in 2022 as the singular allocation authority for green- hydrogen master-planning, land tendering and developer concessions. Approximately 50,000 km² of state land in Duqm, Dhofar and Al Jazir is earmarked under the regime, sufficient to host ~95-100 GW of electrolyser capacity and ~175-185 GW of renewable build-out by 2050. The strategy underpins the ~USD 11bn Round-2 Dhofar awards announced April 2024 and positions Oman as a structural offtake supplier to EU/JP/KR hydrogen importers under the EU Renewable Energy Directive III non-bio renewable fuel of non-biological origin (RFNBO) framework and the Japan Hydrogen Society Promotion Act CfD scheme.

On 28 February 2024 President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed one executive order and two presidential directives to revive upstream oil and gas investment in Nigeria after years of declining FDI: (i) the Oil and Gas Companies (Tax Incentives, Exemption, Remission, etc.) Order, 2024 — establishing a gas tax credit for non-associated gas (NAG) greenfield projects and fiscal enablers for deep-water oil and gas; (ii) the Presidential Directive on Local Content Compliance Requirements, 2024 — instructing the NCDMB to adapt enforcement of the Local Content Act to in-country capacity gaps; and (iii) the Presidential Directive on Reduction of Petroleum Sector Contracting Costs and Timelines, 2024 — streamlining NUPRC and NNPCL contracting approvals. Effective immediately on signing.

Tanzania's Parliament enacted Act No. 5 of 2017, the Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act, as part of a landmark resource-nationalism legislative trio (alongside Act No. 6 on unconscionable contract renegotiation and Written Laws Miscellaneous Amendments No. 7), signed into law by President John Magufuli on 4 July 2017. The Act vests all of Tanzania's natural wealth and resources — minerals, oil and natural gas, fisheries, wildlife, forestry, water, and related sub-surface assets — as the permanent and inalienable property of the People of the United Republic, held in trust by the President on their behalf. Key operative provisions prohibit international commercial arbitration of natural-resource disputes (mandating adjudication within Tanzanian courts under Tanzanian law), empower Parliament to review and require renegotiation of any natural-resource arrangement containing "unconscionable terms," impose an in-country banking rule on earnings from natural wealth extraction, and authorise statutory override of contractual stabilisation clauses embedded in pre-2017 mining development agreements. The Act is the foundational parent statute underpinning all subsequent Tanzanian mining-sector reform, including the 2024 Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Act critical/strategic minerals classification and the 2025 Finance Act mining amendments.