Licence Management
The Gambia’s Petroleum Licences set out the obligations and responsibilities of both the Government and the Licensees, as well as regulating the relationship between the parties.
Both the Government and the Licensees have spent considerable amount of time and resources in negotiating and concluding the Licences.
Therefore, to avoid the parties failing to properly monitor and oversee the implementation of these complex agreements, the Commission had made it a priority to put in place a robust licence management scheme. This is because failure of either party in meeting their obligations can result in:
- lack of progress in respect of exploration and work obligations
- costly litigation
- broken relationships, and
- missed revenue stream for the Government,
all of which constitute decreased public benefits to The Gambia.
Benefits of effective Licence Management to the Commission
Effective Licence Management has not only ensured good relationships between us and our partners but also enforces compliance and mitigates risk.
Proper licence management has also enabled the Commission to develop a detailed understanding of the exploration project issues and built capacity for future contract negotiations.
It is a well-known fact that Oil and Gas projects involve multiple stages and often the term of the Licence will be more than 25 years. It may be the case that after a period, parties involved in a such a long-term contractual relationship may become complacent and as a result not to execute their respective obligations as the contract dictates. It is therefore crucial that, on the one hand, the Licensees are familiar with the Commission’s Licence Management procedures and that the Commission maintains a supervisory role to ensure the licensee meets its obligations. Consequently, we have shared with our partners our Licence management toolkits.
Licence Management Tools
Once a Licence has been executed, the day-to-day management of the Licence and the Licensee’s obligations is the responsibility of the Commission, as the regulator. It is therefore important that the Commission can manage the performance of obligations within the Licence and has the right people and processes in place to review Work Programme & Budgets, monitor the Licensees’ fulfilment of the Licence conditions, receive and file reports, document revenues and ensure that approvals are given within the required timescale.
The Commission has at its disposals a number of licence management tools deployable for a systematic and transparent management of licences. They include a number of key process maps that establishes a predicable set of steps with timelines for various licence task within a process. These include work program and budget submission, its treatment and approval, Appointing and Removal of Operator, Assignment/Farm out, and Submission of Development and Production Plan.
