A new empirical study on oil and gas in Nigeria, which serves as a useful general introduction to many aspects of the country's oil and gas industries and related laws. Contents: introductions - definitions, importance, the international oil industry, how oil was found; the Nigerian oil industry: historical perspectives and acts of law; legislation governing the industry; ownership of oil and gas - ownership theories in the oil and gas industries, sovereignty over natural resources and international law; contracts for exploration and production; the natural gas industry; fiscal matters pertaining to the petroleum industry; OPEC; national oil corporations and the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation; downstream oil and gas law and policy; trade in crude oil and products; environmental issues; oil community issues; topical issues in the petroleum industry - e.g. acquisitions of technology, indigenous oil companies; nationalisation and privatisation; and dispute settlements. Yinka Omorogbe is a lecturer in law at the Universities of Benin and Lagos, Nigeria.

Examining local content law and policy in the oil and gas industry, this book uses Nigeria as a primary case study, comparing its approach to countries such as Brazil and Norway which have also adopted local content laws in relation to their gas and oil industries. In considering various aspects of local content law and policy as they apply to the oil and gas industry, the book examines the factors behind the formulation of local content policies by petroleum producing states, and the various strategies they have employed to implement them. It analyses arguments against local content requirements from the perspective of international trade and investment law, and from liberal market economic theorists, who argue against its overall usefulness. The book highlights salient aspects of the oil and gas industry such as regulation, national oil companies, treatment of minorities, and policy formulation and implementation.

To the casual observer, the oil business seems constant and unchanging. Most gasoline stations have done away with attendant services, and credit cards are accepted directly at the pump, but drive-in access and brand names remain largely as they have been for generations. The faade, however, is just that; it is like the false front of a Western town put in place to make everything seem bigger and grander than it really is. The familiarity of the oil industry's retail outlets masks extraordinary changes in how the industry engages in its four primary sectors of activity: finding and producing crude oil, transportation, refining, and marketing.