African development bank seeks to recruit 2 consultancy services position for development of a petroleum exploration cost benchmark

Immeuble CCIA, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
African Natural Resources Center
E-mail: M.HARRATHI@AFDB.ORG Telephone: +225 20 26 32 13
Department issuing the request: African Natural Resources Center
Position: 2 CONSULTANCY SERVICES POSITION FOR DEVELOPMENT OF A PETROLEUM EXPLORATION COST BENCHMARK.
Place of assignment: Home based /Abidjan
Duration of the assignment: 20 Days
Tentative Date of commencement: July 2018
Deadline for applications: 3 July 2018
Applications to be submitted to : Maali Harrathi (M.HARRATHI@AFDB.ORG
PS: Application e-mail must include the name of the Consultant Position that you are applying for Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to: Maali Harrathi (M.HARRATHI@AFDB.ORG)

Terms of reference consultancy services for development of a petroleum exploration cost benchmark.

1. Introduction

The African Development Bank (AfDB) places renewed emphasis of Natural Resources Management as a transformational platform. In order to respond to the challenges facing sustainable management and use of Africa’s natural resources, the AfDB created the African Natural Resources Center (ECNR). The ECNR is a non-lending knowledge building entity whose mandate is to assist African governments in maximising development outcomes derived from their natural resources. It does so by helping these governments boost their capacity to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth from such resources.

Many of the Bank’s Regional Member Countries (RMCs) that are endowed with petroleum resources are using petroleum sharing contracts. This means that the costs must be critically reviewed since they determine how much remains to be shared between government and the licensed companies. It is on this basis that the Center is joining the study research for development of a cost database for petroleum exploration. The other Partners include; Chatham House, Commonwealth Secretariat and Natural Resource Governance Institute.

2. The Need for the Database

The New Petroleum Producers Discussion Group is a cooperative network of 31 emerging producer countries. Many of the members are from Africa. The main aim of the New Producers Group is to improve capacity and governance through knowledge sharing between emerging producers. This initiative, which is co-organised by Chatham House, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Natural Resource Governance Institute, is non-profit and independent from commercial interests. The African Natural Resources Center is a partner of the initiative.

At its fifth annual meeting in October 2017, the new petroleum producers expressed a clear need for better understanding of the sources and make-up of exploration costs for upstream petroleum operations. A working group was established to consider practical ways to understand benchmark and possibly codify procedures to guide government officials who are not fully conversant with detailed exploration costs. This exercise is considered of significant value to new producers due to the potential benefits in the enhancement of regulator due diligence capacity, the minimisation of revenue leakage the enhancement of government audit capabilities. The New Producers Group and the African Natural Resources Center are collaborating to p roduce practical tools to support exploration cost benchmarking.

3. Specific Objective of the Study

The main objective of the assignment is to establish a database of costs to be used for reference by members of the New Producers Group. The database and the accompanying guide explaining what factors impact cost variation in oil and gas exploration will be valuable tools for bot Governments/regulators and auditors as they approve budgets for similar activities in similar environments. In addition, the database could be used in:

1.  Reviewing upstream work programs: The database and guidance notes will support governments in the review process of work programs submitted by oil companies, giving them more confidence of what factors have cost repercussions.
2. Tax Assessment: having a contextual set of cost benchmarks will help governments to determine the deductible expenses and firm up tax liabilities.

4. Scope of Work

The assignment is envisaged to require two consultants with different levels of experience and skills sets. Below is the scope for both.

a) Consultant 1:

1. Create a framework for New and Emerging Producers to understand the nature of costs during the petroleum exploration phase and produce a compendium of reliable free and feepaying sources of cost data, using this framework to serve as good reference points for government officials to consult;
2. Produce ranges for typical costs in the categories aligned to the framework above reflecting regional &/or geological characteristics;
3. Explanatory/Guidance notes clarifying the component parts of costs in the framework above, identifying the key elements that will drive regional/country differences and identify typical areas for officials to focus on during approval process vs. audit; Includes pre-drill costs:
4. Adapting the framework developed in i) to allow for ongoing collection of data from New Producers Group countries on an off-the-shelf collaborative working platform
5. Incorporate changes with input from producer countries and New Producers Group team members.

Consultant 2:

1. Assessment of an off-the-shelf web-based solution for the database and a helpdesk function which would enable government officials to share cost data and to seek technical assistance on specific matters and review recommendations with the team
2.  Structure the database and help-desk for use by producer countries and input the data compiled
3.  Incorporate changes with input from producer countries and New Producers Group team members

5. Methodology and Reporting

The study will entail desk studies, consultations w ith vendors and possible users of cost databases.
The consultants will report to the task manager for the assignment at AfDB. The task manager will guide the consultants in liaison with the New Producers’ Group project leadership. Consultant 1 will be the lead consultant. The duties and responsibilities of the consultant:

A pre-project skype/telephone meeting with the consultant is planned to harmonise the methodology and agree on reporting, content and format of the draft and final reports.

6. Outcome

The consultants will produce detailed reports and frameworks covering the scope of work, which shall be useful to the New Producers Group. These reports and frameworks will be reviewed by the relevant stakeholders and their input considered.

7. Timeframe

The consultants 1 and 2 will be awarded contracts of up to 20 and 10 person days respectively. The work will be undertaken in a period not exceeding three months from the signing of the contracts. Below is the activity list;

a) Consultant 1:

b) Consultant 2:

8. Consultant Qualifications:

The consultants must meet the following criteria:

a) consultant 1:

•  Possess at least a Master’s degree in engineering, economics or business or related disciplines.
•  Demonstrated upstream oil and gas commercial experience (10 years minimum)
•  Demonstrable analytical experience of E&P expenditures
• Excellent written and oral English or French.

b) Consultant 2:

•  Possess at least a Master’s degree in engineering, Information Technology or related disciplines.
• Experience with cloud and network based collaborative working platforms (like Airtable, Oracle Database)
• Demonstrated server back-end skills
•  Experience in the extractives sector a plus
•  Excellent written and oral English or French.

9. Service Conditions

AfDB conditions for retaining short-term consultants will apply.