program helps world communities foster independence and growth

This article originally appeared in the Lamp, 2007 — Number 3

With well over 100 years of global experience, ExxonMobil has developed a coordinated and focused approach to enhancing the economic and social opportunities associated with finding, developing and producing oil and gas.

This structured effort is called "national content." The term comes from the program’s ambitious goal: to ensure that our presence in a host nation helps develop human, social and economic capacity — content that benefits its people, communities and businesses over the long term.

ExxonMobil views the growth of national content associated with the operations of our affiliates around the world as a strategic focus area of our business with tangible, definable components. The company integrates a national content strategy into our existing business processes, which have a history of providing proven results.

"ExxonMobil has engaged in building national content for decades," says Mike Fry, vice president, ExxonMobil Production Company, Africa, and national content team co-chair. "The level of national content attainable in each country has varied depending on infrastructure, industrial base, suppliers, and government laws and regulations."

But in each case, says Fry, the goal is the same. "We want the benefits of our projects to be designed such that they are sustainable over the long term."

ExxonMobil’s national content efforts focus on three areas:

• Workforce development — training people in technical and professional skills that are needed for existing and future projects and operations.
• Supplier development — increasing suppliers’ capability to help them meet the company’s global standards in order to qualify for contracts with ExxonMobil and others.
• Community investment — supporting infrastructure growth as well as health and educational programs.

"We realize that one of the most important contributions we make to the countries where we operate is supporting economic growth and improving the quality of life," says Jean A. Baderschneider, ExxonMobil vice president of global procurement and co-chair of the national content team.

"But it also makes good business sense. It fosters the continuous development of a reliable and sustainable local supply chain, while maintaining the company’s reputation as a good corporate citizen and business partner.

"ExxonMobil is committed to enhancing the participation of national and local suppliers. Our projects and affiliates benefit from the experience of suppliers that understand the local business and operating environment," Baderschneider says.

ExxonMobil’s work in developing national content has received international recognition. The London-based CWC Group, a global organization widely known and respected within the energy community, honored the company for "Excellence in Capacity Building in the Gulf of Guinea." ExxonMobil was cited for its efforts to develop a systematic approach for national content in Angola, Chad, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria and to build case studies for guiding future endeavors.

Developing national content is an ongoing worldwide effort that involves a number of ExxonMobil affiliates.

Some examples:

Building capacity of a new supplier in Equatorial Guinea
In the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, few local businesses have the capability to bid on jobs with global companies such as ExxonMobil’s affiliate, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc. (MEGI). A notable exception is NOMEX, a contract worker staffing company.

The head of NOMEX is Basilio Makadengue, an Equatoguinean national who once worked for MEGI. Makadengue bid to replace an international company that provided offshore labor for MEGI’s operations.

"I learned a lot by working for MEGI," says Makadengue. "But I had to learn a lot more to meet ExxonMobil’s standards as a supplier."

As part of the change management process, MEGI sat down with the vendor to help develop a checklist for making the transition. "That’s common practice for us," says Paul Sacuta, MEGI operations superintendent, "but it was a new concept for NOMEX."

MEGI and NOMEX formed a cross-functional team to work the transition, which dealt with such issues as improvement of safety, controls, timekeeping practices, preparation of invoices and developing employee communications. "Our contract with MEGI has been a great challenge," says Makadengue, "but they’ve had faith in me and have been willing to work with me. For that I am very grateful."

Russian company stresses safety and quality
In the early days of ExxonMobil’s Sakhalin-1 project, the consortium led by our affiliate, Exxon Neftegas Limited (ENL), initiated a contract with a small Sakhalin-based company to complete a modest remodeling job in 1997 at one of ENL’s first office buildings.

Since then that local company, SFERA, has won major awards totaling hundreds of millions of rubles for apartment buildings, hotels, houses and base camps.

SFERA’s business has grown, its executives will tell you, in part because of what they’ve learned working with ExxonMobil.

Angelo Bellizzi, SFERA’s director of development, says ENL’s greatest influence on his company lies in two areas.

"The most important things we learned from ENL were the culture of safety and the need for an emphasis on quality assurance," he says.

ENL managers also stressed the importance of modern, high-quality equipment. "ExxonMobil told us, ‘Sakhalin is a world-class project, and you must compete with other world-class companies.’ So we began a major upgrading effort."

Bellizzi says his company’s relationship with ENL has made SFERA more competitive and enabled it to expand into other businesses such as electricity generation.

"Without ExxonMobil’s support and transfer of technical and other knowledge," he says, "we clearly would not be in the position we are today."

Chadian firm focuses on quality
Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., operator of the consortium developing Chad’s oil resources, is creating more business opportunities for local suppliers. Since the project began, more than $1.8 billion has been spent on local goods and services in Chad and Cameroon. A new program started in 2005 builds on this success by delivering sustainable solutions to promoting supplier development. Since 2005, the local business opportunities program has helped develop local suppliers by offering training and development opportunities tailored to their needs. This program is co-sponsored by the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank and the Chadian Chamber of Commerce.

One of the recipients, Distribution Services, a Chadian firm, won a multinational bidding competition by using ExxonMobil’s electronic bidding system (more than 200 other local suppliers have also been trained on the system), which resulted in the construction and operation of a waste management facility in Chad, the first of its kind. The new project will employ more than 50 people and has a total contract value greater than $5 million.

To promote technology application and capacity building, skilled waste-management staff, supported by the International Finance Corporation, will go to the Chad site to train and help the Chadians as they start up their new business.

Ahmat Oumar, head of Distribution Services, says ExxonMobil’s support has made him more efficient. "We’ve learned the risk of trying to be one company that does everything," he says. "We know that keeping a clear focus allows us to improve the quality of goods and services we provide."