Land shapes relations between international oil companies and local communities in Africa

A number of policy initiatives has emerged and these initiatives emphasise the responsibility of Northern oil companies towards local communities in the African countries they operate in. Within the sector, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives have proliferated over the last two decades. NGOs and activist scholars increasingly focus on the extractive companies’ ‘social license to operate’ (SLO) and ‘free, prior and informed consent’ (FPIC) on the part of the local community prior to operations. These standards may be helpful in evaluating investments, but they do not always provide much insight into actual petroleum investment processes and outcomes.

Based on research into gas and gas-related investments in mainland Tanzania, DIIS researcher Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen and Opportuna Kweka, The University of Dar es Salaam, unpack land acquisition processes as a way to analyse relations among the main actors in the petroleum sector. In their new article, The political economy of petroleum investments and land acquisition standards in Africa: The case of Tanzania,published in Resources Policy, they point out that whereas investment processes may have been initiated by Northern oil companies, these companies may not be the only actors, let alone the most important ones, influencing how land is acquired. Furthermore, investments originating in the Global South and in Tanzania have no less severe implications for land rights holders. The role of state authorities should not be underestimated.

The article is published as part of the Hierarchies of Rights: Land and Natural Resource Investments in Africa research project. The project involves scholars from DIIS, Roskilde University, the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Eduardo Mondlane.