Licence to operate: CSR as a strategic tool of multinational oil companies

This paper examines the role and responsibilities of multinational oil companies in Angola. Despite being the second largest oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa, Angola is plagued with massive poverty, inequality, human under-development, and corruption. The situation in Angola is consistent with a more general phenomenon called "the resource curse", where resource rents hamper rather than spur economic development. The paper argues that lifting the resource curse requires emphasis on governance in Angola, on improving the country's institutions. In the absence of government commitment in this area, an ethical argument can be made that multinational oil companies should address governance problems. Through interview and survey material from multinational oil companies in Angola, the paper shows that governance is not a priority in oil company CSR policies. Instead, CSR is used strategically to obtain licences from the Angolan government.