This study pursues a narrow aspect of the upstream oil business: the production sharing
agreement (PSA) that has an out sized contextual influence on employment and human resource
development in oil-rich economies. Many developing countries with oil and gas resources sign PSAs (in
some areas called production sharing contracts or (PSCs) with the large multinational oil companies as a
direct means to get cash infusions and oil production started (Rutledge, 2004). PSAs confer fiscal
security to outside investors in developing countries (Seck, 2002). However, they have been largely
barred, in the developed world, as a perceived abuse of bargaining power with inexperienced government
officials against well-informed oil executives complemented with savvy legal counsel. Some consider
PSAs similar to the colonial concession agreements of the 19th century (Machmud, 1999).