Waweru, Lillian Wairuri2024-11-252024-11-252023Waweru, L. W., (2023). Use of Strategic Partnerships to Build Local Capacity in The Oil and Gas Industry: A Case Study of National Oil Corporation of Kenya. Daystar University, School of Business and Economicshttps://repository.daystar.ac.ke/handle/123456789/5674MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION in Strategic ManagementThe recent discovery of oil and gas resources in Kenya has culminated into the emergence of a new industry expected to bring with it exponential economic benefits to the country. It is notable that the process of conversion of natural resources extracted into marketable product is lengthy, capital intensive and highly dependent on specialized skills and technologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether strategic partnerships could be used to build local capacity using the case study of National Oil Corporation of Kenya. This research has sought to establish whether National Oil Company in Kenya had utilized strategic partnerships towards developing its capacity, evaluating the effect of strategic partnerships in building National Oil’s capacity, investigating whether strategic partnerships were a cost effective tool towards developing local capacity and identifying the challenges faced by the National Corporation of Kenya in implementing in strategic partnerships. The research design used was descriptive design. The population of the study was the entire staff of National Oil Corporation of Kenya who were 231 while the target population were the upstream department staff and finance and administration staff based at the head office totaling 126 employees. The researcher used simple random sampling technique to select the sample size of 59 respondents. The researcher found that National Oil had used strategic partnerships which had resulted in enhancing its own local capacity in terms of financial capacity by increasing profitability through additional assets acquired, shared risk and capital requirements for projects with strategic partners. By engaging in strategic partnerships, National Oil enhanced its brand image through partnering with reputable companies and improving internal processes through benchmarking for operational efficiency.enoil and gas resources in KenyaNational Oil CompanyThesis