A 100% Angolan lifting specialist

Angola

Cándido Norberto, managing director of FN Lifting, talks to The Energy Year about the importance of Angolanisation efforts for the company’s business strategy, its key objectives for 2024 and its plans to enlarge its scope in the Angolan oil and gas industry. FN Lifting is a provider of lifting equipment inspection and services.

How important are Angolanisation efforts in FN Lifting’s business strategy?
FN Lifting is an Angolan company created by Angolans and run by Angolans. It is part of our strategy to only use nationals in our workforce, in particular workers that come from Angolan workforce insertion programmes. We decided to give opportunities to these workers so they can show what they have learned during their studies.
The company has been in the market for more than five years. Our lifting equipment and inspection services are critical to the Angolan oil and gas industry, and we are honoured to provide them from a 100% Angolan perspective.

What are the key objectives that FN Lifting has for 2024?
We are working with companies such as Sonasurf, Friburge Energies, Gastec and Seabulk Offshore. It is part of our ambition for 2024 to start working directly with oil and gas operators. We completed our registration process with TotalEnergies in late 2023, and we hope to collaborate with them during 2024. ExxonMobil, Chevron and Etu Energias are other companies that are going to see a lot of growth in terms of projects, and we would like to work with any of them.
We therefore hope to achieve our ISO 9001:2015 certification in mid-2024. It is a very important step for us, as it will enable us to work directly with operators, and it will be a testament to the capacity and skill of Angolan companies in the energy sector.
It is important to underline the work that we are already doing as subcontractors for companies such as Sonasurf. We have been involved in many projects with successful results.

How is FN Lifting planning to enlarge its scope in the Angolan oil and gas industry?
The Angolan oil and gas sector will witness a few very active years, and we want to take part in them. I would like to see the company become a leader in lifting operations in Angola. We want to be the lifting local champions.
The manufacturing of wire rope slings is another area we want to grow and create value in. We are currently working in partnership with R2 Lifting, an Angolan provider of lifting equipment. However, we are looking to invest and manufacture wire rope slings in-country in 2024, which will be very beneficial for Angola and our role in the national oil and gas operations value chain. Our clients are very receptive to this idea, and they are eager to start working with Angolan-made equipment.
We are also looking to grow in the downstream sector. We are looking to operate fuel stations in the south of the country. We are operating two fuel stations as of December 2023, and we would like that number to increase.
Then, vessel maintenance is a subsector in which we see a lot of growth taking place in the next few years. We would like to invest in that and grow capacity in that segment. We already have some experience with vessel maintenance for Sonasurf, and we would like to leverage that experience in order to grow and expand our non-destructive testing operations on vessels.

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