Agile EPC solutions for Angola’s energy industry

Angola

Patricia Lopes, Mecwide’s country manager for Angola, talks to The Energy Year about how oil and gas trends are impacting Angola’s EPC sector and Mecwide’s recent involvement in new gas-related infrastructure and solar energy projects. Mecwide provides metalworking EPC solutions for the energy industry.

Which trends have impacted the domestic oil and gas sector in the last few years?
In 2014 when the oil price collapsed, we experienced a large divestment from the IOCs which had a major, negative impact on the service providers. This divestment affected the Angolan industry as a whole, but naturally hit those sectors linked to oil and gas activities harder.
In 2019, the oil price reached some stability and there were signals on the market that oil companies were aiming to invest again, but then Covid brought uncertainty back. Since mid-2021, growth trends in the oil and gas market have been clear and brought a positive environment back to the sector.
Regarding exploration, Angola took major steps with the latest onshore bid rounds and awards of some offshore ultra-deepwater blocks in the south. The number of rigs in an oil economy is a direct indicator of how healthy the petro-economy is. Therefore, when this number increases, it is reasonable to predict an increase in production in the near future. Angola remains one of the most successful deepwater markets in the world.

How have these market trends shaped the competitiveness of the EPC sector?
These market trends over recent years have created a general consciousness around urgent cost reduction. Companies working in the oil and gas EPC sector realised they had to become more efficient in the way they operate. As per this, a significant review of the way business was approached was performed, resulting (for some companies) in organisations which are leaner and better prepared to drive cost-effective solutions for their clients. A new culture of higher performance was created.
Many companies left during the crisis. I like to think that the resilient ones stayed. Therefore, today we were able to create a sort of a niche of contractors that became more agile and flexible, and therefore managed to ride the storm during those difficult years. function echoPub() {document.getElementById('pub').innerHTML="