Industrial services growth in Angola

Angola

François Fuhrer, country manager of Ponticelli, talks to The Energy Year about how the company supports upstream operators’ activities in Angola and the key opportunities for the company in the midterm and long term in Angola. Ponticelli provides industrial services mainly to companies in the oil and gas, energy, chemical, pharmaceutical and steelworks sectors.

How does Ponticelli support upstream operators’ activities in Angola?
We have a contract with TotalEnergies for FPSO subsea maintenance and repairs in Block 17. We also have a contract with Chevron in Cabinda for the same scope of work and do engineering work for ExxonMobil, Sonangol, BP and Angola LNG.
Most of our work in Angola relates to maintenance, which we conduct through general maintenance contracts, where we perform routine work to extend asset lifespans, and non-contractual maintenance repairs, which typically involve the replacement of pipes or structural parts.

What are the key opportunities that you identify for the midterm and long term?
We are waiting for more large-scope projects to be sanctioned. At the moment, Angola has more engineering and construction capacity than it currently needs. Timelines for new projects have been quite delayed in the past years. Cameia-Golfinho’s kick-off would certainly provide more work for the industry in the coming years. In the meantime we see opportunities with small projects, such as TotalEnergies’ Begonia subsea works.
The downstream sector also offers some new opportunities for work. New refineries will require a considerable amount of fabrication work. We already have a large yard in Cabinda very close to the location of the future Cabinda refinery. We are ready.
Angola is a very important market for Ponticelli. Our workforce has increased from 300 people in 2017-2018 to 1,200 in 2023.

What are Ponticelli’s growth expectations for the coming years?
We have ambitious goals to grow our business in Angola and to continue supporting our clients. I believe in 10 years we will be able to say that we have seen significant growth in the market if large projects indeed move ahead.
Our capacity can also be applied to renewable energy projects. GenSun, a photovoltaic energy engineering, procurement and construction company, is part of our group. The energy transition in Angola is something that we could contribute to.

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