Tenaris’s growth in Angolan oil and gas

Angola

David Tony Nwakaji, Tenaris’s country manager for Angola, talks to The Energy Year about how the company’s footprint has been evolving in Angola and the logic behind establishing its new service centre in Soyo. Tenaris is a manufacturer and supplier of steel pipes and related services, primarily for the energy industry.

How has the footprint of Tenaris in Angola been evolving?
Tenaris started supplying materials, casing and tubing from Angola for the energy industry in the early 1990s when we started operations here. We then opened a branch here in 2006, as most of the pipes were sold through international agreements in the past.
Because of the limited number of employees we could have at the branch office, in 2017 we decided to set up an entity here and employ a full team. We had over 21 people working for Tenaris here by that time. Since 2017 and 2018, we’ve evolved from the partnership we had in Angola and aligned with the changes in the local content law.
Today, we not only provide the pipes but also take care of pipe maintenance and after-sales services. Our new service centre was inaugurated in Soyo in September 2023. We have a strong relationship with the community where we work, and we’re also very close to our customer, Azule Energy. Through the Soyo service centre we provide them with our Rig Direct package of services, which integrates supply chain and technical services.

What was the logic behind establishing Tenaris’s new service centre in Soyo?
This decision was driven by one of the largest tenders that we had to handle, for the Agogo field. The tender required that the pipe supplier should also provide the associated services in a consortium with Angolan entities. We saw it as an opportunity for us to be closer to the customer, empower local suppliers and to increase our local content footprint here.
We are continually investing in the service centre, located inside the Kwanda logistics base, which includes a 16,000-square-metre yard area, is equipped with a warehouse for indoor storage and currently holds up to 6,000-7,000 tonnes of OCTG materials.
If we have other operators interested in keeping materials there, we could expand the capacity of the yard in 2024-2025 up to 22,000 square metres. We’re in discussions with Kwanda, and they told us that we can actually use other areas if we’re interested as well.

Can further expansion lead to Tenaris investing in OCTG production facilities in Angola?
At the moment, our next phase will likely be to invest in a training facility. Since the investment is very important, we are partnering with SPIE, who have a training facility. We are contributing to upgrade their facility, and we are bringing in a Dopeless self-contained unit to apply our dope-free solution on site.

How can Dopeless technology improve processes in Angola’s oil and gas industry?
Although it has been adopted in other regions for almost 20 years, Dopeless technology is quite new in the African market. It is an industrially applied coating on pipe connections that eliminates the need for the application of running or storage compounds. Pipe dope is a chemical compound used to lubricate pipes for running, and it is applied manually in the rig.
Dopeless technology, by contrast, is applied at an earlier stage, with a well-controlled industrial process, and consequently doesn’t require the application of chemicals in the field. Make-up is faster, easier and more environmentally friendly. The Dopeless self-contained unit that we’re bringing into Angola in 2024 will allow us to apply Dopeless technology, make repairs and produce some of the accessories in our service centre, thus reducing imports.

How strategic is Angola for Tenaris?
The world is beginning to realise the relevance of sub-Saharan Africa for its gas. Now Europe is in need of gas, as well as the US and the East. Everybody needs gas, and Africa is that place where we say “we have an abundance of this gas, but nobody developed it in the past.” Now it has become a really significant resource for the world’s needs.
In Angola there’s a significant transition towards supporting gas. The NGC [New Gas Consortium] is the first step. They’re investing now in LNG, which is fast becoming a good source of revenue for the country, as we will see most of this exported.
This trend towards gas production is not only happening in Angola: it’s a regional trend. There’s Mozambique and the Republic of Congo too. Africa is becoming a relevant energy supplier for the world, and Angola plays a critical part in this.

How important is it for Tenaris to decarbonise its operations?
Tenaris is committed to reducing the environmental footprint of its operations worldwide. In February 2021, we announced our plan to reduce 30% of CO2 emitted per tonne of steel (compared to 2018) by 2030.
We plan to achieve this target by using a greater amount of recycled steel scrap, boosting energy efficiency through investments and using renewable energy. As an electric-arc-furnace-based company, maximising scrap used is clearly one of the actions available today and is recognised as a measure to reduce emissions.
Recently, we’ve completed the construction of a wind farm in Argentina. This wind farm is supplying 50% of the electricity needed for our mill there, allowing us to reduce CO2 emissions by 152,000 tonnes per year, and we’re doing similar projects in other parts of the world. The supply chain system, the way we talk directly to most of our customers, is through the aforementioned Rig Direct scheme. With this efficient system, we are able to bring materials just to where they’re needed.
We don’t need to manufacture and store materials, as unnecessary manufacturing increases one’s carbon footprint. Tenaris is doing a lot on this front.

Read our latest insights on:

• Angola
• Argentina
• Mozambique
• Republic of Congo