Can you give an overview of Sonamet and the company’s presence in Africa?  

DA: Sonamet was established in 1998 as a joint venture between Subsea 7 (formerly Acergy) and Sonangol with the objective of promoting and developing Angola’s oil and gas industry. At that time, the country was still at war and there was little oil and gas activity in the region. Our goal was to transfer technology and support the emergence of the industry in Angola, mainly in Lobito in the Benguela region. We set up in the sheltered Lobito Bay next to the Lobito Port - one of the most important ports on the West African coast due to its extension and depth – and we and our clients benefit from the ease of logistics from the port to our yard. The future refinery of Lobito is also located in the same bay as us.  

SF: Sonamet started with small projects, such as constructing 2 jackets and decks for Chevron’s Vuko Kungulo project, and throughout the years, we have pioneered several first-time structures built in Angola, including the first reeling, manifold, turret, topside module, buoys, and very recently a deck with booster compressor. In our 25 years experience, the company has worked with all the major operators active in Angola, including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Eni, as either a direct client or through EPCI contractors. Today, we have approximately 2,000 people working in the yard. Sonamet also has subcontractors on our projects as we want to provide opportunities to as many different local companies as we can and contribute to the local content development in the region.        

Sonamet does some EPC work for shallow water projects, but fabrication remains our core business.  

What are the main challenges facing fabricators such as Sonamet?

SF: Labor has not been an issue for Sonamet as we have a training center where we train our workforce, mainly focused on the locals. As we have fluctuations in business activity, we are obliged to mobilize and demobilize people according to workload, and when people are remobilized into our operations, we refresh them on safety and all the activities in the yard at this training center. Our local employment ratio is always above 75%. The challenge is when we have to procure experienced human resources from outside Angola, which is not the easiest task, and we also have to acculture them to our facility and processes. Procuring equipment and materials from outside the country can also result in challenges in terms of payment and the banking systems. 

What was the strategy behind opening a spool base at the Sonamet construction yard? 

SF: Sonamet identified a gap in the market and invested US$12 million into establishing a spool base facility, the only one of its kind in West Africa, which will facilitate more work onshore. TotalEnergies’ CLOV project will require approximately 20 km of pipeline, which will be manufactured at our construction yard by around 300 Angolan workers, and several other projects could benefit from this spool base in the future.

What opportunities does Sonamet see outside of Angola?

DA: Sonamet has always had the aim of venturing into different regions, and through our clients who have seen that we can deliver good quality work at the safety standards they require, we have bid on opportunities in Nigeria, Mozambique, and even Brazil. Our focus is currently on expanding to Namibia, and because Angola has a more mature oil and gas industry than Namibia, we believe our expertise, knowledge, and training capabilities can be a great benefit to the country and the growth of its industry. We have already started to train 30 Namibian welders. Angola is a true oil and gas nation with vast accumulated knowledge and experience in developing projects, and we look forward to collaborating with Namibia in growing their industry.    

Do you have a final message for our international audience? 

DA: Sonamet is fully committed to local content development, and we always look for opportunities where we can use local companies to assist us in our work. We have a “Made in Angola” approach, with the idea of doing it in Angola by Angolans and we aim to remain a leading player in our segment of the oil and gas industry, expanding outside of Angola.