Can you share the main developments at Petromar since our last conversation in 2020?

The situation in Angola has changed greatly in the last few years. One of Petromar’s two main activities is fabrication of traditional subsea structures, where we are the only manufacturer of pipe-in-pipe quadruple joints in Angola. The fabrication sector is currently booming, surpassing pre-pandemic levels of activity, as projects come back online. 

Our other main activity is maintenance, where we have longstanding contracts with Sonangol in Block 3, in Cabinda for CABGOC (Chevron) in Block 0 and 14, and more recently for Azule Energy for their two FPSOs on Blocks 18 and 31. During the Covid pandemic, our maintenance activities were the first to slow, but were also the fastest to ramp up again once activities returned to normal levels. Our fabrication activities were not slowed down as much by the pandemic, however many projects that were delayed or suspended are now resuming. 

The expansion of our yard in Ambriz was successfully completed. Initially, we aimed to use this extra space for storage and diversify into logistics, given its access to the sea. However, this diversification has been put on hold as the expanded yard space needs to be dedicated to usual fabrication to meet the current huge levels of demand. 

Can you share more on your current fabrication activities in Ambriz?

In August 2022, we entered an agreement with Azule Energy to fabricate a full platform (Quiluma) for their NGC development project. This is the first time our Ambriz yard has undertaken the fabrication of a jacket and deck simultaneously, which required us to bring in particular crawler cranes from another Saipem yard. The second ongoing project for Azule Energy is the Agogo Integrated West Hub development for which Petromar fabricates the rigid parts, including the quadruple joints. 

What are the main challenges Petromar and similar players are currently facing?

We are currently at the peak of activity we have foreseen for this year. There are definitely challenges with talent acquisition and retention, as well as logistical challenges with bringing materials to Ambriz and participating in developing the small town of Ambriz. We continue to invest heavily in training on-job for our people to overcome this challenge, which we see as temporary. Due to the complexity of the current deck and jacket project we are working on, we had to bring in a higher than usual number of specialized expatriate workers who have the necessary expertise. 

Currency fluctuations have been another challenge. Things were getting close to perfect until mid-2023, when a sharp currency devaluation occurred. Today, this still causes challenges when paying suppliers abroad. However, executing our projects together with Saipem means we can rely on them to deal with procurement in many cases, allowing us to focus our efforts on fabrication and maintenance. Additionally, inflation rates remain high in Angola, making it difficult to predict and offer firm quotes to clients for potential future projects. 

What are Petromar’s priorities for the coming years?

We see opportunities to further develop and exploit our expanded Ambriz fabrication yard. This has also been recognized by our main client there, Azule Energy, and we are exploring exporting to West African countries, such as Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria. Beginning exports will depend on the workload of Saipem Group’s other yards and the countries’ local content laws. This is an opportunity that was not considered until recently, and we will continue to explore it to see if we can be competitive. 

On the maintenance side, our main contracts have been extended into 2025. However, we do not currently have any new tenders that could bring contracts beyond this point, so we will focus on engaging with our clients to see how we can be involved in their maintenance strategies going forward.