Tag Archives: Logistics

Panalpina opens new office in Nairobi to serve East African region

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International freight forwarding and logistics company, Panalpina, has opened a new office in Nairobi Kenya.

The company says the new office will support Panalpina’s growth strategy for the region and will leverage on opportunities for growth exist predominantly in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

According to Panalpina’s country managing director in Kenya Juergen Paliko the Nairobi office will give customers in these expanding economies a single point of contact, and direct access to the company’s global network and services in air freight, ocean freight and logistics.

“Kenya is East Africa’s largest economy and a gateway to the region, especially Uganda and Rwanda. With the Nairobi office in place, Panalpina is now able to take a more focused approach to cultivating local business and also trade lanes from the Middle East and Asia into Kenya,” says ,” Juergen.

Through its presence in Kenya Panalpina hopes to tap from the young but vibrant oil and gas sector as well as to benefit from growth and investment in the telecommunications, perishables, chemical and healthcare sectors.

Panalpina also hopes to leverage on its international presence and partnerships especially expanding contracts with oil companies in the region many of whom it service contracts with elsewhere by catering to their increasing local requirements.

The construction of a mega-port in the northern coastal city of Lamu the company adds also reinforces the need for on-the-ground support, as the building of roads, a rail link and a pipeline will soon be underway.

Nairobi is also established as the main gateway to the region throughthe Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Meanwhile the company has also opened an office in Morocco targeting key industries such as energy, automotive, aerospace and healthcare.

“Morocco has great business potential; in future the country will serve as a gateway to Mauretania on the West African coast, and to the inland African countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger,” explains Maxime van Geenberghe, Panalpina’s new managing director in Morocco.

Morocco has many onshore wind farms and has emerged in recent years as a leader in the region’s wind power generation. Investment in solar power technology, such as the Noor-Ouarzazate Solar Complex, is helping Morocco reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and meet its growing energy demand. In addition, hydro and coal fired power plants are being constructed, expanded or modernized.

“Expanding our global presence is part of Panalpina’s overall strategy, especially in growth economies such as Morocco and Kenya,” says Peter Triebel, Panalpina’s regional CEO for the Middle East, Africa and CIS (MEAC). “With strong prospects in the two countries, especially in the energy and infrastructure sectors, establishing a formal presence is an important part of our long-term market growth and customer satisfaction objectives.”

Inchcape Shipping Services expands Nairobi office as East Africa production nears

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Global marine, cargo and supply chain solutions provider  Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) has announced another key hire to its African regional management team, as the company gears up for ambitious growth across the region in 2015.

Heading the team and to be based in Nairobi is Riaan Blom who takes up the position of Vice President Sales, Africa having joined the company this month.

Riaan has a spanning over 20 years brings to the role extensive ships’ agency experience with specialisms in project management, freight forwarding and large oil & gas contracts with his most recent appointment was as Regional Manager Oil & Energy, East Africa at DHL Global Forwarding, also based in Kenya.

According to Senior Vice President at ISS David Mackay Riaan will help the company grow by using his expansive industry knowledge. Riaan will be working across all of the company’s business verticals, expanding and enhancing the value proposition that ISS offers in the region.

“We have been strategically growing the company’s presence in Africa, which is a key growth platform for ISS. We have been able to consistently demonstrate our ability to deliver excellent levels of service to our customers measured against international standards in some of the world’s most challenging locations, which is one of the reasons why we have been able to attract some of the best talent in the business,” say Mackay.

“ISS has a number of exciting initiatives in the pipeline and I am delighted to join the company during this significant period of expansion. I look forward to engaging with ISS’ existing and future customers in the region and supporting them with the successful development of their own businesses,” says Riaan.

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) has some 300 offices in 67 countries and provides its customers with an unparalleled global resource delivered locally and tailored to each customers individual needs.

Its diversified customer base includes clients across the oil, cruise, container and bulk commodity sectors as well as serving naval, government and inter-governmental clients. Additionally, ISS provides landside commercial and humanitarian logistics, transit, offshore support and other associated marine services.

The company also provides a growing range of outsourcing services, including global crew and marine spares logistics, port agency management, commercial representation and sophisticated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions through its subsidiary ShipNet.

Atlas Development and Support Solutions expects Kenyan listing by mid December

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Oil and gas solutions services provider Atlas Development and Support Solutions has said it expects a dual listing on the Growth Enterprise Market Segment (‘GEMS’) of the Nairobi bourse by December 15th as it continues with the last stages of discussions with

According to the chief executive officer of the London Company Carl Esprey Atlas will allow Kenyans to take hold of some 40 million shares valued at $4 million with 393 million shares currently listed in London available for take up at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, NSE soon after.

This will be the first cross listed company between Nairobi and London as well as the only listed company involved in the upstream sector.

“By cross listing our companies in Kenya we believe that we can better mitigate political risks as the company will be Kenyan owned, we also believe that this can help us better benefit from local content initiatives,” Esprey told OilNews Kenya.

Once listed this will drive Kenyan shareholding to 18 percent with the investors of recently acquired Ardan Logistics Limited currently holding 8 percent.

Following the dual listing Esprey says the company will continue with its growth strategy that includes  the acquisition of more companies within its field that already have revenue and business in the region.

By this the company can benefit from the reputation of the local businesses while at the same time provide the international expertise that gives it an edge over other players in the market.

Atlas Development and Support Solutions in October completed the acquisition Ardan Logistics Limited in what Esprey termed as a move to combine local presence with high quality, international standard  necessary to transform the company to a market leader.

Atlas development that currently provides a wide range of services including logistics, catering, facilities management, medical services, risk management and training  has also said it would consider  getting in the seismic acquisition business.

African Oilfield Logistics Limited rebrands to Atlas Development & Support Services Limited

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African focused support services and Logistics Company formerly known as Africa Oilfield Logistics Limited announces that it has completed its change of name to Atlas Development & Support Services Limited and effective 28th October.

This follows the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Ardan Logistics Kenya Limited by Africa Oilfield Logistics Ltd following shareholder approval after the Company’s general meeting held on 23rd October.

During the acquisition Africa logistics CEO Carl Esprey noted that the new unit to operate under  a new brand  Atlas Development & Support Services that would rapidly expand its service lines across a broad geographic area, and bring its turn-key support services to clients operating within the booming East African exploration and development industries.

The renaming is under the framework and option agreement signed in March that allowed Africa Oilfield Kenya following the 100% acquisition of Ardan to separate and operate under a new shell company from which the restructured business of Ardan would be operated.

Under the new arrangement shareholders holding the existing share certificates in the name of Africa Oilfield Logistics Limited are advised that their equities will remain valid with new share certificates which are issued by the Company to be under the name of Atlas Development.

“I am delighted to confirm our formal change of name, which marks a new chapter in the development of the Company and our operations across Africa.  During the course of 2014 our business has been systematically recalibrated to provide a scalable foundation for a highly efficient, profitable business which delivers world-class services to our ever expanding roster of clients says Carl Esprey, Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Development.

“ Demonstrable positive results have been achieved in the past nine months and I believe that under the new Atlas Development brand, we will continue this positive trajectory into 2015 and beyond and be well positioned to execute our vision of becoming the most professional, efficient and profitable turn-key development and support services group in Africa,” he concludes.

Tullow Oil to educate 100 Africans on Oil and Gas

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Tullow Oil has announced that it is now receiving scholarship applications from interested students in the oil and gas sectors in seven African countries it operates.

Among countries that can apply include: Kenya, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Ethiopia and Mauritania with applications open from January 31st to 28th February 2014.

The scholarships that are managed by the British Council aims to build capacity in countries Tullow Oil operates in and where the company experiences skill gaps in the oil and gas industries though this fields are not exclusive.

Among course areas that students can study under the scholarship program include:Engineering and technology, Environment and Geosciences,Oil and Gas Economics, Business Journalism, Logistics and Supply Chain, Law and legal courses and sciences apart from medicine,

According to Tullow Oil the number of awards/scale of investment in the Scholarship scheme for each country is appropriate to the phase (the project life cycle) of Tullow’s business in that country at present.

The scholarship covers: full tuition fees, a monthly stipend, travel costs, warm clothing, and baggage allowance with the cost of the package per scholar is in the region of $60,000 per annum.

Successful applicants will have an option of choosing from over 50 UK universities.

Last year the company sponsored another 100 students who are now partaking their studies in various universities.