The request was made this Wednesday by the chairman of the board of directors of the National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels, Paulino Jerónimo, at the end of his visit to this center built by Aker Solution Enterprises (Aksel) and inaugurated in November 2021, in Luanda.
Paulino Jerónimo considered the project "very important for Angola", because even before its installation, "all operators when they had problems with testing or maintenance of underwater equipment were obliged to export to Europe or the United States of America [USA ]".
"The first major constraint they encountered is the time for authorization to export the equipment, which often reached five, six months, with this center there is no longer a need for this export, there is no longer a need for this five to six month discussion with the authorities customs and we started to assemble the equipment here", he highlighted.
According to Paulino Jerónimo, the center also has the advantage that in addition to testing, maintaining and repairing equipment produced by itself, it also serves those of other companies.
For the president of the oil agency, another advantage is "the transfer of 'know-how', in the context of local content".
"We want not only to produce, not only to carry out the work here, but we also want the 'know-how' to be passed on to the Angolans, that in a while we will only have Angolans doing this type of work, that is what is in fact the real local content", he stressed.
The official reiterated the gain for the country, looking at the damage that was caused to the Angolan economy, with the stoppage of production.
"Aksel needs to do more 'marketing', but we also have a responsibility, as the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency, to definitely ask, demand, from operators to use what was installed here, because if we don't use it we won't encourage other companies to do the same, to open another type of service in Angola", he stressed.
In turn, the chairman of Aksel, Pedro Godinho, considered that the agency could play a very important role in raising awareness among operators and other players in the market for the use of this technology.
"In the past, to remove a Christmas tree that was already in operation under the sea, it often took three to four months, because you have to mobilize a probe, which has to go there, you have to remove the Christmas tree, either say that production was closed", he explained.
Pedro Godinho stressed that the installation of this technology in the country allows these concerns to be addressed within a month or two, with the use of these local skills.
"A well that produces 3000 barrels a day and, for example, a current case that is 100 dollars a barrel, that well is closed for 365 days (...) in one day the country loses 300 thousand dollars, if we multiply that by 365 are 109 million dollars", he exemplified.
"We are using the same technologies that are used in the USA, in the UK and in other geographies, which is why Angola is evolving with this principle of 'local content'", he said, informing that they had already contact of the French oil company Total, from Congo, for tests in Angola.
The private investment valued at 30 million dollars was carried out by Aksel, a joint venture under Angolan law, resulting from the merger of interests between the Norwegian company Aker Solutions (49 percent) and the Angolan company Prodiamam Oil Services (51 percent). cent).
