How is the Altrad Group, world leader in services for industry, developing in Africa?

Altrad Services Africa began its operations in Gabon at the end of the 1970s by following the French oil company ELF. Since then, Altrad Services Africa has expanded to the main African oil and gas countries such as Algeria, Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea.

With 1,300 employees in 6 countries of operation, Altrad Africa employs nearly 95% local staff and only 5% expatriates. This is the result of the permanent training programs initiated in the different countries of operation, allowing Altrad Africa to be perceived as a local company, to participate in the improvement of the local economy and to offer reduced costs to customers. 

Altrad Africa also owns large assets such as sandblasting/painting booths, a large stock of scaffolding, insulation workshops. This allows us to respond quickly to customer demand, while respecting strict international health, safety and environmental regulations.

In contrast to the European market, where the construction sector is governed by strict European rules to reinforce safety at work and which allows Altrad Europe to offer its equipment, Africa has not yet implemented such rules. Any type of construction is therefore allowed, using very cheap scaffolding when it is not made of bamboo. Under these conditions, it is difficult for a company like Altrad, concerned about the safety of its employees, to propose competitive offers on the African construction market, even if it is slowly evolving in the right direction. 

On the other hand, private companies such as Total E&P, Shell, BP… in the Oil & Gas market have always placed the prevention of occupational risks at a high level to avoid any incident that could quickly become fatal. Thus, more than 90% of Altrad Africa’s activity is now in the Oil & Gas sector. 

The most famous Oil & Gas project carried out by Altrad Africa is the Girassol FPSO Revamping Project from 2009 to 2017, which brought together all the Group’s main activities: Coatings, Scaffolding, Rope work, Insulation, Passive Fire Protection… 

Since then, Altrad Africa continues to provide major maintenance services on the best known West African offshore assets such as Girassol (Total E&P Angola), Greater Plutonio (BP Angola), Kizomba (Exxon Angola), Ngoma (ENI Angola), Egina (Total E&P Nigeria), Erha (Exxon Nigeria), Bonga (Shell Nigeria), Abo (ENI Nigeria), Moho Bilondo (Total E&P Congo), Aseng (Noble Energy Equatorial Guinea), Sendje Ceiba FPSO (Trident EG)…

While continuing to increase its market share in the countries where it currently operates, Altrad Africa is looking to the future, where new oil and/or gas discoveries are being made, including Senegal, Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania.