There, it will not have to contend with employer groups driving up prices and dockworkers earning €8,800 net per month, but it would face competition from a terminal within Maersk’s orbit. Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which owns the Operaciones Portuarias de Canarias (OPCSA) terminal at the Port of Las Palmas, has set its sights on the emerging energy hub in northwestern Africa. Through its African logistics subsidiary, the Swiss multinational is positioning itself to control the key infrastructure that will support the region’s offshore gas fields. Mauritania’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum confirmed Wednesday that Africa Global Logistics (AGL)—part of the MSC Group following its acquisition from Bolloré—has passed the first stage in the process to develop and operate the future Nouakchott Energy and Gas Zone (ZESN).
The logistics play in Nouakchott Bay
AGL is competing in partnership with local operator SOGECO as part of a shortlist of three prequalified candidates that also includes SEPCO Industries and the consortium formed by LADOL and TRANSAC IP. The process, launched through an official call for bids on May 20, brings MSC’s subsidiary closer to securing a strategic 20-hectare site south of the Autonomous Port of Nouakchott. None of the bidders has yet received the final award.
The project has been designed as a public-private partnership (PPP) under a concession lasting up to 30 years, excluding the construction phase. The successful bidder will be fully responsible for financing, designing, building, equipping and subsequently operating the site on a commercial basis.
The preparation of the PPP’s financial and legal framework is backed by a consortium of advisers comprising Taylor Wessing, Gibraltar Advisory, AFRECOM and HOSN Energy Consulting, under a €162,000 contract financed by the International Development Association (IDA). The total investment required to develop the zone has not yet been made public.
Strategic link to the Las Palmas hub
MSC’s move in Nouakchott is not an isolated development on the map of Atlantic shipping routes. From its strategic hub at the Port of Las Palmas, where it operates the OPCSA terminal, the Aponte family’s shipping company is consolidating a transshipment and logistics services network capable of coordinating the supply of inputs to West Africa.
The future Nouakchott Energy and Gas Zone will serve as a logistics platform for the offshore oil and gas industry along the West African transform margin. The site will house storage facilities, workshops, offices and areas dedicated to managing drilling spare parts, water and fuel supplies, waste management and cargo tracking for offshore support vessels (OSVs). The selected plot within Nouakchott’s port perimeter, which is currently undeveloped, also has expansion capacity depending on the technical solution selected in the final stage of the tender process.
MSC’s appetite for Africa’s energy corridor
The integration of AGL into MSC’s corporate structure gives the competing consortium the financial backing of a global group with a presence in ports, railways and multimodal transport across the African continent.
Through this tender, MSC is seeking to consolidate its dominance over trade and energy flows between Europe, the Canary Islands and the coastal strip of Mauritania and Senegal. The next step in the process will open the bidding phase for economic and technical proposals from the three shortlisted groups. The outcome will determine which operator takes charge of logistics support on one of the Atlantic’s most coveted hydrocarbon exploration frontiers.
The article MSC Expands Its Reach from OPCSA in Las Palmas to Nouakchott Port in Mauritania was first published on canarymaritime.com.
