There, it will not have to deal with employers’ associations driving up prices and stevedores earning €8,800 net per month, and it would have to compete with a terminal within Maersk’s orbit. Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), owner of the Operaciones Portuarias de Canarias (OPCSA) terminal at the Port of Las Palmas, has set its sights on the nascent energy hub in northwest 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 on Wednesday that Africa Global Logistics (AGL)—part of the MSC group following its acquisition from Bolloré—has passed the first stage in the tender 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 a consortium formed by LADOL and TRANSAC IP. The process, launched through an official tender notice on May 20, puts MSC’s subsidiary within reach of securing a strategic 20-hectare site south of the Autonomous Port of Nouakchott. None of the bidders has yet been awarded the final contract.
The project has been designed as a public-private partnership (PPP) under a concession lasting up to 30 years, excluding the construction phase. The final concessionaire will be fully responsible for financing, designing, building, equipping and subsequently commercially operating the facility.
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 disclosed.
Strategic connection with the Las Palmas hub
MSC’s move in Nouakchott is not an isolated development on the Atlantic shipping map. From its 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 Mauritanian ZESN will serve as a logistics platform for the offshore oil and gas industry along the West African Transform Margin. The facility 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 site selected within the Port of Nouakchott, currently undeveloped, also has room for expansion depending on the technical solution ultimately chosen in the final stage of the tender.
MSC’s appetite for Africa’s energy corridor
AGL’s integration into MSC’s corporate structure gives the competing consortium the financial capacity of a global group with a presence in ports, railways and multimodal transport across the African continent.
With this tender, MSC is seeking to strengthen its dominance over trade and energy flows between Europe, the Canary Islands and the coastal belt of Mauritania and Senegal. The next step in the procedure will open the phase for the submission of financial and technical bids by the three shortlisted groups. The outcome will determine which operator takes charge of logistics support at one of the Atlantic’s most coveted hydrocarbon exploration frontiers.
MSC’s entry extends its reach from OPCSA in Las Palmas to the Port of Nouakchott, Mauritania. This article was first published on canarymaritime.com.
