Page 15 - AfrOil Week 19 2020

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EXXONMOBIL has awarded a three-year con- tract to an Angolan aircraft operator. The con- tract provides for Bestfly, which operates both fixed-wing and rotary vessels, to meet the US super-major’s requirements for moving staff back and forth between Luanda, the capital of Angola, and its primary oil logistics base in Soyo.
Under the deal, Bestfly will use one of its ATR 72-600 turboprop airplanes for flights between Soyo and Luanda. The plane, which can carry up to 70 passengers, will make this 45-minute trip four times each week.
To date, neither ExxonMobil nor Bestfly has revealed the value of the contract. The Angolan firm did say last week, though, that the contract included an option for extending the term by two years.
Nuno Pereira, the CEO of Bestfly, said that his company had worked hard to win the deal. “We faced tough local and international com- petition to win this tender after very detailed audits by ExxonMobil,” he commented.
Pereira also described the ATR 72-600 as well suited for the US giant’s purposes in Angola. “The ATR is ideal for this mission ... [The] oil and gas business is the reason we selected the ATR in the first place,” he said.
He also noted that ExxonMobil had recently extended a separate contract with Bestfly that enables the latter to carry out medical evacu- ation flights from offshore drilling platforms. Under the extended contract, the Angolan firm will use one of its AW139 helicopters for medevac transport over a period of three years, with an option to extend for another two years.
Bestfly’s fleet currently includes two ATR
72-600 planes. The company ordered these two units last year, during the 2019 Air Show, and began operating them in Angola in January 2020. The order brought the size of Bestfly’s fleet, which includes several different sizes of business jets as well as helicopters, up to 21.
ExxonMobil is not the Angolan firm’s only customer in the oil and gas sector. Bestfly signed a contract with Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. (CABGOC), a subsidiary of Chevron (US), in 2015, and has also worked with other upstream operators.
Recently, Pereira added, the company has worked with its customers to help oil and gas company employees respond to the coronavi- rus (COVID-19) pandemic. “We have already been serving all of the international oil and gas companies with their repatriation plans during the COVID-19 outbreak, and we have had our whole fleet available to give support to get peo- ple home,” he was quoted as saying by Engineer- ing News.
Bestfly will use an ATR 72-600 plane for the Soyo-Luanda route (Photo: News Avia)
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Sergei Gorkov, the general director and board chairman of Rosgeologiya, said his company was eager to implement the contract. “Russian geologists laid the foundation for research work in Equatorial Guinea back in the ‘70s of the last century,” he said. “‘We are pleased to resume successful co-operation between our countries and conduct exploration work in Equatorial Guinea at the highest professional level.”
Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, the head of MMH, also expressed satisfaction with the deal. “These explorations will help expand Rio Muni’s potential in new oil, natural gas and mineral deposits,” he commented. “Co-operation with Rosgeologiya corresponds to the general atmos- phere of development of relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of
Equatorial Guinea and will help build a serious research base in our country.”
The parties have been discussing the project for some time. According to MMH, the contract with Yuzhmorgeologiya and Zarubezhgeologiya was negotiated in line with an Agreement of Intent (AoI) signed during the Russia-Africa Forum, which took place in Sochi last October.
The ministry described the Rio Muni Basin as “one of the most promising areas for explo- ration in Equatorial Guinea,” saying that the region might hold sizeable reserves of minerals and other raw materials, as well as crude oil and natural gas.
Gaining access to these resources could help the country move forward with economic diver- sification efforts, it said. ™
Angolan aircraft operator signs three-year contract with ExxonMobil
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