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Africa Fortesa’s Senegal country manager Cheikh N’Diaye speaks to Africa Oil and Power about the company’s current projects and upcoming expansions in the country.
Africa Fortesa and its subsidiaries, engage in exploration, production and marketing of natural gas for power production in Senegal. The exploration company provides third party drilling services to both Senegal and Mauritania as well.
Please give us an overview of Africa Fortesa’s presence in Senegal?
It is important to note that Fortesa works exclusively onshore. Our active production site – Gadiaga – needs to be developed and optimized to extend its lifespan and maximize production volumes and recoverability.
The mediatization of recent discoveries has allowed Senegal to understand that the country has promising oil and gas potential.
Our work since 2002 is to prove that these gas fields, including the one we use, are an important step towards energy independence. Based on the work done and the potential developed, Fortesa’s strategy is to continue onshore developments, both on the optimization of Gadiaga and on further exploration of the surrounding area.
What is Fortesa’s strategy for national goals of national competence?
For Fortesa, local content is a pillar for economic development. Local content is an optimal way to secure and control operating costs. Our philosophy is to recruit human resources with skills in different sectors and expose them to the hydrocarbons sector. This process represents a long-term investment, since this workforce is more involved in the company’s projects and costs less on a daily basis. We give all our employees the opportunity to grow in the company and grow with us.
Do you have a message to give to potential investors?
Senegal attracts and will continue to attract international investment thanks to political stability, sustainable economic growth and regional leadership, as well as strategic geographic positioning. The hydrocarbon sector is becoming a new attractive force for the country.
The state has demonstrated its desire to develop a sound energy economy based on low-risk investment, redistribution of revenues, operating in compliance with environmental protection standards and, above all, a long-term vision. Senegal progresses each year in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking, which uses metrics such as transparency index and ease of starting a company to measure ease of doing business in countries.
We see that the attractiveness of the country is growing daily and government entities are working together to put in place a regulatory and functional system that will positively kickstart the history of Senegal in the oil and gas industry.
