Anabela Marcos, Managing Director of SONILS, talks to The Energy Year about rising logistics demand from Angola’s offshore investment cycle, the expansion of the company’s technical and human capabilities and its strategy to develop an integrated regional logistics platform.
SONILS operates an onshore supply base in Luanda providing logistics, cargo handling, warehousing, heavy lifting, fabrication support and vessel mobilisation services to Angola’s energy industry.
- SONILS is scaling its Luanda base to meet Angola’s accelerating offshore activity, with higher cargo volumes, improved productivity and expanded capabilities in heavy lifting, fabrication support, staging and offshore mobilisation.
- Investment in specialised equipment, digitalisation and workforce development is allowing SONILS to handle increasingly complex projects while strengthening the local capabilities needed to support Angola’s upstream growth.
- SONILS sees Namibia as a natural first step in a broader regional strategy, using partnerships to connect Angola’s mature offshore logistics ecosystem with emerging African energy markets.
SONILS supports more than 60% of Angola’s daily oil production from its Luanda supply base. What were the company’s main operational achievements over the past year, and how have its capabilities evolved?
The past year has been one of strong operational growth for SONILS. We are handling significantly higher levels of activity, while improving productivity and, importantly, doing so more safely.
Container volumes have more than doubled compared with the same period last year, and our operational productivity has improved by more than 50%. At the same time, we have significantly reduced the number of incidents and maintained a strong record with no lost-time injuries.
That combination matters to us. We are doing more, doing it better and doing it more safely. It reflects the maturity of our organisation and the discipline of our teams as we respond to a more active and demanding upstream environment.
Our capabilities have also evolved alongside the industry. SONILS today supports a much broader range of activities, from logistics, warehousing and vessel support to fabrication and staging, heavy lifting, loadouts and the mobilisation of offshore campaigns.
Agogo is a good example of that evolution. The project brought increasingly sophisticated logistics and offshore support requirements, including SONILS’ first flexible pipe transpooling operation. It demonstrated the capacity of our infrastructure, equipment and, especially, our people to safely execute complex operations from Angola.
As Angola enters a new cycle of upstream investment, we want to stay ahead of that growth. That means anticipating what our clients will need, continuing to invest in our people and infrastructure, and raising the standards of efficiency, safety and execution across the logistics chain.
Our ambition is that every new project in Angola should be able to find more of the capacity it needs right here in country.
Angola is entering a more active upstream investment cycle, with several major offshore developments under way. How is this translating into demand at SONILS’ logistics base?
We are already seeing the impact. The current upstream cycle is bringing more activity to the base, but it is also changing the nature of the demand we are receiving.
Projects are becoming longer and more complex, requiring a much more integrated logistics response. We are seeing greater use of our quay and operational areas, stronger demand for lifting and loadout capabilities, and more activity around staging, fabrication support, warehousing and the mobilisation of offshore campaigns.
Perhaps the biggest change is the continuity of the activity. We are supporting major developments alongside drilling, completion, workover and intervention programmes that extend over longer periods. This gives us greater visibility of future demand and allows us to plan our infrastructure, equipment and people with a longer-term perspective.
And the pipeline ahead is very encouraging. With developments such as Ndungu, Kaminho and Greater PAJ, we expect this momentum to continue. For SONILS, these projects represent additional throughput and create opportunities for us to support a greater share of the project lifecycle and to bring together more services from one integrated logistics platform.
Growth for us is not tonnes alone; it is value per operation. Our focus today is becoming involved earlier, integrating more services and helping projects execute more efficiently from Angola. As the industry grows, SONILS must grow with it in scale, certainly, but also in capability and in the value we are able to create.
Ultimately, the more of that capability we can provide locally, the stronger Angola’s energy logistics ecosystem becomes and the more value we retain within the Angolan economy.
What equipment and infrastructure is SONILS investing in, and how is the company developing the skills required for increasingly complex logistics operations?
Our investment strategy starts with a simple principle of anticipating where the industry is going and build the capability before the demand arrives.
Over the last few years, we have made a significant investment in our operational fleet, particularly in lifting and cargo-handling capacity. We have added cranes with capacities of up to 350 tonnes, container handlers and a new generation of forklifts, including electric and rotating units and equipment specifically designed for tubular handling. And this investment programme continues through 2028.
But when we talk about capability, we always bring the conversation back to people. Sophisticated equipment has value when you have people who can operate it safely, plan complex lifts, understand the engineering behind the operation and increasingly manage the entire process.
This is why our Centre of Excellence is important to our strategy. We are developing technical and behavioural competencies that respond directly to the changing requirements of the energy industry, with a strong focus on safety, specialised operations and the skills required for a more technology-driven logistics environment.
Digitalisation is part of the same journey. We are introducing solutions that give us better visibility over our operations, improve planning and execution and ultimately make the interaction with our clients faster and more predictable.
We have also created our Business Centre as part of the evolution of the base. It gives companies operating within SONILS access to a professional business environment and creates more space for interaction, knowledge exchange and collaboration within the industry.
And sustainability has to evolve together with operational performance. We are increasing the role of solar energy, improving waste management and energy efficiency, and reducing our reliance on generator-based power where alternatives are available.
For us, modernisation is really about bringing equipment, technology and people together. One without the others will not take us very far. That is how we prepare SONILS for the next generation of projects with the equipment to execute, the technology to manage complexity and Angolan professionals increasingly capable of leading these operations.
With Namibia’s Orange Basin developing rapidly, how is SONILS positioning itself to support the Angola–Namibia energy corridor?
Namibia is a very natural next step in SONILS’ regional strategy. Angola has accumulated decades of experience in supporting complex offshore operations, and much of that knowledge and capability can be relevant as Namibia develops its offshore energy industry.
Over time, in Angola, we have developed an entire logistics ecosystem around the energy sector: specialised equipment, operational standards, experienced people, service companies and the ability to coordinate increasingly complex offshore campaigns. That experience gives us a strong foundation from which to support other markets.
At the same time, we are very conscious that Namibia has its own ambitions, institutions and local-content priorities. Our approach is therefore to work with local partners and bring SONILS’ experience into solutions that respond to the specific needs of the Namibian market. This principle of adapting our capabilities to each regional context is central to our expansion strategy.
There is a broad range of capabilities that can be relevant to operators working in Namibian waters: integrated supply-base management, cargo handling and storage, heavy lifting, tubular logistics, staging and fabrication support, vessel mobilisation and the logistics coordination required around drilling and offshore campaigns.
But we believe the opportunity is larger than the provision of individual services. Angola and Namibia have the potential to develop a much more connected energy logistics corridor. Infrastructure, equipment, specialised expertise and supply chains can increasingly complement each other across the two markets.
Our countries do not need to rebuild the same capability from zero every time a new energy market develops. There is a real opportunity to use what has already been learned and built in Angola to accelerate capability development elsewhere, while ensuring that value, skills and opportunities are also created locally.
That is how we see our role in Namibia. We want to bring proven experience, build strong local partnerships and contribute to developing sustainable capability in the country. And, over time, we believe that connection can become part of a broader African logistics network, with Angola playing an important role as a centre of expertise and capability.
As MIREMPET tightens local content requirements, how does SONILS see its role in building the ecosystem of local champions that Angola’s energy sector needs to become self-sustaining?
We believe that the next stage of local content has to be about capability. Angola has made important progress in increasing local participation. The question now is how we help Angolan companies and professionals move into more specialised, higher-value areas of the industry and become genuinely competitive.
SONILS has a very particular role in that process because we are an ecosystem. Operators, international service companies, local companies and professionals work within the same environment. We can use that position to create more opportunities for collaboration, knowledge transfer and business development. Our Business Centre is part of that thinking. We want SONILS to be a place where local companies have access to infrastructure and business opportunities, but also where they can interact with larger industry players, build partnerships and progressively develop their capabilities. The original concept was explicitly designed around interaction, networking and knowledge exchange within the base.
The human-capital dimension is equally important. Today, approximately 99% of our workforce is Angolan, and we continue investing in technical development, targeted talent programmes and initiatives such as our mentorship programme for women.
But I believe we have to raise the ambition. Local content should be measured by how much we buy locally today and also on how much capability we are creating locally for tomorrow. The real success will come when Angolan companies compete because they meet international standards in safety, quality, technology and execution and when some of those companies are able to take that capability beyond Angola. That is the ecosystem we want to help build.
What is your vision for SONILS over the next five years, and what would it take to position the company as a genuinely pan-African integrated logistics platform?
The starting point is that SONILS already has a very strong foundation. We support a significant share of Angola’s oil production, we have built decades of operational experience, and today we are handling more complex activities with greater productivity and stronger safety performance. The question for us is how we use that foundation to create the next level of value.
Luanda remains central to that strategy. It is where we continue to strengthen our operational capabilities, invest in specialised equipment, develop our people and introduce more technology into the way we manage logistics. At the same time, the base itself is evolving into a broader business ecosystem, with initiatives such as our Centre of Excellence and Business Centre complementing the operational infrastructure and creating more space for skills development, collaboration and local enterprise.
There is also an opportunity to capture more value across the logistics chain. As we mentioned, the requirements of offshore projects are becoming more sophisticated, and our capabilities are evolving with them. That creates room for SONILS to deepen its participation in specialised logistics and operational services while continuing to improve efficiency, safety and the client experience.
Regional expansion is a natural part of that evolution, but it has to be selective and commercially sound. Namibia is already showing us what that can look like: taking experience developed in Angola, combining it with strong local partnerships and adapting it to the requirements of another market. That is much more relevant to us than simply having a presence in multiple countries. If we can connect infrastructure, expertise, equipment, technology and local partners across selected markets, then SONILS becomes more useful to clients operating across the region and creates new opportunities for African companies and professionals to participate in that value chain.
Angola has decades of offshore experience and a mature service ecosystem. SONILS is part of that history, and we now have the opportunity to take what has been built here and make it relevant beyond our borders.
That is the evolution we see for SONILS: stronger in Angola, more integrated in the services we provide, and increasingly connected to opportunities across the African energy industry.
Source:theenergyyear.com