Big plans for BP assets from Puma Energy

LAST week the Puma Energy top management in Namibia spoke to the press after a month of operating the BP assets they had acquired through-out Namibia.

Managing Director Maregesi Manyama told journalists in a series of one-on-one interviews about plans to expand the Walvis Bay depot, increase traffic through its under-utilized Ondangwa depot and appoint six new advertised senior positions at head office as well as a Namibian Managing Director to take over from Manyama before his return to Tanzania in a few months time.

“Staff are excited and energised because they are seeing on the ground what Puma Energy can do,” he said dismissing reports of a lack of communication with Namibian ex-BP staff members as, “issues of the past, to do with BP”. Instead he focused on the Puma growth agenda saying that the expansion of the Walvis Bay depot, for which plans are to be completed within a month or two, mean more people and more jobs, a positive sign that demonstrate the commitment of Puma to grow skills in the country. “Our customers are also excited.

“We have spoken to them. It was important to meet with them,” he said, adding that as Puma took over BP in Namibia as a going concern, it will uphold all contracts with customers and staff. “As a growing company, you need staff to achieve your growth agenda,” he said.

More change soon to be visible on the ground is the rebranding which the sale agreement with BP stipulated must be done within six months after operations were assumed by Puma on 1 March. “Of course we would like it sooner rather than later, but there is the limit on re-branding materials,” which Manyama said have to be ordered and take time to manufacture. Nevertheless, “I am confident we will achieve the re-brand within that time,” he said.

“This company is growthdriven and focused on growing with a commitment to empower the local team with the commitment to run this business as much as possible,” he said. “A Namibian has been identified to take over from me,” he said, adding that he is due to go back in two or three months. This was all part of the clear direction given by the Puma global leadership, he said, explaining that Namibians are now able to do a lot more within the country.

Manyama was also adamant that the Walvis Bay expansion project is primarily and importantly to give Puma customers supply security, and because the harbour town is a hub and an important location to supply fuel to the rest of the region including the DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe. “It is a strategic location to aid SADC government initiatives to supply energy for development plans,” he said.

“We are the only company with a depot in Ondangwa where we are only using 50% of its capacity. It was expanded less than two years ago,” he said and that Puma intends to use it to supply the Angolan market. Puma Energy International, formed in 1907, is a vertically integrated mid-stream and down-stream oil company active in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Baltics, the Middle East and Asia.

It has more than 30 operating subsidiaries located in over 20 countries world-wide and employs about 1 200 people. Puma Energy owns and operates over 12.5 million barrels of refined product storage and supplies in excess of 14 million barrels of products every year to its customers. Since developing a comprehensive independent network of oil products storage and distribution facilities in Latin America, Puma has expanded and in 2000 it came under the full ownership of Trafigura Beheer BV, one of its original founding partners.

click to enlarge PUMA MAN: Maregesi Manyama, managing director of Puma Energy in Namibia, which has taken over the assets of BP Namibia as a going concern