CT to become energy logistics centre

Cape Town was a big winner when logistics major DHL announced last Thursday that the company’s oil and energy expansion strategy into Africa would start in the Mother City. Amadou Diallo, the chief executive of Africa and South Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding, said that safety and a wellrun city had ensured that “everybody’s coming into Cape Town”. Diallo announced plans to launch four Oil & Energy Centers of Excellence across Africa over the next 12 months – in Cape Town, Luanda (Angola), Accra, Ghana (for West Africa) and Mombasa, Kenya (for East Africa). The centre will offer customers specialist expertise in oil and energy logistics, as the continent is poised to become a global energy powerhouse. He said that security concerns in Somalia had forced the company to look at alternative routes to travel to North and East Africa. “There’s political stability here and no electricity shortages in Cape Town. It is the best place in Africa.” Diallo said with 10% of the world’s oil in Africa, a swiftly growing economy, businesses and investors around the world were tapping into the potential of Africa. Sam Ang, the DHL Global Forwarding chief executive officer for South East Asia, said oil and energy were priority sectors for the company on the African continent as part of its future plans. The other two key areas prioritised are Life Science and Technology. By the second quarter of 2012, DHL’s Oil and Energy Centers of Excellence in Africa will comprise a team of industry professionals who will consult with, design and implement logistics solutions for oil and energy companies that will allow them to overcome common sector- and region-specific challenges relating to, amongst other factors, diverse customs environments as well as remote production locations.