Regulatory red tape slows down W Africa business

… but volumes remain healthy DELAYS TO a number of oil and gasrelated projects pending regulatory approvals have slowed down project cargo trade to West Africa over the past 12 months – but the market remains healthy, says Albert Pegg, Safmarine’s MPV senior general manager: marketing, who reports strong cargo flows in and out of West Africa. “Volumes out of Europe are also strong, particularly cargo shipped by North European suppliers to the oil and gas industries in the region.” And he believes European knowledge and competence in the North Sea oil and gas sectors is largely responsible for the involvement of these companies, predominantly located in the UK, Norway and France. “They are now applying their expertise to the West African oil field,” he told FTW. “West African mining – especially in Ghana – is proving equally vibrant with business between the US and the gold mines of Ghana particularly strong thanks to major investments in this region. “An additional growth area – and one which has impacted the container shipping market between West Africa and Europe – has been an industry move to bulking cocoa. While this trend may have reduced container volumes on Safmarine’s Europe-West Africa liner trade, it has resulted in growth for Safmarine’s MPV/breakbulk trade,” he said.