Monitoring and control systems provider Yokogawa has restructured its operations to provide greater support for the company’s Africa-based operations over the past year, Yokogawa South Africa and Yokogawa Africa Anglophone Region (AAR) MD Johan Louw tells Engineering News.

“We moved from a historical European reporting line to a Middle East-based reporting line in April 2013. Yokogawa Middle East incorporated Africa into its portfolio and is now Yokogawa Middle East and Africa,” he says.

Yokogawa Middle East and Africa is responsible for the operational activities of Africa and Yokogawa South Africa reports to Yokogawa’s regional headquarters, in Bahrain, having previously reported to the regional headquarters in the Netherlands.

“The restructuring has enabled Yokogawa to provide improved sales and systems support to our growing African customer base,” states Louw.

Yokogawa South Africa and Yokogawa AAR supports clients based in the AAR, which includes South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Mauritius and Madagascar.

Angolan Opportunities

Louw, who is also the Yokogawa Angola GM, notes that Yokogawa is in the final stages of establishing a 51% locally owned joint venture with an unnamed Angolan company to ensure that the company complies with the State’s requirement of companies servicing the oil and gas industry being 51% Angolan-owned.

The new company should be operational before the end of this year, following the approval from the State-owned Angola National Private Investment Agency.

Yokogawa, which supplies a range of control and instrumentation systems, has been operating in Angola since 2007 and “has a growing client base in the country, specifically in the upstream oil and gas sectors”, Louw says.

“Our products include our Centum range of distributed control systems and our integrated safety controller system Prosafe, both of which improve plant operational availability and efficiencies,” says Louw.

He says the Angolan government is placing significant emphasis on developing its economy by setting greater production targets for oil and gas operations.

“Therefore, our major clients active in Angola, including multinational energy corporations, such as Chevron, Total Exploration & Production and British Petroleum, continued to invest in onshore and offshore production facilities,” highlights Louw, adding that Yokogawa has several service contracts with oil and gas companies in Angola.

Meanwhile, the company established Yokogawa AAR in April 2013 and it is based at Yokogawa South Africa’s headquarters, in Roodepoort, Gauteng, to provide products and solutions for customers. Louw says it has been well received by the market during its first year of operating.

Skills Development

Louw notes that Yokogawa South Africa has been running a one-year internship programme since 2009 for electrical (instrumentation) engineer graduates, with 41 technicians having qualified after completing the programme to date.

Currently, eight South African and two Angolan interns are completing the internship programme.

He explains that interns are exposed to the practical aspects of the instrumentation and control engineering sectors, including the design, modification and commissioning of systems.

“The programme ensures that the interns are ready to start working in the sector once they have completed the programme,” states Louw.

He says Yokogawa takes great pride in this programme, as the graduates play an “integral role” in ensuring that Africa is producing competent engineering staff.