Since the 2015 gas discoveries, the Ministry of Oil has increased calls for international experts to advise it on different aspects of Mauritania's future strategy. French groups have carved out the lion's share of this market.

The galaxy of French consultants that surrounds the Mauritanian Oil Ministry, headed by Abdessalem Ould Mohamed Saleh - a former executive of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - grew a little more at the end of November. The French design office specializing in training and human resources Sfere has been awarded a contract worth 210,000 euros, which will be dedicated to carrying out a feasibility study for the creation of an institute specializing in petroleum technologies and gas in Mauritania.

World Bank support

The contract is financed by the World Bank, which has provided the country with a $20 million loan as part of a Gas Project Negotiation Support Project (PADG) project. Very present in Africa in consulting to government institutions, Sfere is led by the French engineer Patrice Laurens.

The company thus joins the list of French consulting firms well established in Nouakchott. One of the most influential is the Parisian Okan, whose consultant Amaury de Féligonde supports the Mauritanian government on the sensitive issue of local content, i.e. the share that will be reserved for local companies in the gas industry. This sector has been developing since 2015 thanks to the discoveries made on the cross-border deposit with Senegal Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA), developed by the oil companies BP and Kosmos Energy.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the change in BP's strategy, which wants to reduce its carbon footprint and invest in renewable energies, should however significantly delay the launch of production, now scheduled for 2025 (Africa Intelligence of 09/12/20).

IFP storms Nouakchott

Another French company to gravitate around Minister Saleh: the French Institute of Petroleum and New Energies (IFPEN) and its training subsidiary IFP Training, responsible in early 2020 for providing training to the teams of the Ministry of Oil relating to the negotiations of gas projects (Africa Intelligence of 18/02/20). IFP also has strong links with the Ecole supérieure polytechnique de Nouakchott, whose students should receive engineering training supported by IFP Training.

One of the largest consulting contracts awarded under the PADG went to the joint venture Tractebel (Belgium) - De Gaulle Fleurance & associés (France), which last March won a fifteen-month contract for the analysis of LNG marketing worldwide, EUR 785 000. The Franco-Belgian joint venture has replaced lyon-based (France)-based enercap, which was initially chosen to advise Mauritania in the LNG market analysis.