The coming year is set to be very busy for the team at Aminex.

The Uk based exploration and production company, Aminex, is now looking to further accelerate its drilling operations in Tanzania.

As we speak, the company is working with relevant authorities in Tanzania to secure permits and keep within all regulations. This is clearing the way for drilling work to start as soon as possible.

I have been following Aminex for a while now and tracking their progress in Tanzania.

In it latest announcement, the company says that it has submitted the 2020 Work Programmes and Budgets for all licences to the Tanzania authorities for approval.

The submitted programme including the cost  for drilling Chikumbi-1 well and the acquisition of 2D and 3D surveys over the Mtwara license, all for US$40 million.

In addition Aminex’s joint venture partner, Ara Petroleum Tanzania limited, has agreed to accelerate pre-drilling activities of Chikumbi-1 well.

The activities including construction of an access road to the Chikumbi-1 wellsite, construction of the drilling surface location, ordering of select long lead items, and to progress permitting activities.

With relatively stable oil price and strong business partnerships, suffice me to say that the time is really now for Aminex.

Tanzania Is open for Business.

It’s actually pretty amazing to watch how quickly the Tanzanian government is working with the majors oil and gas companies in joint ventures to tap into these oil and gas resources. Because they know that it is prosperity for its people.

Recently , the company says that it continues to see positive progress in Tanzania.

The main reason for the company to become confident and stay positive are increasing gas demand in Tanzania, business environment and the approaching completion of the government’s review of production sharing agreements. All this encourage companies to push their drilling programs.

What does all these mean and to equipment providers and service companies?

If you have solutions for the oil and gas , this is good time to present your solution directly to the oil and gas clients in East Africa or indirectly by engaging subcontracting opportunities.

And if you can show them how you can offer partnerships rather than procuring goods and services, there is always a chance for new vendors to enter the market or bid the latest tender.

Like any other industry, the oil and gas energy sector has its own extreme ups and downs.

So, developing a solid business and marketing plan will do more to assure your long-term success. It will help you think honestly about various parts of your business and save you enormous time and energy.

When you are developing your marketing strategies, you need to consider factors that differentiate your business from others.

After having conversations with teams who are service providers in the oil and gas industry, I put together key points that will help differentiate your business.

1. Don’t rely on referral marketing on new business:

Relationships are still important in the oil and gas industry. People in this industry prefer to do business with people they trust and like.

But in today’s oil and gas world, scouting, word of mouth and relationship are not enough. Oil and gas clients need facts to justify purchase for their business. So, build relationships by focusing on understanding your customer’s business and market.

2. Complying with industry requirements keeps you competitive.

By highlighting some advantages such as how you comply with trade regulations, local content requirements and licences, you will be more competitive in the market place.

3. Have targeted prospects and fully utilise data and information providers.

Grabbing opportunities in the highly competitive oil and gas industry, you need to allocate your marketing efforts towards companies with highest demands of your services.

You can achieve this by utilising information providers who will help you to identify high quality leads.

4. Multi-tasking is crucial to survive in the industry.

The oil and gas industry is volatile and affected by oil price fluctuation in the global market. So, diversification is essential to surviving during the bad days in the industry.

Prepare to reach all three sub-sectors of the energy market: from upstream E&P, through storage and transportation to downstream utilization.

5. Understand why you lost a bid.

If you bid unsuccessfully for a contract, it is imperative to ask why you were rejected. This will help resolve your weakness on the next opportunity to bid.

 

Related:How To Target The Best Business Prospects For Submitting Proposal For Services

6. Provide good services on time or earlier.

To survive in this competitive industry, you should provide good services on time. Most of your coming opportunities in this industry will be determined on how you did your last job.

One of the key factors oil and gas companies consider when choosing a vendor is the vendor’s ability to respond quickly. So, do a good job, and they will give you more. Some operations in the oil and gas sector, such as drilling, are _fast-response_ businesses, so delaying, delivering poor supplies or rendering poor supplies will delay and ruin production and hence reduce their profit.

7. Attend all sales meeting prepared.

To increase your chance of success, you should plan and prepare the presentation for your goods and services prior to meeting with industry clients.

That way, you will have a great presentation of your offer and this will make the decision makers have confidence that you are the right person to be given the project.

8. Embrace changes.

Industry regulations may become stricter, so make sure you stay ahead of the changed and regulations in the industry and comply with them.

9. Focus on the highest potential clients

Separating your business in the industry means being more targeted in your approach. You should target and allocate your resources to the business prospects who are likely to demand your services.

10. Find out other projects unrelated to oil and gas in your area.

In your marketing strategy, make a list of the other project that are not related to the oil and gas sector which your business can be part of. If, for instance, you provide maintenance and repair services to the oil and gas companies, power plant projects might also need your services.

11. Monitor regions that are growing to tap into new opportunities.                                                     Keeping track of the growing region like East Africa will help you take advantage of the oil and gas opportunities.

12. Dig deep to understand which companies are likely to have projects and gain insight on the capacity of the projects.

13. Expand your opportunities by entering new markets or establishing your business outside your geographical area.

14. Monitor activities and trends in your targeted region. Identify the kind of oil and gas activities going on in your area.

15. Have an online presence.                                                                                                               Your website is a key part of your marketing tools. After attending a meeting or exchange business cards with professionals at an industry conference, your website is the best place that clients and partners will go to gain high level overview of what you do. So, build a website that will establish your credibility and trust.

16. Learn what your competitors do in the industry and what works well for them.

17. Recruit, recruit, recruit.Always recruit even in the downturn.

The oil and gas sector is a personal contact industry. The sector has also been a word-of-mouth mode of advertising from the beginning.

It also trues that people in this industry prefer to do business with people they like and trust. Further more the best way to have a chance of winning deals in this huge sector is to target and build a relationship of trust with decision-makers.

The simple truth is that scouting, relationship and word of mouth  are not enough these days.

These days buyers in the oil and gas industry are more demanding  when selecting new suppliers. They demand lower costs. They are looking for better result at competitive prices and within a short period of time.

But there is a common misconception when people talk about the need to build a relationship and trust with prospective clients.

Building a relationship based on trust does not mean you should arrange a dinner meeting and have cold beer or wine with clients to get them to do business with you.

In today’s uncertain economy, the company’s decision-makers focus on results. And they want to know the data backed benefits of working with you.

 

Traditionally, energy companies rely heavily on word-of-mouth to source goods and services. But this method is limited and unreliable.

With the price of crude oil is recovering gradually after going through a major slump in 2014-2016.

Oil, gas and energy supply chain and procurement professionals are continuing to review their supplier networks in greater details and evaluate offerings from new suppliers.

Despite an overall reluctancy to invest in new solutions, oil and gas operators and service companies are more likely to switch suppliers, particularly when they  feel the current vendor is adding inferior value.

If you can be completely transparent with them on how you comply with trade regulations and local content requirements  and be willing to offer them partnerships rather than procuring products and services ,there are opportunities for new suppliers to enter the market and bid on latest tenders

 

Visiting oil and gas company offices, have face-to-face meetings with your purchasers and ask the right questions to identify your client’s needs and make your presentation to address your client’s needs. This can be the best way to build trust..

To stand out in this competitive industry, vendors should be well informed about the best business prospects to target across the industry. They also need to able to monitor clients’ activities and what projects they are likely to execute in the future. That can help service providers to act faster and approach them before anyone else.

This can be frustrating, daunting and time-consuming to do this type of research. To save time and effort, work with a reliable partner who can help you monitor the oil and gas company activities in East Africa or Africa at large and receive an update on hot leads that will streamline your business.

I have had an in-depth discussion with some procurement and supply chain managers from oil and gas companies operating in Tanzania. And some of their key problems were to locating and communicating with suppliers of goods and services faster and easier.

Equipment and service providers, however, often struggle  to make themselves  visible to these oil and gas companies.

Therefore, oil and gas companies  and suppliers can’t find and locate each other on time.

That is terrible. Because suppliers are missing out on huge opportunities to increase revenue and grow their business in the energy industry. In turn, energy companies reduce efficiency in their business operations.  Because turnaround time in the procurement increases.

This article explains the limitation of current strategies,  oil and gas companies and vendor use to find and connect each other and expose you to the powerful tool we have in  disposal that will connect oil companies and suppliers faster and easily

1.Via Supplier’s List
Oil and gas companies often keep a suppliers list, and they send bidding invitation to those who are registered in their database as a supplier or vendors. In reality, oil and gas companies are limited to their existing suppliers and are not capturing the cost and schedule benefits that variety and increased competition provide

2.Cold calling

This is another option for vendors to find customers in the oil and gas industry. Cold calling can be done by phone or door-to-door visits. Suppliers would visit oil and gas companies‟ head offices and use their marketing skills to promote the products and services they sell to procurement or supply chain managers. But the associated travel costs and the risk of not connecting with the right point of contact weaken this strategy as well.

3.Via Referral:

The oil and gas industry is considered as the very word of mouth or personal contact industry. So traditionally suppliers and oil companies have relied on word of mouth to locate each other. But this method is unreliable and time-consuming. Finding suppliers through referrals only recycles the vendors within a particular network and does not guarantee that an acceptable vendor will be found for a given project.

Many in the oil and gas industry have realized the limitations of word of mouth sourcing and have turned to conferences and expos to find partners. Industry events are beneficial in that they provide a common meeting place for companies to connect with new and existing partners, but there are significant drawbacks as well. Conferences cost thousands of dollars for exhibitors, travel fees can be substantial and there is no guarantee of new customers after an event.

4.Internet.

The other option oil and gas companies hope to connect and find each other is the internet. Oil and gas companies and suppliers go online to locate each other. They use search engines to google relevant key words to get names, emails or phone numbers. They also use social media networks such as LinkedIn to find each other. The internet can provide a lot of points but the simple truth is that the internet has not built for the energy industry. So most of the information oil and gas professionals are looking for are incomplete. Also, only a few local suppliers have online presences such as websites and social media networks. And those who have, they heavily rely on traditional marketing strategies that have a shorter cycle of influence. As a result, supplier missing out huge business opportunities because are not being noticed by the large oil and gas companies.

Limitation of other methods.

Supplier prequalification requirements:Another supplier sourcing problem is standard and evaluation criteria in finding the right vendors. Licenses, permits, certifications, equipment manpower are important criteria for oil and gas companies. The sad reality is that it takes longer to gather all this information. Consequently, qualified vendors miss out on opportunities simply because oil and gas companies do not have all the information.

Suppliers- buyers relationship. This is a huge challenge. Oil companies want to work with local suppliers effectively. So finding the right point of contact at the right office location is important and finding the project manager or procurement who will put his business name in the vendor’s list is important to suppliers. But this process is often not well organized. And purchasing -related communications between suppliers and vendors get mishandled.

Introducing  online Suppliers directory
Tanzania petroleum has created an online suppliers directory as part of its website to connect suppliers and oil and gas companies.

The low-cost tools is married with social media networks and available 24-7.

The suppliers’ directory enables suppliers and service providers to quickly easily create a business listing to promote their products, services and showcase their companies to oil and gas companies.

Suppliers can distinguish themselves by posting their logos. The online suppliers’ directory allows vendors to write a brief description of their business, posting their contact details including phone number, email address, office locations, and website links.

All suppliers are verified by collecting their detailed information such as the company profile before listed in the directory.

Interested to promote your services and products and be instantly found with buyers in the oil and gas industry. Here is link on the instruction on how to list your business on our online suppliers directory.Click here, Suppliers directory