The world's second largest continent is revealing new reserves of hydrocarbons, providing unparalleled opportunities for developing nations and their infrastructure.

The topsides and jacket for the Hess Elon shallow water platform, located offshore Equatorial Guinea, were designed by Mustang.

As the ancient Roman scholar, Pliny the Elder famously commented, "There is always something new out of Africa."

Indeed there is, with oil reserves being uncovered in several areas of the continent not previously noted for hydrocarbons. One-third of the world's new oil finds since 2000 have been made in Africa, and the lack of exploration in most parts of the continent has provided the exciting prospect that there may be much more yet to be found.

Some African nations, notably Algeria and Nigeria, have been long-term players in the hydrocarbons business. But the major players are continuing to evolve: in 2008, Angola overtook Nigeria as the continent's largest oil producer, pumping some 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd).

It is against this background that Wood Group is increasingly involved in Africa.

One new area of interest is Uganda: "We've been doing some studies for projects there and the next phase will be front-end engineering design (FEED) for a pipeline project for one of our clients," explains Steve Wayman, CEO of Wood Group Kenny, which has significant experience in oil industry engineering design and project management on the continent. "Uganda is very keen to commercially produce its reserves."

In Tunisia, Wood Group Kenny has spent two years working for BG Group on pipeline design and project management on the Hasdrubal onshore gas production facility. "It's a substantial reserve," says Steve, "We're delighted to be on the ground in this part of Africa."

The market for Tunisia's gas is Southern Europe, as is that from neighbouring Algeria where the GALSI project – Gas from Algeria via Sardinia to Italy – will involve construction of three pipelines through rugged seabed conditions.

"We've completed FEED for GALSI and hope to be involved in the execution of the project. They will be very big contracts and the authorities will decide on them sometime this year."

Nigeria is probably the best-known sub-Saharan oil nation and Wood Group Kenny has had a team working as partners of Nigeria's Dover Engineering on FEED for Total's development of the deepwater Egina Field, whose estimated reserves of 550 million barrels of light crude are due to start flowing in 2013.

To ensure its long-term future in Nigeria it's vital, says Steve, that Wood Group Kenny ensures local personnel and materials are used as fully as possible: "We want to build a strong local business with local people, utilising local materials. Not only will this build us the best long-term presence, it will also help to ensure we meet government requirements."

The new jewel in Africa's crown is Angola. "It's a massive market with a lot of growth potential.

"We're in the execution phase of the PSVM (Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte)
development in Block 31. We are working in an integrated team with BP, where they order the equipment based on our jointly developed designs and specifications."

Block 31 is an ultra-deepwater site 100km (62 miles) offshore, where the seabed is 1,750 metres (5,740 feet) down.

Fortunately, weather conditions are generally benign, explains Steve. "But there are other issues, such as the remoteness of the site and the continuing development of the infrastructure, although Angola is building a lot in connection with onshore fabrication."

Angola is also the location of several contracts handled by ODL, particularly with operator Angola LNG. These include the creation of electronic operating manuals, sourcing spare parts for the LNG plant and conducting reliability centred maintenance.

One of these activities involves critical assessment of equipment. "Based on design, we rank all their equipment on its likelihood of failure and the consequences of such a failure," explains Tim Biernacki, ODL's operations director. "We then make recommendations and offer solutions, if required."

ODL is also supporting BP Angola with a database project: "We standardize and populate information in their database such as vendors, parts manufacturers or engineering data," he continues.

Tim also points to ongoing support contracts for the West African Pipeline Company, which is building a gas pipeline from Nigeria west through Benin and Togo to Ghana. Glen Makinson, senior manager with Wood Group Production Services, is the manager responsible for the Ghanaian project. "It's a 700km (434 miles) offshore pipeline that originates just outside Lagos and is connected to Benin and Togo before it reaches Ghana.

"For 18 months we've been training more than 70 staff from the four countries to be operators of the pipeline. They will be undertaking maintenance, pipeline operation, taking measurements and metering."