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Total taps ThreeWays firm for Shs140b logistics tender
Local logistics company ThreeWays Shipping Services Group Ltd is the frontrunner for the $40m (Shs141b) tender to provide intrafield cargo transport, handling and lifting services at French TotalEnergies EP’s Tilenga project.
What you need to know:
The Tilenga project, which comprises 426 oil wells, is in the north of Lake Albert in Nwoya and Buliisa districts
Local logistics company ThreeWays Shipping Services Group Ltd is the frontrunner for the $40m (Shs141b) tender to provide intrafield cargo transport, handling and lifting services at French TotalEnergies EP’s Tilenga project.
The Tilenga project, which comprises 426 oil wells, is in the north of Lake Albert in Nwoya and Buliisa districts.
ThreeWays Shippings Services Group Ltd, according to documents seen by this publication, was evaluated on the company’s price quotation of $36m (Shs126b) to execute the tender.
The tender, first published in the dailies mid-last year, specifically includes supply of well-maintained, road worthy and certified transport equipment with certified drivers, supply of well-maintained pickups with trained and certified drivers, and supply of well-maintained and certified handling and lifting equipment.
The company edged out several companies, including Spedag Interfreight Uganda Ltd, Bollore Transport and Logistics, Globetrotters Ltd, and Bemuga AMT JV, among others.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed the contract has been forwarded to the oil sector regulator, Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), for review and clearance.
The deal will act as a respite for the company, which has during the last years been teetering on the edges of financial implosion, including having been placed under receivership until April 2019.
The company was placed under receivership in early December 2016 but its directors secured a court injunction which offered them reprieve for a few months.
The injunction, documents, show, was extended until January 2018 when the receiver manager was eventually allowed to take over the company.
“Evidence from the management accounts showed that the company’s performance fell significantly during 2017, and that dismal has continued into 2018, and the company is broke,” reads in part a voluminous business recovery analysis report, a copy seen by this newspaper. The business recovery analysis report was conducted by a consulting firm, JSR Consulting Ltd, on assignment by law firm Ligomarc, the receiver, on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank.
Stanchat had advanced a credit facility of $4.8m (about Shs16.8b at current exchange rate), which the company failed to pay.
The bank eventually instructed Ligomarc to recover the money, including recently selling off the company’s land at Namanve Industrial Park to businessmen Omar Mandela.
According to the report, the company’s working capital from 2007-2017 averaged at “negative Shs4.7b and has been getting worse since 2013.”
It remains unclear whether the company has since stabilised financially but the TotalEnergies EP evaluation team, according to insiders, insists that due diligence was undertaken to their satisfaction.
TotalEnergies’s corporate affairs manager Anita Kayongo said at the weekend they cannot comment on the tender in question as it is currently under procurement review process.
ThreeWays Shipping Group Ltd was a dominant player for oil and gas logistics during the last exploration and appraisal phase.
Company’s track record
Documents reveal the company’s glory days were between 2008 and 2013 when, according to financials, the company borrowed and billed in US dollar currency.
In 2013, documents show, the company registered its highest turnover of Shs91b “but has been plummeting since at a rate of 27 percent per anum.”
The doldrums set in motion in 2014 following long drawn-out negotiations between government and the oil companies, first over the commercialisation plan for Uganda’s oil—which was agreed in February that year, issuance of production licences, and route of the proposed crude oil pipeline.
Then came disagreements over sell of Anglo-Irish Tullow Oil’s stake, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Several oil service providers burnt their fingers during this course with among others bank loans. ThreeWays Shipping Group Ltd’s woes further worsened with back-to-back court battles with Stanchat, and telecommunication company, MTN.
While under receivership, according to the document trail seen by this publication, the company executives engaged in back-and-forth discussions with Ligomarc on securing lucrative tenders to pay off their debts and break free.
Early last year, the Uganda Revenue Authority Commissioner general, Mr John Musinguzi, deployed debt collectors to recover Shs619m as taxes from the company using whatever means.
Sources familiar with the matter intimated that the company charted a payment plan for the money in question. The Petroleum Authority of Uganda manager for corporate affairs, Ms Gloria Ssebikari, separately said they “cannot comment on an ongoing contract review, however all approvals are undertaken in line with the legal framework of the sector.”
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