Started with Gulf Oil, and after the merger, became Chevron. This company operates in Angola over 50 years now. Chevron’s branch in Angola is called (CABGOC). Most of national employees are local (Cabinda) and few are from Luanda.
In 1993 Chevron built a housing compound in Cabinda Angola. 45 homes in phase one and 25 in phase 2.
Initially, this compound was intended to re-located senior employees from Luanda to minimize the commuting costs. Those rejected the relocation plan, and company re-assigned those homes to local (Cabinda) senior employees.
The agreement was for the employees to repay these residents back to company in 10 years. Once the repayment is complete, the home titles are converted to tenant.
The following plants were built at USA standards without any local advice and/or local consultant. Nice equipment but requires a competent expertise to maintain:
1. Sewage plant
2. Water treating plant
3. Electricity Plant
4. Buck up generators
5. General common areas
A similar compound was built in Luanda couple of years later. Company learned from the mistakes made in Cabinda, so this compound was designed using the most updated has local standards.
The agreement with company was only for the homes. Nothing was agreed regarding the maintenance post payment period regarding above common equipment. Employees/tenants were paying a fee to company to maintain that equipment.
The payment of those homes is complete, with the tittles transfer process in progress. Chevron has now notified the tenant that they need to be ready to take over with responsibility of the compound as of 1 November 2013.
The tenants are fine to handle their individual residents, but not yet ready to take responsibility on any common component listed above. Tenants need form a team (ees.. rep and tenant’s reps) for at least 1 year transition period to focus on:
1. Alternatives that may lead to current system (USA standards)
a. inspect reliability of current equipment (listed above) and or
b. Replace of fix all the equipment prior to transitioning to tenants
2. Alternatives for possible conversion to Angolan standards
Lack of negotiation on this direction, will lead to environment impact, because pumps in the sewage plant can’t spot for couple of hours.
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