By Ajong Mbapndah L
For more than four decades, Dietsmann has helped keep some of Africa’s most important oil, gas and power facilities operating safely and efficiently. As the continent seeks to maximize production from existing assets while bringing new projects online, the company is positioning its expertise in operations, maintenance and workforce development at the center of Africa’s energy conversation.
That commitment will be on display when Dietsmann participates as a Bronze Sponsor at African Energy Week (AEW) 2026, taking place in Cape Town from October 12-16. The company’s participation follows its recent membership in the African Energy Chamber (AEC), reinforcing a long-standing commitment to supporting Africa’s energy industry beyond project execution and through greater engagement on investment, policy and industry development.
“We have been in Africa for decades, and today we want to contribute even more actively to how the continent’s energy future is built,” Dietsmann CEO Cesare Canevese said following the company’s decision to join the African Energy Chamber earlier this year.
Dietsmann has built one of the continent’s strongest operations and maintenance portfolios, supporting oil, gas and power facilities across Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Libya, Uganda, South Sudan and the Republic of Congo. Its work spans offshore production platforms, processing facilities and power generation assets where operational reliability remains essential to energy security and project profitability.
Among its major African operations is the maintenance of TotalEnergies’ offshore production facilities in the Republic of Congo, alongside services for the 484 MW Centrale Électrique du Congo, one of the country’s principal gas-fired power stations. In Angola, the company’s Sonadiets joint venture with Sonangol remains one of the earliest partnerships between an African national oil company and an international maintenance specialist.
As African producers place greater emphasis on improving efficiency and extending the life of mature assets, operations and maintenance companies have assumed an increasingly strategic role across the industry.
Dietsmann has complemented its field experience with continued investment in advanced maintenance technologies, including autonomous inspection robots developed with robotics specialist Taurob for hazardous operating environments. The company is also deploying drone inspections and predictive maintenance systems to improve asset reliability while reducing downtime.
For Canevese, however, technology is only one part of the equation.
“We do not digitalize for the sake of it—we digitalize where it creates value,” he said in a recent interview with Pan African Visions. “What differentiates us is not what we say—it is what we deliver, year after year.”
Equally important is the company’s investment in African talent.Since the early 2000s, Dietsmann has established training programs across its host countries, developing national technical expertise through dedicated training centers and on-the-job learning. Today, local professionals occupy many operational and leadership positions across the company’s African business.
“Local content is not a box to tick—it is the foundation of our model,” Canevese said. “In many countries, the majority of our workforce is local, including in key roles. This is something we have built over time through training, trust and continuity. For me, success is when a local team can run operations independently—and run them well.”
The company’s approach aligns closely with priorities increasingly championed across the continent, where governments are seeking to ensure that energy investment translates into long-term skills development, employment and sustainable industrial growth.
For the African Energy Chamber, companies with long-term operational experience remain indispensable to Africa’s energy ambitions.
“Dietsmann knows that reliable operations are the foundation of energy security,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “Pairing decades of field experience with new technology and local skills development is how Africa keeps its existing assets producing for longer.”
Ayuk has consistently emphasized that Africa’s energy future depends on partners prepared to invest for the long term while supporting local capacity and operational excellence.
“Africa needs partners who are invested for the long term—companies that understand our realities and are committed to building capacity locally,” he said previously, describing the type of partnerships needed to strengthen the continent’s energy industry.
African Energy Week has become one of the continent’s leading platforms for dialogue between governments, investors, operators and service providers. For Dietsmann, AEW 2026 offers an opportunity to engage industry leaders on the operational challenges facing Africa’s expanding energy sector while highlighting the role of maintenance, workforce development and technology in improving performance across existing and future projects.
Looking ahead, Canevese believes Africa will remain one of the world’s most significant energy growth markets, particularly as investment accelerates across natural gas, LNG, power generation and related infrastructure.
“The real opportunity is to build reliable, efficient and locally anchored operations over the long term,” he said. “That is where Dietsmann is positioned—and where we intend to continue making a difference.”
As delegates gather in Cape Town this October, Dietsmann’s participation will reinforce a message that has guided the company’s African business for decades: strong operations, skilled local workforces and dependable maintenance remain fundamental to delivering the energy security, investment confidence and long-term value the continent seeks.
