Panalpina wins large five-year contract with oil and gas major for Iraqi project

Panalpina has gained its largest award with a specific oil and gas major to date. The company was awarded with a long-term contract to manage transportation for a gas project in Iraq. The contract will run over a minimum of five years and involve high air and LCL (less than container load) ocean freight volumes. Work has already begun and besides transport Panalpina will also provide customs clearance, light warehousing, full order management and in-house staffing for the customer. Additionally, Panalpina will handle ad hoc air and ocean chartering for this project.

Panalpina has worked with the customer since 2010 in the USA and over the last seven years has developed activities with several divisions and geographies, which now also include Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Morocco. In 2015, Panalpina and the customer developed an automated order management system in the USA, and building on this expertise Panalpina will expand the value offering to the project in Iraq throughout the duration of the contract.

Another critical factor for winning this new business was the fact that Panalpina fosters local expertise in a key country such as Iraq, meaning that the company employs a local workforce instead of an expat workforce. This showcased Panalpina’s commitment to continue developing its resources and expertise with local labor in the same way as the customer does. The customer was also impressed by Panalpina’s strong commitment to health, quality, safety and environment as well as ethics and compliance.