About Us

Alfagates is part of the OSG group of companies.  We provide commercial support services for international investors, organisations and contractors in challenging environments.  We supply the local content, local infrastructure, logistics and manpower to allow market entrants to focus on their core activities.  Local knowledge enables us to respond and adapt quickly and correctly.  We collaborate with clients to understand their current and plan their future needs.

Clients include UN, host and foreign country Governments, NGOs and NFPs, and the international and national commercial sector.

Our work is conducted with clarity and to our clients’ standards of excellence.  Emphasis is placed on social enterprise through maximization of local content, and by managing cultural and ethnic sensitivities.

Our Development

Our first business was reconstruction sub-contracting in immediate post-war Iraq, in 2004.   We were subsequently selected to be a prime contractor to the US Government Departments of Defense and State. Success came quickly, as measured by contract extensions, repeat business and new clients, all by word of mouth.  From the outset our criteria were to provide an overriding attention to detail and quality, and a proactive and sustainable approach to getting results for our paymasters and all other stakeholders.  These criteria continue to be relevant in our selection process, whether for staff or contractors.

Reconstruction contracting led to technical services support and project management for foreign Governments, supra-nationals, strategic investors and the NGO/NFP sector. We contracted to USAID, UNAMI, the Governments of Japan, Australia, Denmark and Iraq, and the commercial sector.

Our field operations have focused on the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

We have developed expertise in natural resources dominated economies, specifically those with massive geo-political, logistics and financial challenges.  We count amongst our clients Shell, BP, Exxon, Chevron, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Halliburton and many other International Oil Companies, Drilling Contractors and Service Companies, providing multiple in country support services including project logistics, manpower services, facilities management, civil engineering, construction, agency, procurement and soft services.

We have gained renewable energy experience for which we supply in country project management and oversight services. 

We operate as consultant, contractor, principal, agent or joint venture partner.

Alfagates has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact since 2010. This underpins and informs our ethical approach to doing business.

Our people are suitably experienced and from diverse backgrounds.  We are a privately held corporation and retain the same thirst to deliver quality which triggered our beginning.

Our Services

Warehousing and Supply Bases

We supply and operate warehousing, offices and supply bases across multiple industrial sectors.  Operations may include security services (CCTV, lighting, fencing, access control, manned guarding, inventory control, alarms, planning and emergency response), facilities management (to include power generation, water, waste disposal, first aid, fire services, security, real estate management), built environment management (small works civil engineering and construction, maximising the utilisation of outside areas), and life support services (accommodation, food, leisure, transport).

Office, branch management and personnel

We supply serviced and dedicated offices, and individual staff or an entire complement of staff to include business development, quality control, banking, payroll, accounts and budgeting.  We can offer our clients’ products and services under our name, to include operations, payroll management, payment of taxes and all registrations and licences.

Logistics

We conduct freight forwarding within and across borders.  This typically involves us connecting with each client’s international freight forwarder in the end to end management of clients’ goods.  We can become the consignee, handle customs clearances, duty and duty deferment, organise and manage documentation, and negotiate with the destination country to enable sensitive and dangerous cargo.   We specialise in project logistics, and are integral to the implementation of our clients’ plans.  This may require negotiations at senior government level, as well as practical field work requiring the co-operation and expertise of local people, construction, accommodation and transport.

Civil engineering and construction

We design, engineer and construct to international standards within local environments.  We report with clarity, deliver within agreed timelines and to set budgets, with the correct quality controls and assurances combining local and international sign offs.

Personnel support

We offer up to the full range of life support services which can include advice and management of in-country security, accommodation services whether in permanent or temporary accommodation, pastoral care, medical, and local transport solutions.

Project management and consulting

We assess market entry opportunities, identify potential partners, suppliers and other local stakeholders, conduct pre-entry budgeting and planning, arrange and manage banking and cash movement, and shortlist local professional advisers.  We manage logistics projects.  We develop contingency plans.  We assist with government and community relations, and can maintain and develop commercial relationships to maximise business continuation, and to protect clients’ assets and reputations.

Representation and agencies

We ensure our clients’ compliance, execution and marketing are genuinely converged.  We deliver our clients’ aims, which can enable increased sales, tight inventory management, quality assurance, as well as business intelligence and market feedback.

Renewable energy

We provide renewable energy facilitation.  Our services include feasibility assessments, project assembly, fund sourcing, project management, operations and maintenance.

Case Studies

Canine security deterrent

Following the US invasion of Iraq a “ring of steel” was set up around the main seat of government – the US led Coalition Government – in Baghdad.  This, the so called “green zone” area, contained many of the government buildings spread over 10 square kilometers in the city centre, contained thousands of local residents, and thousands more government workers and contractors who had to commute.  Several entrance points were created, which became choke points and natural places for dissident attacks.

Proposition: Alfagates proposed that the US Department of Defense adopted canine security to augment and speed up the searching of vehicles and personnel entering the zone as a means of improving safety and productivity.

Solution: This was adopted to great effect, with a corresponding reduction in attacks to the extent that no personnel were injured at the chokepoints staffed by canine security from that point onwards.

Legacy: Explosive Detection Dogs have become an integrated component of physical security solutions, globally.

Demining

We realised that there was insufficient education about demining and a lack of actual mine clearance operations being undertaken in Iraq.  Anyone looking at a map of Iraq’s minefields and remnants of war would be astonished that it was possible to move around, almost anywhere, but especially near international and domestic borders, without being blown up.  There was a dangerous shortage of humanitarian deminers in Iraq.

Action taken: We supplied demining trainers and a MDD (Mine Detection Dog) kennel master to Iraq’s national demining NGO, IMCO (Iraq Mine and UXO Clearance Organization), without charge.

Value created: IMCO gained the credentials to manage demining programmes and was awarded contracts, parts of some of which were subcontracted to commercial contractors such as our demining business, Babylon Gold.  This proved to be a virtuous circle and resulted in our demining operations being promoted within various US Government agencies and throughout RONCO Consulting Corporation, which held the overarching US Government’s Department of State contract in Iraq, and which engaged both IMCO and Babylon Gold.

Weatherford

Weatherford had been awarded two contracts to drill oil wells for Gulf Keystone Petroleum and Korean National Oil Company in Kurdistan but had no infrastructure in country.  The territories in which they were to drill were mountainous, with little road infrastructure, and only basic local services and support.  Alfagates had recently formed a joint venture with Pentagon Freight Services which enabled it to arrange the importation of all goods, organise convoys of some 200 articulated and specialist handling vehicles per oil rig (initially 3 rigs), gaining the support of local communities for interim logistics, labour, and communications.  Alfagates surveyed the public roads, managed street repairs, and coordinated road widening and telegraph wire raising with the local authorities.  Alfagates also surveyed and was architect for new mountain and flood plain access road construction.

Legacy: our public and community relations programmes resulted in enduring positive impact within the local communities for Weatherford.

Prime Natural Resources

Prime Natural Resources was planning to operate in territory being disputed between Kurd, Arab and Turkmen.  Its private security company (a political alliance of former US Navy SEALs and a local family) was effectively barred from access by the threat of attack.  Prime’s staff and potential suppliers were unable to visit the site without security.  Their project was failing. 

Action taken: Alfagates negotiated with the local political leaders and Government officers, gained concessions for Prime, created non-contentious supply routes for suppliers and provided virtual security for all suppliers.  The project was able to be undertaken.

Schlumberger Logistics Base

Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company, needed a logistics base in Erbil, Kurdistan.  Their requirement was to lease a fully developed site which included covered warehouses, hard standing outside, radioactive bunkers, travelling cranes, secure perimeter and lighting suitable for 24/7 operations.  Alfagates adopted a BOOT (build, own, operate, transfer) model, which was the start of a sensitive series of negotiations with local landlords and the Government to ensure that Schlumberger would be protected during their tenure, and permitted to import and store restricted and hazardous items.  This was successful and subsequently the base expanded from an initial 50,000 sqm to over 120,000 sqm.

Corporate Information

In 2017 Alfagates’ business and assets were merged with the OSG group of companies.