2001

In 2001, CIS expanded into Chad by signing a record contract with the KBR consortium on the site of Africa’s largest oil reserve. The contract involved management of the life base located on the construction site of a refining center for oil major ExxonMobil, at Komé, in the south of the country.

As well as managing the camps of two pumping stations and the two living bases that were following the construction of the pipeline between Komé and the oil port of Kribi, in southern Cameroon. That’s the equivalent of 800 people to be housed and fed on a daily basis, while crossing the jungle over a distance of more than 1,000 km!

To monitor the progress of pipeline construction, the site moved into the jungle every fortnight.

“Signing this contract was a triple feat: CIS was not present in Africa, CIS had never worked with ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company, and the contract amounted to the company’s annual sales,” explains Julien Salas, CIS Deputy Managing Director.

A few years later, CIS won the major international tender launched by ExxonMobil to take over operations once this major onshore oilfield went into production. CIS was tasked with housing and feeding over 2,000 people a day.

In addition to the catering, hotel and related services that make up its core business, the Group is committed to concrete sustainable development initiatives, setting up an agricultural cooperative and an industrial butchery with a cattle farm and slaughterhouse in association with the local population.

CIS set up an agricultural farm in the village of Moundou with an agricultural engineer, who was responsible for importing hitherto unknown seeds such as leeks and eggplants, as well as training villagers in the cultivation of these crops.

In 2006, Régis Arnoux was made a Knight of the National Order of Chad by decree of President Idriss Déby.