Africa Oil & Gas: Sonangol aims two more refineries within four years

Angolan state oil company Sonangol plans to complete the Lobito refinery and build the Cabinda refinery within four years, the chairman of the state-owned oil company said on Wednesday in Luanda.

Carlos Saturnino also said that the estimated time period in the proposals submitted by the companies indicates the completion of the smaller Cabinda refinery within two years, and four to five years to finish construction of the Lobito refinery, whose construction began in 2013.

The start-up of the two new refineries will give Angola three refining units, and the Luanda refinery, built in the 1950’s, has a production capacity that covers just 20% of the country’s fuel needs.

On 10 February, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, set up a working group to assess the financial, economic and technical proposals for investment and construction of new refineries in the country. Sonangol informed that 63 proposals were received from domestic and foreign companies, of which 40 were excluded due to not being aligned with the government’s objectives.

Of the 23 proposals analysed, six are for the Lobito refinery and four for the Cabinda refinery, with the remaining 13 referring to the Luanda refinery.

Saturnino also said that Sonangol pays US$45 million a month to the Angolan state under the US$1.3 billion tax debt amortisation programme.

Sonangol’s liabilities reached US$9.8 billion at the end of 2016, which included payments to suppliers and taxes, which in 2017 was reduced to US$4.8 million, following capitalisation by the State.

Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer, after Nigeria, with an average production of 1.6 million barrels per day.source: Macauhub