Angola’s 30,000-barrel-per-day Cabinda oil refinery, the first built in the country since independence nearly fifty years ago, will begin producing fuel by the end of the year, Oil and Gas Minister Diamantino Azevedo announced on Monday.
The facility will become Angola’s second refinery and is expected to reduce reliance on costly fuel imports as the government moves to phase out subsidies that have already sparked deadly protests.
“Today we can confirm that the Cabinda refinery is entering its decisive phase and that by the end of the year, Angola will have the first commercial derivatives produced at this unit,” Azevedo said during an inauguration ceremony attended by President João Lourenço.
London-based emerging markets investment firm Gemcorp is the project’s largest shareholder, with state-owned Sonangol holding the remaining 10% and supplying crude feedstock, Reuters reported.
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Gemcorp has said the refinery’s first phase will cover 5–10% of Angola’s domestic fuel demand.
Currently, the country imports about 72% of its fuel consumption, some 3.3 million metric tons of refined petroleum products annually, according to Sonangol.
Investment in the first phase has reached between $500 million and $550 million, Gemcorp told Reuters last year, exceeding earlier estimates due to inflation and pandemic-related cost pressures.
A planned second phase will double capacity to 60,000 barrels per day and add a hydrocracking unit to produce diesel and jet fuel.
Azevedo also noted that construction of the proposed 100,000-barrel-per-day Soyo refinery remains under review following challenges faced by the U.S.-led Quanten Consortium, the project’s private developer.
Meanwhile, Angola.
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Earlier this year, Sonangol disclosed it was in talks with Chinese and European banks to close a $4.8 billion funding gap for the Lobito project.
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Image Credit: Energy Capital and Power
