Angolan Crude oil exports represent 90 % of production

01-05-2008

Angola, the second largest oil producer in  Africa, after Nigeria, currently exports over 90 percent of its crude oil, Angolan oil minister, Desidério Costa, said in Luanda Thursday.

In order to change this situation, the minister said that activities were underway to implement the project for a new refinery, to be located in Lobito, Benguela province.

Control of the Luanda refinery was passed on to the Angolan state in 2007 via the acquisition of a majority stake in Fina Petróleos de Angola.

On the Angola LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) project, the initial value of which was estimated to be US$4 billion, the oil minister noted that the signing, in December 2007, of the investment contract created the conditions to go ahead with a project that should contribute to the creation of a the Industrial Petrochemical Hub in Zaire province.

According to Costa, due to increased oil production in the country, Angola has taken on an increasingly important role in the context of oil producing and exporting countries, which led the government to join OPEC.

For 2007, the country’s oil sector forecast production of 625.708 million barrels of crude oil, and over US$10 million invested to support this production.

Production figures for 2007 outlined that by October 31 production totaled 509 million barrels of crude oil.