China National Chemical Engineering has signed a memorandum of understanding with Angola’s national oil company Sonangol for the construction of a crude oil refinery at Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast.
Financing will now be raised for the project with a potential construction contract going to the state-owned Chinese company.
According to a report in Energy, Capital & Power, the memorandum was signed in Beijing by Sonangol chairman Gaspar Martins on June 6, in the presence of Angola’s resources minister Diamantino Azevedo and Paulino Jerónimo, head of the African country’s National Oil and Gas Agency.
[See more: Construction gets underway at Angola’s massive hydropower project]
The refinery is expected to begin operations in 2026 and will have the capacity to produce up to 200,000 barrels of refined crude per day (bpd).
The report says that Angola is additionally building two more refineries – at Soyo (with a production capacity of up to 100,000 bpd), and at Cabinda (producing 60,000 bpd).
Angola is currently collaborating with Chinese enterprises on a number of key infrastructural projects, including the new international airport in Luanda, the Caculo-Cabaça hydroelectric plant and the new port of Caio in Cabinda.
