Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil company, opened an international tender for the Lobito oil refinery project, with a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, last Friday. Interested parties are welcome to participate in the refinery’s finance as well as its construction.

This is a positive start toward relieving the public purse of the cost of Angolan petroleum product imports. As part of its national development plan 2018-2022, the country has committed to reducing imports of petroleum products, which have a detrimental influence on exchange rate volatility and reserves.], to the barest minimum.

The Minister of Petroleum, Diamantino Azevedo, stated during the tender ceremony that the project is of particular importance to Angola. The country has devised several tax incentives for the organisation that will be in charge of the pilotage to encourage investment and assure the project’s economic sustainability. During the construction phase, he claims the project will generate up to 8,000 jobs.

This refinery’s construction has been in the works for several years. Angola imports about 80% of its petroleum products. The Luanda refinery, with a capacity of 65,000 barrels per day, already exists in the country.

The project, as well as other facilities in the country, such as the Barra do Dande terminal and the Soyo refinery, have already piqued the interest of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

Also, Zambia is projected to benefit from the new refinery’s petroleum products. For this reason, a pipeline construction project is being created.