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Petroleum / Mining in Angola

  • W. Africa Crude-Angolan programme emerges

    ANGOLA, 2017/07/18 National firm Sonangol issued its September loading programme on Monday with traders instantly offering cargoes as August cargoes are sold out. * Nigerian September loading programmes are as well expected to emerge this week. * Exports of Angolan crude oil are expected to fall to 50 cargoes in September, down from 54 cargoes in August, a loading plan showed on Monday. * With the emergence of the programme, ExxonMobil instantly offered five cargoes.
  • Africa rejects Europe's 'dirty diesel'

    BOTSWANA, 2017/05/04 Ghana and Nigeria are the first countries to respond to reports of European companies exploiting weak fuel standards in Africa. Stricter limits on the sulfur content of diesel will come into force on July 1. Governments in West Africa are taking action to stop the import of fuel with dangerously high levels of sulfur and other toxins. Much of the so-called "dirty diesel" originates in Europe, according to a report published by Public Eye, a Swiss NGO, last year. The report exposed what Public Eye calls the "illegitimate business" of European oil companies and commodities traders selling low quality fuel to Africa. While European standards prohibit the use of diesel with a sulfur content higher than 10 parts per million (ppm), diesel with as much as 3,000 ppm is regularly exported to Africa.
  • Angola diamond production volume increase slightly in June

    ANGOLA, 2016/07/26 Angola’s Ministry of Geology and Mines has released the diamond production statistics for June which show production reached 760,393 carats, with a price of around US$80.5 million, according to a statement by Angola Press. This represents a 2.28 % increase in production and 5.35 % increase by price compared with the previous month (May 2016), but only a 1.7 % rise in production year-over-year, and a 13.36 % drop in price compared with June 2015.
  • Beyond Commodities: How African Multinationals Are Transforming

    BOTSWANA, 2016/05/11 Oil, gold, diamonds, palm oil, cocoa, timber: raw materials have long been linked to Africa in a lot of businesspeople’s minds. And in fact the continent is highly dependent on commodities: they constitute as much as 95% of some nations’ export revenues, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. But propping a country’s entire economy on commodities is risky business, like building a mountainside home on stilts. You can’t be sure about the weather, or in this case the commodities market. The current free-fall of oil prices to less than $40 a barrel is a glaring example. “The commodities cycle has tanked out,” says Austin Okere, founder of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), a Nigerian emerging multinational financial services company. “And this time it looks additional structural than cyclical, so it’s not a matter of waiting it out. Something has to give.”
  • Norway’s Statoil sells stake in oil block in Angola

    ANGOLA, 2016/03/26 Norwegian oil company Statoil has sold the 20 % share it held in the company responsible for oil production in block 4/05 of the Angolan sea, according to an executive order signed by the Angolan Oil Minister. The document signed by Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos authorises the transfer of Satoil’s interest in the production sharing arrangement on that block, north of Luanda, but does not explain reasons or funds involved in the transaction.
  • Angola joins Nigeria to increase price of oil

    ANGOLA, 2015/12/09 The presidents of Angola and Nigeria have agreed on joint cooperation in seeking to reverse the trend in the price of oil per barrel on world markets, the international press reported. The heads of national of the two major sub-Saharan oil producing nations, José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, held a conference on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the China/Africa Forum. Both presidents said it did not make sense to sell additional oil for less money and called for a new consensus part oil producing nations to increase the price per barrel.
  • Brazilian group Oi may keep stake in Angola’s Unitel

    ANGOLA, 2015/05/20 Brazilian telecommunications group Oi is reassessing the put option on the 25 % stake it holds in Angola’s Unitel, said the group’s chief executive, Bayard Gontijo, speaking to the Reuters news agency. Gontijo said that the stake in the Angolan company remains on the inventory of African assets for sale, but added that the aboard was working on two possible scenarios, one of which is the sale and the other “the resolution of long-standing disputes … in a structure where the shareholder agreement is respected by the parties.”
  • Angola: Kwanza Norte - 200 Hectares of Land Cleared of Mines

    ANGOLA, 2014/12/11 At least two hundred hectares of the perimeter corresponding to next industrial center in the municipality of Lucala, Kwanza Norte province, were officially handed over to the provincial government, Tuesday, next being cleared off landmines. The demining operation, conducted by demining brigade assigned to the north military region of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), lasted nine months and allowed the decommissioning of four anti-tank mines, 124 unexploded ordnances, 110 various ammunition and eight thousand different metals.
  • Angola: Kenya to Rely On Angola in Oil Exploration Field

    ANGOLA, 2014/09/14 Kenya may count on the technical support of the Angolan authorities in the exploration and development of the oil sector. The outgoing ambassador of Kenya to Angola, Peter Gitau, said so Friday in Luanda. The diplomat announced this to the press any minute at this time next the end of an audience the Angolan chief of National, José Eduardo dos Santos, granted to him.
  • The Angola LNG natural gas liquefaction unit is expected to re-launch production only in mid 2015,

    ANGOLA, 2014/05/31 The Angola LNG natural gas liquefaction unit is expected to re-launch production only in mid 2015, said a spokesman for US oil group Chevron. This project, which cost over US$10 billion, has faced huge challenges in loading ships with liquid natural gas (LNG) due to a succession of technical problems, such as a rig sinking, fires, leaks and most recently a broken cable. “Following the investigation of the accident that occurred on 10 April 2014 the company has decided to bring forward a planned halt in operations in order to allow contractor Bechtel to correct the problems and transaction with others related to the unit’s production capacity,” the spokesman said cited by financial news agency Bloomberg.