14 February 2009
Lobito — The Angolan Oil minister, Botelho de Vasconcelos, said Thursday in Lobito, central Benguela Province, that the construction of Lobito oil refinery will cost USD 08 billion and that it is one of the strategies for re-launching the country's economy in the coming years.
Addressing a meeting in which the management of the project presented details of that economic unit, Botelho Vasconcelos stressed that this will stop the current imports of oil by-products.
According to the minister, the refinery will enable the financial resources used by the government in the purchase of oil by-products, to be invested in other socio-economic sectors of the country.
"The country now imports over 70 percent of fuel and other crude oil by-products and with the refinery in operation, this process will come to an end," revealed the minister.
Another advantage of the project, according to Botelho de Vasconcelos, is that it will employ hundreds of youths, thus creating better living conditions for the people.
The refinery will employ, in its implementing phase, some eight thousand young people.
According to the data released by the managing board of the project, the refinery will transform, in a first phase, 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day, out of the 200,000 that will be processed by the industry until the consolidation phase.
The minister also said that the project of the refinery was designed taking into account the domestic market and that of the southern region, which will consume about 90 percent of the production and the export of other 10% to countries outside the region.
The works, which started last January, will last about 40 months.
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