Luanda — The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, on Thursday inaugurated the new Luanda Refinery complex, which will produce more than 1 million litres of gasoline per day.
Besides improving the quality of gasoline, the new complex will make it possible to increase production capacity four times over, or from 395,000 litres per day to 1.580 million litres per day, which will contribute to a reduction of around 15 percent in annual fuel imports.
Valued at USD 235 million, the project started in June 2019 and had the technical support of the Italian oil company ENI, in the supervision of engineering and construction. More than a thousand jobs have been created.
The complex brings operational and environmental benefits such as the increase of butane gas production, reduction of gas emissions by using the hydrogen produced in the new unit, for electricity generation in the combined cycle plant and steam generation.
The new gasoline production complex at the Luanda Refinery will help the country to increase national production of oil derivatives and, consequently, make fuel imports decrease.
Angola imports about 80 percent of oil derivatives due to a lack of internal refining capacity. Apart from modernising and optimising the Luanda refinery, new refineries are being built in Cabinda, Soyo and Lobito to reverse this situation.
Background
The first facilities for oil refining were inaugurated in May 1958, in an area of 170 hectares, in the district that would come to be called Petrangol.
Companhia de Petróleos de Angola, a subsidiary of the Belgian Petrangol Group, was then established. At the time, the refinery had an installed capacity of 100,000 metric tons per year, with the aim of supplying the Angolan fuel market.
On 27 October 1982, the then Petrangol, owner of the Luanda refinery, was acquired by the Fina oil company and was renamed Fina Petróleos de Angola.
In 2012, the Luanda refinery became a subsidiary of Sonangol EP, which became Sonangol EP's subsidiary and sub-holding of the refining business.
