Luanda — Angolan president João Lourenço on Wednesday granted an audience in Luanda to the CEO of the Chinese state-owned company China National Chemical Engineering (CNCE), Weng Gang, to learn about the construction project of Lobito Refinery.

Speaking to the press at the end of the audience, Weng Gang said the meeting discussed mainly the construction project of the Lobito refinery, having guaranteed that the reconstruction and expansion would be concluded before the end of 2026.

The Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, who also attended the meeting, praised the experience of working with CNCE, after it worked on the expansion of the Luanda Refinery to increase petrol production capacity.

According to the minister, technicians of the state-owned oil company Sonangol had the opportunity to visit the refineries built by the CNCE and assess the quality of the works, being the short time the construction company had to conclude them, a major advantage over the competition.

The minister praised the amount of experience the company has in building petrochemical refining projects.

Diamantino Azevedo said the company was chosen to build the Lobito Refinery, which is why its CEO is in Luanda to sign the construction contract with Sonangol on Friday.

The minister explained that this is a project that has been kept on hold for some time and that Sonangol carried out a study to lower the cost of the work setting at 6 billion US dollars. The study was carried out by an American company that had initially designed the project.

Lobito Refinery is expected to have the capacity to process 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day. MR/ADR/AMP