Angola Plans to Open Up Downstream Oil Industry to Investors

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Angola is opening up its downstream-oil industry to private investors to improve competition, Petroleum Minister Diamantino Azevedo said.

The government plans to scrap a law that grants state-owned oil company Sonangol EP a monopoly of the industry, Azevedo said in an interview Thursday in the capital, Luanda. Liberalizing the downstream industry, which includes imports, distribution and storage, may result in “better prices,” he said.

“We already initiated the process of liberalization,” Azevedo said. “What we now intend is to complete the process. We will have a complete liberalization in this segment,” he said, without specifying when the proposal will be submitted to lawmakers.

Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-biggest oil producer, is reorganizing Sonangol to focus the company on petroleum exploration, production, refining and distribution. The government has said it may sell part of the enterprise once the restructuring is completed.

Source: Bloomberg Business News