Angola marks the inauguration of its Cabinda oil refinery today. The Cabinda Oil Refinery will put the country on track to nearly double its capacity and cut expensive imports. This information was reported by Angolan news agency Angop.

After several delays, the Cabinda Oil Refinery finished construction works of the first phase of the industrial unit. Furthermore, the production and sale of fuels is set to commence in around three months.

Location: Malembo Plain, Cabinda Province

Developers: A joint venture between Gemcorp Holdings which holes a 90% stake and Sonangol which holds 10% stake.

Project phases and capacity

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

The initial capacity of 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of diesel and jet fuel represents approximately 10 percent of Angola’s current requirement.

Also, as for the second phase, it will see the import of diesel to ensure alignment with full production capacity, eventually reaching 60,000 bpd. Additionally, this will nearly double the current capacity of 65,000 bpd from the Luanda refinery.

Furthermore, Cabinda refinery is a public-private partnership between UK-based Gemcorp and Sonango, Angola’s state-owned oil company. The two companies share governance under the supervision of Angola’s Ministry of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas.

Construction of the Cabinda Oil Refinery began in 2019 with tree-clearing, earth-moving and demining. Also, the project was a critical step in a country still riddled with landmines from decades of conflict.

Gemcorp completed that work the following year but the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the confounding complexities typical of such projects, led to frequent delays.

Construction of this project created over 3,300 jobs. Most of these jobs most went to Angolans. Furthermore, worker training aims to prepare 5,000 Angolans for refinery-related jobs in mechanics, electrical work, welding and IT.

Phase one of the Cabinda Oil Refinery was backed by multiple African financial institutions. Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) managed to mobilize $335 million and a another $138 million raised through equity sponsors.

The oil refinery project was originally estimated at US$473 million. However, due to Covid-related delays and inflation pushed the cost to more than $500 million as of last October, when inauguration was set for April 2025.

Additionally, funding for the second phase, expected to come online 18 months to two years after phase one, had not been finalised at that time. Also, Gemcorp founder and CEO Atanas Bostandjiev revealed to Reuters that he expected a final decision on that after the plant opened.

Furthermore, the executive stressed the need for local refining, as Angola “imports almost 100 percent of its refined products from Europe.” Those imports amount to over US$2 billion annually. Therefore, this underscores the need for a more efficient, financially sustainable alternative. These alternatives include development of new refineries such as the Lobito refinery.