Page 14 - DMEA Week 36 2021

DMEA TERMINALS & SHIPPING DMEA

Sonangol signs three contracts

for Barro do Dando fuel terminal

AFRICA ANGOLA’S national oil company (NOC) When finished, the Barro do Dande terminal
Sonangol reported last week that it had finalised will serve as a point of entry for petroleum prod-
several contracts related to the planned con- uct deliveries to Angola.
struction of a petroleum product import termi- It will be able to store 580,000 cubic metres
nal at Barro do Dande, about 60 km north of the of motor fuels (gasoline and diesel) as well as
capital Luanda. 102,000 cubic metres of LPG. The project may
In a statement, Sonangol said it had signed create as many as 3,500 new jobs during the con-
three new contracts, including a contract with struction stage.
OECI, the international arm of the Brazilian Sonangol has said that the terminal will be
construction giant OEC (formerly known as built in several phases, with the first phase due
Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção) for engi- to come online before the end of 2022. OECI, for
neering, procurement, construction and com- its part, said it expected to begin construction
missioning (EPCC) services. The NOC also before the end of September.
signed two contracts with local firms – one with
DAR Angola for supervision of the terminal pro- LPG plant
ject and another with SOAPRO for an environ- In related news, a Sonangol representative
mental impact assessment (EIA). revealed last week that the company intended
As of press time, Sonangol had not revealed to build a LPG plant adjacent to the Barro do
the value of the contracts. It did stress, though, Dande terminal.
that it had chosen the three contractors in public Manuel de Barros, the executive commit-
tenders. tee chairman of the NOC’s gas and renewable
OECI confirmed the NOC’s statement, say- energy division, told Rádio Nacional de Angola
ing in a press release last week that it had won the (RNA) that the project would significantly
contract through a competitive bidding process. expand the country’s LPG production capacity.
It noted that it had been one of nine international He indicated that the new facility would be able
companies to submit offers for the EPCC con- to produce about twice as much as Sonangol’s
tract and attributed its success to its own exten- existing LPG plant at the Carlos Pinta Nogueira
sive experience in similar projects. complex in Luanda.
The project has been the subject of some con- De Barros did not say when construction was
troversy in the past, as it was originally assigned slated to begin or how much the project would
to a businessman with ties to Isabel dos Santos, cost. He did state, though, that the LPG plant was
the daughter of Angola’s former president Jose anticipated to remain in operation for 30 years.
Eduardo dos Santos. The facility will initially serve Angola’s
Isabel dos Santos, one of the richest women in domestic fuel markets and may expand later
Africa, is widely believed to have used her fam- into neighbouring countries, he added. “We
ily connections to secure the chairmanship of have ambitions of pursuing the Namibian and
Sonangol and control of various valuable assets. Zambian markets,” he told RNA.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 09•September•2021