25 February 2012, Sweetcrude, LUANDA – French oil giant Total, Britain’s BP and Italy’s Eni are vying to partner Angola’s state oil company Sonangol to build the country’s second refinery.
The three firms are looking at a 50 percent stake in the new installation slated for the southern coastal city Lobito, Sonangol board member Anabela Fonseca told reporters in Luanda.
“We have begun discussions with Total, with BP and with Eni,” Fonseca said, adding that talks were most advanced with Eni, which had proposed the inclusion of its new patented refining technology.
Total previously held a 55 percent stake in Luanda’s refinery which it sold to Sonangol in 2007.
Despite being Africa’s second-biggest oil producer after Nigeria, Angola relies heavily on imported oil products because the Luanda facility, built in the 1950s, has limited capacity.
