Angola loosens Sonangol’s grip on oil sector
The new leadership in Luanda is pushing ahead with wide-ranging reforms
Angolan president João Lourenço's decision to create a National Oil and Gas Agency (ANPG) to manage and sell oil and gas licenses is intended to underline his commitment to make upstream investments more attractive and curtail the power of state energy leviathan Sonangol. Details have yet to be fleshed out, but what information has been released so far, suggests that after an interim handover period starting in January 2019, Sonangol will aim to have handed over its responsibilities for petroleum agreements, oil block sales and their management to ANPG by the end of 2020. If it proceeds as planned, the move would mark a major step in dismantling state-owned Sonangol's stranglehold over the e
Also in this section
27 March 2024
Oil producers have to untangle the increasingly complicated relationship with their natural resources
26 March 2024
Strategic stocks have become as much a market management tool as a security of supply buffer, and this new tactic is likely to continue beyond the next election
25 March 2024
Low carbon intensity and sizeable projects such as Johan Castberg coming onstream in late 2024 suggest a robust outlook at least until 2030
22 March 2024
And the outlook for the country’s upstream appears to have improved following legal setbacks in 2023