By Andrei Skvarsky.
Angola has decided to partially privatise its state oil and gas company Sonangol as part of a campaign to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) that includes plans for a global roadshow and a large-scale conference at home.
Up to 30 per cent of Sonangol is planned to be sold off by 2022, according to a statement from investment promotion platform Africa Oil & Power (AOP) distributed by Lausanne-based communications firm APO Group.
Sonangol subsidiaries that are not involved in the company’s core business of exploration and production would also be privatised.
The AOP statement did not mention how much Sonangol’s partial privatisation is expected to raise but said “initial projections” suggested that the subsidiaries’ sell-offs would bring foreign capital of up to $10bn into Angola within the next three years.
This June Angola is going to host a high-profile forum to drum up FDI into its oil and gas sector – the second Angola Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition (AOG) after one held last year.
AOG 2019 brought together more than 1,700 delegates, nearly 70 speakers and nearly 50 exhibitors and was described by AOP as “highly successful”.
AOG 2020, to be held in Talatona on June 16-17, is planned to be bigger in “size, scale and prestige”, AOP said.
The agenda includes discussions on opportunities offered by a recently approved $2bn liquefied natural gas (LNG) project run by a consortium in which Angola is partnering with five international oil companies, including Eni and Chevron.
One new feature of AOG 2020 is the Digitalisation and Technology Forum, an event that would showcase technologies pioneered in Angola.
Angola’s FDI campaign also includes a yearlong drive in numerous cities worldwide. The country plans to take part in CERAWeek, an international energy conference in Houston on March 9-13 (CERA stands for Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a firm set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1983), the Africa Oil & Power conference in Cape Town on September 15-17, and the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition& Conference on November 9-12.
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