Refining in Angola
Refining activity in Angola started in 1958 with the construction of Luanda's refinery by PETRANGOL, a company of Belgium's PETROFINA S.A. now extinct.
Still operation today, this is a conventional refinery type "Hydro Skimming" and its main activity is the production of LPG, gasoline, Jet Fuel and diesel for in country consumption only.
At the time of its construction, the refinery's capacity was 100,000 tons per year that is to say about 2,000 bpd. Between 1972-1973 the refinery was expanded and its output capacity increased to 1,5 million ton/years (i.e., 30,000 bpd). To the date this is still the only refinery in Angola.
The refinery gets its supplies from about 15% of the national production of about a little more than 1 million bpd.
Angola annually imports about 250 million US dollars in crude derivatives. The only exception is LPG which stopped being imported in October 2005.
When Sonangol U.E.E. (State Owned Business) was established in 1976 the distribution and marketing of crude derivatives in Angola was the monopoly by five companies - Mobil, Shell, Fina, Texaco and Angol.
Then in 1977 factors like the nationalization of Angol, Texaco ceasing its business operations in Angola and the overall decrease of crude production contributed to a shortage of crude derivations and in consequence in the capacity to satisfy demand nationwide.
To address the causes and the problem, at that time, Sonangol created two business units:
- Direcção de Serviços Comerciais - that would focus on sales.
- Direcção de Serviços Operacionais - whose objective was to manage all production and storage facilities and the company's transportation fleet.
With a solid infrastructure background, over two decades Distribuidora's business activity grew and today our company distributes fuels throughout the country.
Subsidiary
It was not until the end of 2005 that Distribuidora went from being a business unit of Sonangol E.P. to becoming an autonomous subsidiary on November 30, 2005 - Sonangol Distribuidora.