Sonangol Group's objectives for the next seven years are:

• To become one of the leading multinational oil companies
• To maximize our profits to support the nation's development.

To fulfill our objectives Sonangol implemented a broad investment program in 2003 both to boost upstream activities in the long term and to invigorate downstream operations.

Boosting Exploration and Production
The investment in upstream activities is to add value along the supply chain and to significantly boost Angola’s overall production figures from the present 965,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2003 to 2 million bpd by 2008.

Group Sonangol is fairly new to operating as an oil company, but various partnerships with the world's leading oil companies have provided the required business experience and transfer of know-how so that we could venture into more ambitious projects. Sonangol began operating as an oil company on a block in shallow waters (block 3) and in 2003 started oil exploration in deep waters (on block 34) aiming for an increase in total production of 12,000 bpd to 200,000 bpd by 2009. The total sum of bpd will mainly be from oil concessions in Angola, while the remainder will come from international ventures.

Projects Sonaref and ALNG
Sonangol Group, in partnership with some oil exploration and production companies that operate in Angola, is building a new refinery (Sonaref) and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to meet the needs of Angola's expanding economy.

Sonaref is a $3.75 billion refinery to be built on Angola’s coast in the city of Lobito, Benguela. The project signals Sonangol’s intention to become a fully integrated oil company. Sonaref will be a state-of-the-art, full conversion oil refinery, equipped with the most sophisticated technology currently available. With Sonaref, Angola will decrease export of raw materials (oil and gas) and allow Sonangol to complement the production of the existing refinery in Luanda. Sonaref will come on stream in 2008 and will have a capacity of 200,000 bpd. Approximately half of production is destined for domestic consumption and the remaining 50% will be for export.

The motivation behind the $3 billion ALNG (Angola Liquefied Natural Gas) plant derives from Sonangol’s desire to develop a petrochemical facility which will not only bring an end to the wasteful flaring of gas but also enable the production of industrial chemicals. The new plant, to be located in Soyo, 300 kilometers north of Luanda, is scheduled to come online in 2008.

ALNG is a collaboration project between Sonangol (22.8%), Chevron (36.4%), bp, ExxonMobil and Total (these three with 13.6% each).