Universo 34

SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Universo www.universo-magazine.com

JUNE 2012

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Luanda Oil Conference ISSUE 34 – JUNE 2012

ELECTIONS 2012: August vote called

HUÍLA DEAL:

Province of promise

JOBS AHOY:

Life on the ocean waves

INSIDE:

oil and gas news

Universo is the international magazine of Sonangol

Inside this issue

Board Members Francisco de Lemos José Maria (President), Mateus de Brito, Anabela Fonseca, Sebastião Gaspar Martins, Fernando Roberto, Baptista Sumbe, Raquel Vunge Sonangol Department for Communication & Image Director João Rosa Santos Corporate Communications Assistants Nadiejda Santos, Lúcio Santos, Sarissari Diniz, José Mota, Beatriz Silva, Paula Almeida, Sandra Teixeira, Marta Sousa, Hélder Sirgado, Kimesso Kissoka Publisher Sheila O’Callaghan Editor John Kolodziejski Art Director Tony Hill Sub Editor Ron Gribble Circulation Manager Matthew Alexander Project Consultants Nathalie MacCarthy Mauro Perillo Group President John Charles Gasser Universo is produced by Impact Media Custom Publishing. The views expressed in the publication are not necessarily those of Sonangol or the publishers.

Reproduction in whole or in part without prior permission is prohibited.

This magazine is distributed to a closed circulation. To receive a free copy: circulation@universo-magazine.com Circulation: 17,000

Davenport House 16 Pepper Street London E14 9RP United Kingdom Tel + 44 20 7510 9595 Fax +44 20 7510 9596 sonangol@impact-media.com www.universo-magazine.com

O

ur June issue opens with a special report on a potential cornucopia of Angolan jobs from seafaring.

We follow in the wake of young Angolans who have grasped the opportunities afforded by naval careers with the aim of becoming ships’ officers and perhaps eventually masters and commanders.

Our second story introduces some of Angola’s veteran and up-andcoming writers and poets to an international public. We gain an insight into the issues that stimulate their work.

Angola’s general election is the subject of our third main feature.

We examine the processes involved in registering voters and mobilising the electorate for the August 31 ballot.

Our fourth major story highlights the mushrooming economic growth of southern Angola’s Huíla province, where new infrastructure is helping to harvest a wealth of mineral and agricultural resources and realise government efforts to broaden the country’s economic base and create more jobs.

Cover: Mr. Simba

John Kolodziejski Editor

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ANGOLA NEWS IN BRIEF

EU Commission president visits Luanda;

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Contents President dos Santos receives South Sudan minister; Angola raises school numbers; Education accord bears fruit; TAAG buys more

6 CLIMBING INTO A MARITIME FUTURE

22 28

APOEIRA: SALUTING AN C ANGOLAN MASTER PREPARING FOR THE ELECTIONS UÍLA: HEARTLAND OF H DYNAMIC GROWTH

36

LIVING LEGENDS IN CONCERT

38

GOING FOR GOLD

40

SONANGOL NEWS BRIEFING

Raising standards; ARA presidency confirmed;

36 London 2012

20

ANGOLA’S LITERARY PROMISE

38 Pierre François Photographie

14

20 Pieter de Wulf

Boeings; Angola’s project at Korea Expo

Cabinda drilling starts; Block 31 production on Sonangol opts for renewable energy; SIIND adds industrial units at Viana; Sonaref pipeline plan; Tribute: Dr Serafim Araújo

44 48

40 Mr. Simba

track; Porto Amboim shipyard nears completion;

NG: ANGOLAN GAS GOES L TO MARKET IL AND GAS EVENT SETS O AGENDA FOR FUTURE

48 JUNE 2012 3

Angola news briefing

ESTELLE MAUSSION/AFP/Getty Images

Barroso visits Luanda

■ José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission,

paid a three-day official visit to Angola in April aimed at strengthening co-operation with the European Union.

Barroso said that he wished for increased dialogue between the EU and Angola at political and governmental levels, as well as between both societies.

During his stay in Luanda, Barroso had an audience with President José Eduardo dos Santos and invited him to visit EU headquarters in Brussels.

Angola and the European Union also signed several agreements to finance projects related to Angola’s electoral process worth about €1 million.

Manatees for Korea Expo

■ The Angolan government has set the right

■ Angola will present its manatee preservation

to education, universal primary education and the democratisation of education as priorities, said Miraldina Jamba, Angola’s Women Parliamentarians Group chairperson, during a meeting with UNESCO director- general Irina Bokova in April.

Jamba pointed out that Angola now has 6.1 million people studying in the education system, compared to 4.3 million in 2010.

In a move to improve further education, Angola’s cabinet also approved in April the setting up of 15 new private highereducation colleges. The establishments will be located in Luanda, Benguela, Cabinda, Huíla, Huambo, Uíge, Kwanza Norte, Kwanza Sul, Bengo and Bié provinces and will provide places for 19,000 students.

4 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

project as part of its contribution to Expo 2012 which is being held in the South Korean city of Yeosu.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘The Living Ocean and Coast’ and it runs from May 12 through to August 12. Angola’s Expo commission has selected the manatee initiative and also Angola’s liquefied natural gas project (see page 44) as examples of sustainable development.

Under the theme ‘Angola Sustainable Development, Our Commitment’, the country will also display information about ‘The Great Maritime Ecosystem of the Benguela Current’, the sea current that also affects Namibia and South Africa.

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Angola raises school numbers

Angola news briefing Education accord bears fruit

TAAG buys more Boeings

signed by President José Eduardo dos Santos and the former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008 is reaping its first results.

Eighteen students from the Eiffel School in Caxito, Bengo province, managed to qualify for a place at Agostinho Neto University, and another five received grants from French oil company Total to study abroad.

The Eiffel Project, financed by Total and run by the French Lay Mission under the auspices of the Angolan Ministry of Education, comprises four schools in provinces in the interior. The other schools are at Malange, Ondgiva (Cunene) and N’dalatando (Kwanza Norte). The project’s success is put down to the schools’ small class numbers of 24.

Cunene school opening

Boeing TAAG

■ An education co-operation agreement

■ Angola’s national airline TAAG has ordered three more Boeing 777-

300 Extended Range aircraft to add to the two it purchased previously.

The aircraft cost $895 million and TAAG has an option on buying another three later.

The new 777s will probably be used on its Brazil service to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and to Portugal (Lisbon and Porto), as well as to other European destinations. The airline also operates eight Boeing 737s, the workhorse of Angola’s regional services for over 30 years.

President receives South Sudan minister

Total

■ President José Eduardo dos Santos received Deng Alor Kuol, South Sudan’s minister

for foreign affairs, at the end of a three-day stay in March aimed at strengthening bilateral relations.

South Sudan is interested in closer co-operation, especially in the oil sector, to draw on Angola’s successful experience as Africa’s second-largest sub-Saharan producer.

Established only last year as a new country, South Sudan has also expressed interest in co-operating in sports, specifically in basketball, another area of recent Angolan success.

FIGURED OUT

19,000

new college places for Angolan students

4.2

billion tons

estimated iron ore reserves in Huíla province

10.5%

IMF forecast for Angolan economic growth in 2012

Angola in numbers

200,000m

2

of sand decontaminated in Luanda Bay

5.2

million tons

annual output of liquefied natural gas expected at Soyo

1 million tons

of cement produced at the Secil Lobito plant this year JUNE 2012 5

INDUSTRY

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Svitzer

CLIMBING INTO A MARITIME FUTURE Angola’s thousand-mile seaboard offers huge opportunities to deliver professional careers and profitable livelihoods to many more Angolans than at present.

Universo looks at moves to develop the country’s seafaring industry k Opening image: Angolan cadets aboard SS Danmark training ship JUNE 2012 7

INDUSTRY

A

Masters and commanders

ngola has a long, benign coastline generally unaffected by the more dramatic weather conditions which make shipping difficult in many parts of the world. Current Angolan maritime activities are concentrated in its busy and well-developed offshore oil industry.

There is intense coastal traffic supplying oil exploration and production companies with equipment, transferring crews, and ferrying staff overseeing well-drilling operations or carrying out maintenance.

There are also regular oil-tanker loading operations which then take the precious cargo to markets all over the world.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers have been a more recent addition to large vessel traffic. Sporting characteristic domed profiles, these carriers are scheduled to start regular gas shipments from Angola LNG’s Soyo facility in June this year.

Most of the vessels plying Angolan ports often operate exclusively in coastal waters for oil industry-related activities but use crews drawn from around the globe, with relatively few Angolans on board. The government plans to change this situation and bring greater Angolan access to these jobs, creating a local seafaring industry.

‘Angolanisation’ is already making steady headway, with more indigenous crews being trained for the task.

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Glasgow city centre

Angola’s merchant navy has seen concerted institutional development over the past ten years, thanks mainly to the efforts of Sonangol EP and Sonangol Shipping, which have made substantial investments in both a Suezmax tanker fleet (seven to date and three more to deliver

by January 2013) and an LNG carrier fleet (three ships delivered), which provide significant training and professional maritime sailing opportunities.

In addition, Sonangol Shipping has partnered with Stena Bulk, part of the Swedish conglomerate Stena, and Chevron Shipping to provide shore-based training and professional employment opportunities for Angolan seamen.

Sonangol Shipping also operates its own cadet-training programme, which has graduated over 40 deep-sea Deck and Engineering Officers since 1998. As originally structured, this programme provided the Sonangol cadets with the required English language and maritime academic training in India and in Scotland.

The first academic year is spent at one of several Indian schools, the Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET), in Chennai, Tolani Maritime Institute in Pune or Vels Academy of Maritime Education in Chennai, and the second academic year at the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, now the City of Glasgow College (COGC).

The Angolan cadet officers also receive on-board training on the Sonangol Suezmax tankers, all of which are built with extra cabins to accommodate them.

For the past several years, Sonangol and Stena have been collaborating on the development of the Angolan Maritime Training Centre (AMTC) in Sumbe, Angola, 350km south of Luanda. AMTC will be owned by Sonangol EP and operated in collaboration with COGC, which has been appointed academic manager. António Pelé Cardoso da Silva Neto will be the chief executive of AMTC. It will provide complete training for maritime ratings, and the first year of academic training for deep-sea Deck and Engineer Officer cadets. COGC will continue to provide the second academic year in Glasgow until such time as AMTC has developed to enable it to also take in this important element of the programme to unlimited certification. Over time, additional types of training will be provided including English language training.

It is anticipated that AMTC will eventually be able to provide the entire academic cycle of training in both deep-sea and restricted certification qualifications for cadets and ratings. It will have staff and student accommodation and aims to become an internationally-recognised centre of excellence, on a par with similar maritime centres around the globe.

LNG Carrier Sonangol Etosha Bridge simulator at City of Glasgow College

Biggest riches in the sea

JUNE 2012 9 Svitzer

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“A strong and reliable Angola training programme will give the country a new culture of seafaring,” says Catarino Pereira, general manager at Sonangol Marine Services, who has 18 years’ experience as a mechanical engineer. “The biggest riches are in the sea. There’s no seafaring culture at the moment but Angola is getting there. The programme will be an open door to understanding life at sea.”

Sonangol Marine Services

INDUSTRY

Svitzer

INDUSTRY

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Taking the wheel – an Angolan Svitzer trainee

INDUSTRY

Aiming high Delcio Cassinga Tito is a 26-year-old merchant seaman whose career has taken him a long way from home in Luanda’s Rangel district. Tito won a Sonangol scholarship in 2006 to study marine mechanical engineering.

He has already undergone courses in India and South Africa, and in February he passed his examinations at COGC to become a mechanical engineer officer.

In his first ‘sea time’, a sevenmonth period aboard the oil tanker Sonangol Luanda, Tito overcame a period of adaptation which included seasickness. “As time went by I got used to it, gained the confidence of my superior officers and learnt a lot. I also had a study programme aboard ship which helped me to understand the systems we normally worked with.

“Life at sea requires a great deal of responsibility and dedication. You need

experiencing significant growth in demand for skilled professionals.

AMTC will offer residential courses to 192 students on campus at one time, including the first year of the two-year Higher National Diploma course for Deck and Engineer Officer of the Watch Trainees.

This includes English language, Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping, and short courses on survival, fire-fighting, first aid, and tanker familiarisation.

Sonangol leads maritime development “Sonangol has been active in the Angolan national and international shipping markets for many years,” says Mark Heater, president of Sonangol Marine Services. “This activity has allowed Sonangol Shipping not only to build, buy and own crude and product tankers and LPG and LNG carriers of various sizes, but it has also provided the catalyst to develop a very successful maritime cadettraining programme. This programme has graduated over 40 officers to date and has more than 150 in various stages of cadet and rating training.”

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Angolan Maritime Training Services, a Sonangol Shipping and Stena joint-venture company, designed the training centre, which is nearing completion. AMTC will be run as an outreach centre of COGC. It will ensure compliance with the highest maritime academic standards and will develop relationships with statutory authorities.

Opening in 2012, the centre’s first intake will consist of 24 deck cadets and 24 engineer cadet trainees for Sonangol Shipping. This will pave the way to accepting trainees from third-party companies from 2013. It is then planned that AMTC will provide a stream of highlyskilled and internationally-qualified Angolan seafarers for Sonangol and the local maritime and offshore industries.

The centre aims to “vigorously and actively support the Angolanisation programmes of both Sonangol and the wider maritime industry in the region.”

During the first five years, trainee numbers will be progressively increased with the potential to also offer many short and specialised courses to the wider maritime industry. A major component of the project will be to develop Angolan professional maritime academic staff who will eventually be fully responsible for managing and operating AMTC. The investment in the centre will ensure the long-term success of the project, and will also bring added value by employing people from the surrounding area, developing the local economy and infrastructure.

Angolan Maritime Training Services will strategically support and oversee AMTC which will also provide statutory courses for skilled seafarers in the Angolan maritime industry, a sector that is

to be very safety-conscious in all the work you do. In my free time I listen to music, play bar football (which I like a lot) and PlayStation. I also watch a lot of films, and on Sundays we swim in the pool,” he says.

Whenever he missed his parents while aboard, he would call them through the ship’s communications system.

“My future objectives are to continue in this area and become a chief engineer and a master marine mechanical engineer, and help Sonangol to grow in this area and reach higher levels.”

Courses will also offer restricted certificates for Captains and Chief Mates on coastal shipping. These certificates involve shorter courses and are faster to achieve compared to unlimited maritime certification. There will also be courses for restricted power certificates for Chief Engineers.

Courses offered at AMTC will be accredited and approved by the UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency (UKMCA) or the South African Maritime Safety Authority.

In a separate development, merchant marine training is under way to support port operations for the fleet of LNG carriers that will serve Angola LNG, the new liquefied natural gas plant in Soyo (see story on page 44).

“The fleet provides an opportunity for maritime training and jobs for Angolans,” says António Orfão, chief executive of Angola LNG.

JUNE 2012 11

João Pedro Alvado Mariano

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INDUSTRY

Sea – the opportunity João Pedro Alvado Mariano, currently at COGC in Glasgow, was the first to opt for a maritime career in his family. “I thought it would be a good opportunity,” he says. It was a challenge to learn English and get on with other cultures, but he enjoyed doing this and acquiring nautical knowledge. He would recommend that others to follow his example.

Mariano says his most memorable experiences aboard were “the harmony between master and crew on board, sudden changes in climate and work related to navigation”. Most of all, he liked keeping watch on deck, which is the main task of the navigator. He says everything is going well and he aims to eventually be a captain.

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INDUSTRY

Angola LNG’s marine department requires pilots and crews for support craft. Specialist company Svitzer is in charge of these operations, which use five tugboats, four line-handling boats, two patrol boats, a pilot boat and a pollutionresponse boat.

Demand for qualified Angolan mariners far outstrips the supply in this nascent industry. Svitzer has hired more than 60 people from Soyo, providing training in English and then pre-sea training on board the SS Denmark during a three-month trip from Lisbon to Madeira, Cape Verde and the Azores.

The curriculum included basic seaman skills, watch-keeping, navigation,electrical knowledge, engine duty, fire and rescue drills and tanker familiarisation, along with routine housekeeping tasks.

The Angolan ratings are now working on the support craft and getting ready for operational start-up at Soyo. By 2014,

Svitzer Angola aims to achieve 65 per cent Angolanisation of its workforce.

Port pilots worldwide are generally mariners with extensive experience, having sailed a number of years on merchant ships before becoming pilots. With qualified individuals not readily available, Angola LNG has embarked on a programme of selecting candidates as marine deck cadets who will work their way up the ranks to become master mariners and eventually pilots in the port.

The first two candidates are presently undergoing their pre-sea training at the Maritime College in Cape Town, South Africa. Angola LNG plans to train two to three candidates every year and has an arrangement with Chevron Shipping to provide berths on ships when the cadets start sailing in order to gain experience in navigation and cargo handling.

Oil and gas-related shipping is not

the only show in town. Another area with great development potential is Angola’s fishing fleet. The country’s coast teems with underexploited fisheries and other seafood resources.

Angola’s ferrous mineral wealth in the shape of iron ore and manganese is about to be resurrected, thanks to the newly-rebuilt railroad linking Namibe with reserves at Kassinga in Huíla province. This will provide another opportunity for Angolan-crewed bulk cargo ships.

The Benguela Railway may similarly provide transport for renewed Zambian copper exports in the coming months, and Angola’s fast-developing farming industry may also supply growing export cargoes in the next few years.

Coastal shipping is another potential provider of local jobs at sea as Angola’s ports expand, new ones are built and their operations gain in efficiency. p

Sonangol Marine Services

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LNG Carrier Sonangol Benguela

JUNE 2012 13

LITERATURE

ANGOLA’S Y R A R LITE E S I M PRO covered

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e dis yet to b n io it d y tra the way g literar s in t d a a in le c rently nd fas tela cur nique a e u p e a P s t . s boa scale Angola ational n r e t in ly on a tru

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k

Jose Mendonça

Artúr Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos, ‘Pepetela’ (born 1941), won the world’s most prestigious award for Lusophone literature, the Camões Prize, in 1997 PEPETELA was born in Benguela and studied in Lubango, Lisbon and Algiers. Pepetela means ‘eyelash’ in Kimbundu, as does ‘pestana’ in Portuguese. He received his nickname while a fighter for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the country’s struggle against colonialism.

After Angolan independence in 1975, he became viceminister of education under Angola’s first president, Agostinho Neto. He left the government in 1982 and started teaching sociology as a professor at Luanda’s Agostinho Neto University.

Pepetela has written an impressive list of successful novels.

They include Mayombe (Jungle) which describes the MPLA’s fight against Portuguese rule; A Geração da Utopia (The Utopia Generation), which deals with the disillusion of young Angolans during the post-independence period; and in A Gloriosa Família (The Glorious Family), in which Pepetela dives into Angola’s brief period of Dutch colonial rule.

His most recent works include Predadores (Predators), a review of Angolan society; the post-apocalyptic allegory O Quase Fim do Mundo (Nearly the End of the World) and O Planalto e a Estepe (The Plateau and the Steppe), which describes Angola’s history and its ties with former communist nations.

but what is important is not to be critical in order to ‘charm’, or to get more media attention. What is important is to come up with solutions, paths towards improvement as a citizen, not as a writer.

You were awarded the world’s highest prize for Lusophone literature in 1997 (the Camões Prize) and are arguably today’s most famous Angolan writer. Does the fact that you are so deeply respected at home and abroad make it easier for you to comment on Angola when you feel it takes a wrong turn?

I comment on many things about Angola which I think need to be criticised, whether through books, lectures or interviews,

When will it be time to write an autobiography, if ever?

That probably won’t happen; it’s a theme that doesn’t appeal to me. What’s more, I have a bad memory and would commit many involuntary mistakes.

What has Angola achieved in ten years of peace?

Angola has had several important victories, such as reintegrating around four million war refugees and displaced people. It has also made a lot of quantitative progress in health and education with the construction of thousands of schools and hospitals.

The same goes for the rebuilding of road infrastructure and an effort to solve Angola’s serious housing problem. Angola’s GDP is steadily increasing but it has not yet managed to narrow its social disparities.

When was the first time you remember loving your country?

When I left Angola; I was young and went to study in Portugal.

From that moment onwards I knew Angola was the Lost Paradise. I travelled back to many places, but they were never as good as I remembered them. The Utopia Generation, sometimes in a slightly negative way, delves deeply into this feeling. I wrote the entire book outside Angola.

Who are your favourite Angolan poets and writers?

Viriato da Cruz as a poet, and Luandino Vieira as a writer.

JUNE 2012 15

LITERATURE

A brief history of Angolan literature The origins of modern Angolan literature, traditionally of a combative and satirical nature, date back to the 1930s. The first novel by an Angolan writer, O Segredo da Morta (The Secret of the Dead Woman) by António Assis Júnior, was published around 1935.

The ‘Generation of 1950’ revolved around the magazine Mensagem. Angola’s first president and famous poet Agostinho Neto formed part of this movement, as did Viriato da Cruz and António Jacinto. These men helped shape an entire generation’s conscience, which would eventually culminate in resistance to Portuguese colonial rule and lead to national independence.

In the following years, authors such as Oscar Ribas, Luandino Vieira, Arnaldo Santos, Uanhenga Xitu, Ernesto Lara Filho and Mario António developed a more uniquely Angolan, expressive language in a bid to rediscover and define Angola’s national identity. Luandino Vieira was awarded the Camões Prize in 2006 but he didn’t accept the award “for personal reasons”.

The creation of Angola’s Writers’ Union soon followed Angolan independence in 1975 and this gave the publishing industry a tremendous boost. Poets Arlindo Barbeitos, David Mestre and Ruy Duarte de Carvalho were widely celebrated,

The ‘Generation of the 1980s’ was all about freedom of creation and themes revolving around love and intimacy

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as were prose and fiction writers Henrique Abranches, Manuel Rui Monteiro and Pepetela.

The ‘Generation of the 1980s’ was all about freedom of creation and themes revolving around love and intimacy. Poets José Luís Mendonça, João Maimona, João Melo, Paula Tavares, Lopito Feijó and Botelho de Vasconcelos, among others, are renowned representatives of this period.

The 1990s saw a serious comeback of prose and fiction writers Pepetela, Manuel Rui Monteiro, Henrique Abranches and Arnaldo Santos. New names of this period include José Eduardo Agualusa, José Sousa Jamba, Boaventura Cardoso, Fernando Fonseca Santos, Cikakata Mbalundo, Fragata de Morais, Jacinto de Lemos, Roderick Nehone, Alberto Oliveira Pinto and Jacques Arlindo dos Santos.

LITERATURE

Chuva Novembrina (November Rain) – Sagrada Esperança Poetry Award from the National Book and Disc Institute (INALD), 1981 Gíria de Cacimbo (Dry Season Slang), Angolan Writers’ Union, 1986 Respirar as Mãos na Pedra (Hands Breathing on the Rock) – Sonangol Literature Award, Angolan Writers’ Union, 1988 Quero Acordar a Alva (I Want to Wake the Dawn) – Sagrada Esperança Poetry Award, INALD, 1996 MENDONCA was born in Galungo Alto, Kwanza Norte province and moved to Luanda’s Cazenga district when he was six. He studied law at the Catholic University of Angola, worked as a journalist at various Angolan newspapers and was a long-serving press officer and journalist at UNICEF. According to literary analysts, Mendonça’s writings were born in the context of the death of the revolutionary utopias of the 1960s and 1970s and his disenchantment with a newly independent Angola which proved unable to fulfil the promises of freedom, justice and equality.

Mendonça’s literary generation was divided into two fundamental movements: the Brigada Jovem de Literatura (the Youth Literature Brigade) and the group centred around the magazine Archote (Torch) to which he belonged.

Which themes inspire you most?

My poetry refers to the earth. I get my inspiration from the simplest and most common things, such as Angolan oil. For me, objects have a voice. The poem Eu Sou Petróleo Bruto (I Am Crude Oil) from my collection Poesia Manuscrita pelos Hipocampo (Poetry Written by the Hippocampus) contains various layers. It can be interpreted as a love poem for an imaginary woman, or as an African human being’s thirst for emancipation. Among my most important themes are platonic or carnal relationships with women, and social as well as philosophical poetry.

When did you first start writing?

I started writing short stories at the age of 14. During colonial times I lived in a musseque in the Cazenga neighbourhood, where there was lots of violence. There were only two mestizos (people of mixed heritage) and three blacks at school; society

Jose Mendonça

Poet José Luís Mendonça (born 1955) was part of the ‘Geração das Incertezas’ (Generation of Uncertainty) and is a member of the Angolan Writers’ Union and the director of Jornal de Angola’s new weekly magazine Cultura.

He has won an impressive number of national awards:

divided us into groups according to skin colour. I was badly discriminated against, had few friends and led an isolated life.

I didn’t understand why I lived in such a difficult world. That’s when I began to read a lot and write.

I spent years training myself in the techniques of writing poetry, in order to be different and still produce quality. Then in 1981, at the Sagrada Esperança contest, I won a prize for my first book, Chuva Novembrina. When I entered the Angolan Writers’ Union in 1984, I began to be well-known. My ultimate breakthrough came when I won the Sonangol Literature Prize in 1986 for my poetry collection Gíria de Cacimbo.

Mendonça on the next generation of writers and poets: “Angola is in the middle of a growth spurt since the end of the war in 2002. There is finally space for culture. During the war youths had to fight. Now they can breathe.”

As the director of Jornal de Angola’s new magazine Cultura, do you feel that more needs to be done to export Angola’s culture to the rest of the world?

Angola has some very good writers and poets. My personal favourites are Agostinho Neto, Mario António, Joaquim Cordeiro da Mata and Ruy Duarte de Carvalho. For me, Ondjaki definitely represents the upcoming generation.

Mendonça believes difficulties in spreading Angolan culture abroad could be overcome with more co-operation from foreign embassies, better translators and private-company investment.

JUNE 2012 17

Michael Hughes

LITERATURE

Carlos Sérgio Monteiro Ferreira (born 1960) is a celebrated Angolan author and one of the co-founders of the the Youth Literature Brigade of Luanda (BJLL) FERREIRA, also known as Cassé, is a poet, radio journalist and a member member of the Angolan Writers’ Union and co-founder of the now extinct BJLL. As a member of the ‘Generation of Uncertainty’ his writing is characterised by deep anguish and melancholy resulting from the disillusionment following Angolan independence.

His many works include Ponto de Partida (Point of Departure), Projeto Comum I and II (Common Projects 1 and 2), Sabor a Sal (Taste of Salt) and Quase Exílio (Nearly Exile).

Can you tell us something about your latest work, A Magia das Palavras (The Magic of Words), which describes Angola’s difficulties as a result of the war?

It’s a process of catharsis. It contains various stories and letters, among which are those I wrote to the living and deceased people who had a fundamental role in my upbringing.

How would you summarise your writings and convictions?

My poetry stems from a very strong bond with the earth, and contains an equally strong component of social criticism. I disagree with ultra-liberal and inhuman capitalism without rules. Instead, I believe Angola needs to return to its progressive, democratic premises, without copying the Western democratic model.

Lulu Ahrens

Can you explain the title of the book that represents 400 years of Angolan poetry: Entre a Lua, o Caos e o Silêncio: a Flor (Between the Moon, Chaos and Silence: the Flower) written by yourself and Irene Guerra Marques?

Yes, that’s an easy one. The moon has always been a symbol of poetry.

Chaos and silence are matrices of Angolan society – at least in Luanda – today. The flower, or new poetry, can despite everything be reborn.

18 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Ndalu de Almeida, ‘Ondjaki’ (born 1977), has written poetry, children’s books, short stories, novels and film scripts. He was awarded the Grande Prémio de Conto Camilo Castelo Branco 2008 (Camilo Castelo Branco Grand Prize for Storytelling) by the Portuguese Writers’ Union for his novel Os da Minha Rua (The Ones from My Street).

That same year he won the Grinzane for Africa Award, followed by the Jabuti Prize in 2010 for his children’s book AvôDezanove e o Segredo do Soviético (Grandmother Nineteen and the Soviet man’s Secret) ONDJAKI studied sociology at Lisbon University and wrote his thesis on Angolan writer Luandino Vieira.

Ondjaki also has a doctorate in African Studies at Naples University. His books have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Serbian, English, Chinese and Swedish.

In O Assobiador (The Whistler) a young man arrives at a small African village. He enters the church and starts whistling. Eventually he bewitches the priest and the churchgoers to such an extent that they reach a state of trance, culminating in an orgiastic celebration.

Bom Dia Camaradas (Good Morning, Comrades) was written in loving and humorous memory of a childhood in Angola in a Luanda marked by decades of civil war around 1990.

Ondjaki, who currently lives in Rio de Janeiro, told Universo that his main subject was “probably people”, adding: “I write from a starting point of a story that involves very human moments; many sensations, smells, places that exist or are yet to exist. I don’t know if that’s a subject or an obsession.”

Lula Ahrens

LITERATURE

Kiocamba Cassua (26) is the executive secretary of the young and hot Movimento Lev’Arte. His first collection of poems, Outros Sorrisos nos Nossos Lábios (Other Smiles on Our Lips), was published in 2011

Etelvina da Conceição Alfredo Diogo ‘Ngonguita Diogo’ (born 1963) is a member of Movimento Lev’Arte NGONGUITA DIOGO entered the literary scene in 2010 with No Mbinda o Ouro é Sangue (In Mbinda, Gold is Blood); Weza, a Princesa (Weza, the Princess); Sinay, the story of an unscrupulous wizard, and the children’s book A Minha Baratinha (My Little Cockroach).

Diogo’s favourite female writers include Sónia Gomes and Marta Santos.

Her work describes the suffering, social injustice and general day-to-day life after Angolan independence.

Ngonguita Diogo

CASSUA’s other poems were published in the anthology Palavras (Words). Love, disillusion and sadness are his universal themes. “This movement (Movimento Lev’Arte), created in 2006, aims to take art to all parts of the world and to humanise people through art. We have a presence in Luanda, Brazil and Portugal,” he says Cassua says he sees numerous literary movements and literary works being born in Angola at the moment. In the past, people chose to invest in profitable businesses with immediate returns. Now big business concerns are financing literature and the arts.

Diogo’s children’s books Weza, a Princesa explores Africa’s charm, beauty and ancient rites and traditions for children, so that this heritage is kept alive. “As in any children’s story, good overcomes evil,” says Diogo. A Minha Baratinha describes “children’s unique wisdom and offers proof that fantasy is real and cockroaches can talk. It is also about the importance of hygiene.”

A Minha Baratinha describes “children’s unique wisdom and offers proof that fantasy is real and cockroaches can talk”

JUNE 2012 19

Capoeira: saluting an Angolan master

by Lula Ahrens

Hindhyra Mateta

IStock Photo

Capoeira, a martial art largely associated with Brazil, is believed to have originated in Angola. Mestre Kamosso, a maker of the musical instrument played to accompany it, tells Universo his story k

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ged 92 years old, Mestre (Master) Kamosso holds a unique place in Angola’s living cultural heritage. His long life is entwined with the martial art capoeira that is now practised throughout the world, and the instrument that provides the cadenced background twang that accompanies its dance-like fight.

Kamosso is renowned for making the musical instrument called a hungu, better known by its Brazilian name the berimbau.

This consists of a gourd (dried fruit shell) at the base of a thin wooden bow with steel wires attached. The plucked wires resonate in the shell, producing a gentle, hollow plunking sound.

Kamosso used to be a celebrated hungu player and has many stories to tell. “I was invited to play during MPLA mass demonstrations and speeches, first by former President Agostinho Neto, and later by President Eduardo dos Santos, in Luanda, Lobito, Catumbela, Benguela, Cuba and Congo. I also played during Carnival. That’s how I got my girlfriends!”

Mestre Kamosso, whose name means ‘Come here!’ in one of Angola’s national languages, Kimbundu, laughs out loud as he recalls the old days in his derelict little house in Catete.

20 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

CULTURE

Mating rights

cultural heritage. They are in a hurry; Mestre Kamosso believes he will soon die.

Capoeira teacher Janguinda Moniz, aged 31, known by his capoeira name ‘Cabuenha,’ and his friends have repainted Mestre Kamosso’s house. Having been trained by Brazil’s famous Mestre Camisa and other masters, Cabuenha now performs and teaches in Angola, Brazil, South Africa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Dubai and Europe.

Mestre Kamosso’s voice is hoarse; he has difficulty remembering the details of his past. He has the intensely emotional expression that only the ancient possess.

“I joined the Portuguese army in 1958; I served in Angola for one year and in India for two years. Until Independence in 1975, when I worked as a cook for the white people, I was not allowed to play the hungu. But I used to do it anyway, every night after making dinner.”

In 2007, the Ministry of Culture awarded him a diploma for his efforts in the preservation and dissemination of Angolan culture. Nevertheless, his nation-wide popularity acquired after Independence did not last. “Everyone forgot about me,” Mestre Kamosso says.

His voice turns soft; for a moment his face crumbles in grief. “But now people are coming back to say hello.”

The Angolan hungu or m’bolumbumba used to be played by Angolan herdsmen.

The Luanda-born poet, painter and ethnographer Albano Neves e Sousa (1921-1995) was convinced that the hungu and the martial zebra dance N’golo it accompanied were exported from the 16th century onwards by Angolan slaves, a theory widely accepted as capoeira’s founding story. N’golo was inspired by male zebras fighting for mating rights.

The people of the Mucope villages in southern Angola dance N’golo, which technically speaking is capoeira, wrote Sousa. It is performed when girls reach puberty. The man who performs the N’golo best is allowed to choose his wife among the new eligible brides without having to pay a dowry. Slaves taken to Brazil through the port of Benguela are believed to have taken this tradition along with them.

The logo of the International Capoeira Angola Foundation features a zebra coming out of the African continent and meeting a South American capoeira fighter.

Young admirers Hindhyra Mateta and Alexandre Yewa are producing a multimedia exhibition and a documentary on the hungu and its masters to preserve its musical and

Cabuenha has a special relationship with Mestre Kamosso. “For me he is a teacher, a master. For Luandans he is a symbol of national and cultural resistance during colonialism. He helped change the values of several generations of Angolans.”

His legacy will live on. “After an interval of almost two decades, capoeira has returned to its Angolan roots and is once again growing in popularity,” says Cabuenha who has worked alongside artists including Paulo Flores, Café Negro, dance group Kussanguluka, Raúl de Rosário, Zona 5 and Brix.

“Capoeira is important because it helps to strengthen ethnic, cultural and civic values. Since 2008, I’ve been teaching capoeira to children and teenagers in the musseques [shanty towns] for free. It’s a way to awaken their interest in music, art, sports, school and health. We teach them respect for the elderly, and use capoeira to raise awareness regarding HIV, blood donation and the environment.”

Later the master makes us an offer.

“Learning how to play hungu is not that difficult,” Kamosso says cheerfully. “I will teach you if you bring me six eggs, a chicken and five litres of wine.”

He grabs his hungu and begins to play, and then sing. Soon he drifts off into another world: Angolan history. p

Hindhyra Mateta

jmarconi

“After an interval of almost two decades, capoeira has returned to its Angolan roots” – Cabuenha

JUNE 2012 21

ELECTION ‘12

PREPARING FOR THE ELECTIONS 22 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

JUNE 2012 23

Corbis Images

A country-wide mobilisation of voters is underway as Angola prepares for general elections in August.

Universo observes some of the processes involved k

ELECTION ‘12

Registration campaign Angola has vigorously campaigned to sign up as many potential voters as possible for the electoral register over the past year.

Registration points were set up throughout the country in public places to update the roll in the period July 29, 2011 through to April 15 this year.

Famous Angolans such as international athletes from the women’s national basketball team who won gold in the African championships made high profile

24 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Angop

Angop

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n May 23, President José Eduardo dos Santos convoked general elections. The Angolan people will choose members for the National Assembly and as a consequence, the president who will be selected by the largest party in the National Assembly.

The elections, to be held on August 31, will be the second to take place in a 10 year period of peace since 1992.

In the previous election, in 2008, the governing Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), won a landslide victory with over 80% of votes casts.

The turn-out at 87% was high and the electoral process was widely praised for its fairness and the peaceful atmosphere in which it took place. Observers from the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLC) oversaw the process.

The second-placed party in the 2008 election race, UNITA, conceded defeat early on during the count when it realised it was trailing far behind the MPLA. UNITA only managed to attract 10% of the voters, but the party’s conciliatory attitude in accepting the result contributed to the pacific, civic atmosphere of the electoral process.

Angola’s elected 81 women or 36.8% of National Assembly members in 2008; 77 for the MPLA and four for UNITA. This compares extremely favourably with more mature democracies such as the United States were only 22.3% of Congressmen are women and United Kingdom’s Parliament which has just 17.2% women.

Election 2008 in numbers Votes................................. 7.21 million

MPLA votes 81.6%:............. 191 seats UNITA votes 10%:................. 16 seats PRS:.......................................... 8 seats FNLA:........................................ 3 seats ND:............................................ 2 seats

The turn-out at 87% was high and the electoral process was widely praised for its fairness and the peaceful atmosphere in which it took place

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images

Polling stations:.........................50,195

FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images

Voter turnout:............................... 87%

JUNE 2012 25

Beathan/Corbis

Joao Relvas/epa/Corbis

Angop

ELECTION ‘12

contributions to this campaign by publicly registering for the vote.

As a consequence of the campaign, Angola’s Central Computer Electoral Registry (FICRE) increased the roll of registered voters to 9.79 million compared to 8.6 million previously. The new roll removed doubly-registered electors and those who had since died.

Populous Luanda predictably came out as the largest electoral-college with 2.85 million voters according to the new census, followed by Huíla and Benguela.

FICRE presented the updated registry to Angola’s independent Electoral Council or CNE on May 15. In order to undertake a thorough and independent audit of the electoral registry and identify any mistakes and irregularities, CNE contracted

26 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

international auditors Deloite to analyse the data it contains.

The CNE is charged with overseeing the electoral process. Its role includes cooperating with independent observers who will accompany the vote throughout Angolan territory to verify the election is free and fair.

Election prospects Angolan political observers are unanimous in their evaluation and are predicting another substantial MPLA majority at the polls.

On May 25 an MPLA Central Committee meeting was opened by President dos Santos who is also head of the party. The objective was the evaluation and selection of MPLA candidates and the

iStock photo

Populous Luanda predictably came out as the largest electoral-college with 2.85 million voters drawing up of proposals for the party’s new election manifesto.

‘We are here to appreciate new proposals and present them to Angolan society to continue to consolidate peace and democracy as well as to promote economic and social development and well-being of all Angolans,’ said President dos Santos.

‘The MPLA aims for our social development to be as dynamic as our economic growth has been.’

Angolan GDP grew on average by 11.1% between 2001 and 2010 according to The Economist and the IMF predicts GDP will growing at a rate of 9.7% next year.

‘We are conscious that much still needs to be done, but a new Angola is already emerging, capable of satisfying the legitimate yearnings of all Angolans.’

President José Eduardo dos Santos

Women in politics Angola:.................36.8% USA:......................22.3%

According to President dos Santos, ‘The time has arrived to grow more and distribute better, the time for us to be a strong and just Angola and of being, increasingly free and happy... now the total, absolute priority is to improve Angolans’ living conditions’.

The future project for society of our party is based on a Programme of Stability, Growth and Employment, he said. This meant ‘more water, energy, better education and health, stimulate rural areas and stimulate the creation and strengthening of micro, small and mediumsized Angolan companies.’

‘When we made the diagnosis of the situation in 2008, we noted that it was necessary to stamp a new dynamism on the country’s governance, change the Republic’s Constitution, improve the management of public affairs and affirm the principle of more rigour and transparency in the organisation and management of public finances and better sharing of national income,’ the President said.

President dos Santos said that the government presented its programme and made several promises to the electorate in 2008 and that MPLA meetings analysing the realisation of these commitments had been ‘positive’ and that this was clearly shown by the fact that projects have been inaugurated nearly every week.

‘The country is in fact changing for the better and there is progress in every area, but to make Angola grow more and more is what the MPLA wants,’ he said. p

LUCAS DOLEGA/POOL/epa/Corbis

UK:........................17.2%

JUNE 2012 27

PROVINCE

HUÍLA – HEARTLAND OF DYNAMIC GROWTH

28 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Kostadin Luchansky

HuĂ­la province in southern Angola is distinguished by fertile lands and mineral resources as well as the natural beauty of its green highlands. An attractive climate also combines to make this province a focus for agro-industrial development and tourism. Universo takes a closer look k

JUNE 2012 29

View over Lubango PROVINCE

Gold mines A parallel important addition to Angolan exports comes from plans to mine gold in Huíla in 2013 from two sites; M’popo near Jamba and Chipindo in the north of the province. Prospecting for iron and gold in the M’popo area is expected to bring economic development to the Jamba area, creating jobs and training local people.

30 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Diamantino Azevedo, chairman and chief executive of state mining company Ferrangol, says a long-term continuous geological survey is needed to map the minerals in Angola. Ferrangol’s aims are prospecting, research, exploration, processing and the sale of ferrous minerals as well as others used in steel production.

Minerals found in Angola’s subsoil include lead, copper and aluminium, among many others.

“We are thinking that one day we will produce and sell all the minerals indispensible for the country’s development so as to add value to our economy,” says João Paulino Chimuco, a Ferrangol mining engineer and planner.

IStock Photo

Solid gold future

Mark Clydesdale

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rrival at the gleaming new glass airport at Lubango, Huíla’s provincial capital, offers a clear idea of the lie of the land.

Well-watered hills and a rocky cliffscape reminiscent of Cape Town embrace the town, hinting at the importance of local geology and climate to the region’s wealth.

After Luanda, Huíla is home to Angola’s second most important industrial concentration, and this is about to grow sharply. Huíla is set to make a dramatic contribution to economic diversification, adding its mineral wealth to Angola’s dominant export earners of oil and diamonds, with a number of mining projects on schedule to start up in 2013.

The principal undertaking is renewed extraction and processing of iron and manganese ore at the Kassinga and Jamba mines some 300km due east of Lubango. Proven iron ore deposits in the area amount to 400 million tons, with indications of probable reserves totalling a massive 4.2 billion tons. When last worked in the 1970s, these mines were yielding output worth $500 million a year at current international iron ore prices.

The Kassinga and Jamba mining areas are served by a recently rebuilt railway, the Caminho de Ferro de Moçâmedes (CFM), which links them to the port of Namibe, formerly Moçâmedes.

The ore will be refined into concentrate, a process that not only adds value because the product can then be put directly into steel-making furnaces, but also reduces the bulk sent by rail and thus cuts transport costs to the coast. There are long-term plans to build a steelworks based on the rich Kassinga deposits.

Brazuk Ltd

Mark Clydesdale

PROVINCE

Bottled water

Granite features

IStock Photo

IStock Photo

Liquid assets

Already experiencing a sales boom is Huíla’s sought-after ornamental stone. The province possesses some types of granite which are relatively rare and much prized on export markets. Several companies are well-established and exploiting opportunities in this area. Angola’s own fast-expanding construction industry is just one of many markets taking this excellent decorative stone. Huíla is also selling pink, grey, black and brown granites to India, China, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Canada, as well as tiles to Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.

Huíla’s well-watered hills above Lubango provide another resource – mineral water that is also being successfully extracted and marketed. A number of bottled-water companies are already doing good business and more are jumping on the bandwagon.

A well-known company in this sector is Água da Chela at Humpata near Lubango. Officially opened in 1999, it produces 7,000 litres of bottled mineral water an hour and has plans to raise this to 15,000 litres an hour. Água da Chela not only supplies the whole of Angola, benefiting from the country’s much-improved highways, but also exports water to notoriously parched Namibia on its southern border, where water recycling accounts for some of its supply.

The company has invested $10 million in its operations and estimates that it can achieve a return on its investment over a period of six years. Água da Chela has an all-Angolan workforce of 60 and aims to soon double the shifts worked.

Inspired by Água da Chela, other enterprises have followed suit in setting

JUNE 2012 31

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PROVINCE

up bottling plants at Humpata to serve Angola’s discerning thirsty. Cristo Rei did this in 2009, and Preciosa of the Regente Hotel Group has also recently invested $10 million in a project there.

Another enterprise established near Lubango is drinks company Refriango, which has the Pura water brand. The pure-source water has also stimulated a buoyant beer (Huíla’s long-standing and justly famous N’gola brand) and soft drinks (Coca-Cola) industry.

The fresh image of Huíla’s cool highlands is an important element in marketing these drinks. “Our water is marvellous and we have capacity for six more bottling plants,” says Paula Filomena Joaquim, provincial director for Huíla’s Ministry of Industry, Geology and Mines.

It is not only bottled water that is appearing in Angolan homes. The provincial government signed a €Euros 900,000 deal with Germany’s Gauff Engineering in March to renovate and expand Lubango’s public water supply system. The three-year plan involves sinking new wells at Humpata and building new reservoirs and treatment plants.

The new system will raise water storage capacity 15-fold to 60,000 cubic metres and will benefit up to two million people.

A major event in August this year will be the reopening of the CFM, the railway which runs through the whole of Huíla as it crosses southern Angola from Namibe.

The railway is a boon to Huíla’s infrastructure in that it will relieve the pressure on the steep zigzag Serra da Leba road. Trucks carrying blocks of granite can now descend to Namibe by rail instead.

There is also up-plateau traffic of Namibe province’s block granite, which is cut and polished in Huíla.

The CFM continues east from Lubango to agro-industry centre Matala, through to the mineral belt around Jamba/Kassinga and on to its terminus at Menongue, where Sonangol has built a fuel and liquefied petroleum gas depot. The renewed transportation of heavy goods and passengers by rail is crucial to Huíla’s major redevelopment, and large-scale mining is unthinkable without it.

32 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Angola’s huge road-rebuilding programme is also impacting Huíla’s markets. Lubango is on the main northsouth highway that connects Luanda and Malange in the north to the Namibian border, taking in Angola’s second city Huambo en route. The potential for the growth in trade between all these economically reviving areas is enormous.

Convoys of lorries now bring produce from Namibia to serve Angola. Easier road access has enabled South African–owned supermarket and restaurant chains to set up shop in places like Lubango.

Farming investment Huíla’s temperate climate and good soils have made it another magnet for investment. Apart from its extensive, long-

established cattle-rearing, the province has two large irrigated areas at Matala, due east of Lubango, and Gangelas to the south near Chibia, which are in the process of refurbishment and upgrading and are already raising food supplies significantly.

Both these areas enjoy excellent road and rail links to Lubango and beyond.

Matala Matala is located on a dam and reservoir and is the focal point of a 350kmlong section of the River Cunene, which has the potential to eventually irrigate an area of 350,000 hectares on its banks in Huíla and neighbouring provinces. The project will raise crop output and improve the pastures for cattle.

Thanks to Matala’s position within

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Tundavala’s wild landscape

All the world’s a stage: Lubango girls at play

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Brazuk Ltd

Lush vegetation in downtown Lubango

rich farmlands, new food-processing and storage facilities are being completed to make best use of the excess output. This will solve the problem of wastage while adding value and income for farmers as well as stimulating higher output.

With this in mind, a tomato-paste factory will shortly reopen at nearby Kapelongo, as will wheat flour and maize mills. Other units will be built to process and pack fruit juice.

Afonso Pedro Canga, Angola’s minister for agriculture and rural development, inaugurated a maize-drying facility along with three grain storage silos, each with a capacity for 4,000 tons, at Matala in May 2012, showing that the area has an important role to play in Angola’s quest for food security.

“Huíla is an agricultural province with good land. Our priorities are to develop agricultural storage capacity and process farm produce locally. Industry has to initiate local production and create more jobs,” says Paula Filomena Joaquim. ‘‘Huíla has expanded a lot over the last five years and its industry continues to grow well.”

The Matala dam is currently undergoing a $255 million makeover to dredge its reservoir and raise its waterholding capacity, while also expanding electricity output to 40 megawatts from 26 megawatts at present. The extra energy will underwrite Huíla’s industrial expansion.

Gangelas A second more-compact irrigated area is the Gangelas project located in the Chibia area, based on a dam and two 14km-long water channels. Government investment since 2009 is already bearing fruit at Gangelas and providing local jobs.

In phase one of the revamped infrastructure project, local producers’ association Sogangelas farms cereals, beans and vegetables and has recently planted 18 hectares of fruit trees including oranges, lemons and mangoes.

At present, 1,990 hectares are being cultivated out of a total of 6,220 hectares.

Phases two and three of the project will not only farm the remaining area, but also process produce such as juice, then store and trade it via a logistics centre. Gangelas

has a production target of 48,000 tonnes of food a year in 2015.

There are plans under way to provide sufficient electricity from the dam to power the Gangelas irrigation pumping system.

There is also a project to develop fishing as a tourist attraction at the dam reservoir.

Cattle Huíla is also famous in Angola for its great concentration of cattle. Nearly a million graze pasture in the province. These cows are mainly owned by professional ranchers, but some are still kept by nomadic and semi-nomadic herders such as the exuberantly necklaced and bangled Mwilas of the Nyaneka peoples.

The ranchers have become increasingly professional and connected to international breeders, and exotic cattle breeds are being imported in greater numbers. While most Angolan cattle are of the hardy and well-adapted Zebu, Africander and St Gertrude breeds, in recent years there have been imports of imposing beef cattle such as the stocky Bonsmara. Huíla’s farmers have also imported dairy cattle such as Jerseys and Friesians.

Huíla’s well-organised ranchers prosperously dominate the southern farm regions and are now expanding their businesses further north to Kwanza Sul and Benguela and nearer to main coastal markets. The aim is to cut meat imports by 30 per cent within four to five years.

JUNE 2012 33

Mwila women

Kostadin Luchansky

Eric Lafforgue

SPORTING SUCCESS

Local cattle breed

View of Namibe from Tundavala

Brazuk Ltd

The aim is to cut meat imports by 30 per cent within four to five years

All cattle herders and ranchers are benefiting from government vaccination campaigns and improved technical assistance. There are, however, some sources of conflict between fenced-in ranchers and arable farmers on one side and nomadic herders on the other. To reduce the trampling of crops and grazingrights disputes, an EU-backed project has developed corridor routes with watering facilities for seasonal cattle movements for traditional herders.

Tourism Huíla is one of Angola’s most attractive tourist destinations thanks to its mild climate, mountains, fauna, flora and national park. The emblematic Huíla image is the switchback road that slithers over the western edge of the Serra da Leba mountain chain.

Other spectacular locations are the Tundavala Gap, 2,200 metres above sea level, where a sheer, rocky cliff affords spectacular 11 SONANGOL UNIVERSO 34 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

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PROVINCE SPORTING SUCCESS

The emblematic Huíla image is the switchback road that slithers over the western edge of the Serra da Leba mountain chain

mountain-top views west through a gorge 1,200 metres down to the lower hills of neighbouring Namibe province.

Tundavala’s bushy boulder-strewn plateau is also an important bird-watching area and pasture for semi-nomadic herders.

Nearby Lubango hosts Africa’s third-largest bird-skin collection – a treat for serious ornithologists. Huíla is also home to the Bicuar National Park.

Lubango already boasts decent modern hotels that charge half the price of those in the capital, and relatively cheap flights from Luanda.

All Huíla’s ingredients are in or about to be put into the development pot: They include new air, rail and road infrastructure; greater farming production and industry to process it; and an exciting revival of the mining sector. Projects to improve energy and water supplies as well as telecommunications will also soon come to fruition. Huíla’s future prosperity is assured. p

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JUNE 2012 35

CULTURE

LIVING LEGENDS

IN CONCERT Angola’s music experienced a golden period in the 1960s and 1970s; Universo looks at the comeback by some of the leading artists of that era and their impact on the contemporary music scene k

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he return to the public eye of some historically popular Angolan musicians last year invited comparisons with the massively successful Buena Vista Social Club in Cuba, where some octogenarian artists cut a world best-selling record and featured in a documentary made by a top international film-maker.

Conjunto Angola 70 is a new grouping of veteran musicians originating in different bands who resurfaced in the public consciousness after a compilation album of their work Angola Soundtrack was released in 2010.

Respected music critic Robin Denselow of the UK’s Guardian newspaper described the album “A rousing and intriguing compilation... well worth checking out”. The London Evening Standard also raved, calling it “Stunning...

Glorious music captured in its prime and re-presented with style”.

The individuals making up Conjunto were Angolan stars in their own right or who had belonged to popular bands in the period at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s. Their music, semba, an African root rhythm that later flowered in the shape of Brazilian samba, was one of the soundtracks to the turbulent period which saw Angola gain independence in 1975.

Later, more-commercial influences entered the country and, for some, the authentic Angolan sound began to fade

36 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

and the musicians to disappear from the public consciousness.

Boto Trindade from The Bongos and lead guitarist Teddy N’Singui were the nuclei for the revivalist project. The two contacted other former stars and within less than a month they had put a band together that became known as Conjunto Angola 70 (The Angola 70 Band).

Other group members are Trinity Dúlcio – rhythm guitar; Carlitos ‘Calili’ Timóteo – bass guitar; Joãozinho Margado – drums; Raúl Tolingas – dikanza (an Angolan grooved bamboo instrument which is stroked with a thin stick); Chico Montenegro – congas; and Gregório Mulatu – singer and percussion.

However, it was only in May 2011 that the new line-up gave their first performance together. The venue was the Elinga Theatre in downtown Luanda, where the band delighted the old and the not so old.

The group followed this up with a European tour in October promoted

by Mano a Mano Productions (Angola) and Analog Africa (Germany). The first performance was at the Global Club in Copenhagen, Denmark. The group then went on to play at five venues in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The tour was supported by Sonangol, Angolan insurer ENSA and the Dutch and German embassies in Luanda.

Mano a Mano Productions produced

the tour in partnership with Analog Africa (Germany), a record label which specialises in classic African vinyl. The tour was marketed by Dutch promoters RASA Music & Dance.

The aim of the Angola Conjunto 70 project is to make the music of Angola of 40 and 50 years ago known to the world today. “The music of that era marked a turning point in the history of Angola [before and after independence]”, say Mano a Mano producer Otiniel da Silva and Samy Ben Redjeb of Analog Africa.

The producers say the idea is to sell the product to the largest international producers and show promoters, so that Angola’s culture gets the space it deserves on the global cultural scene.

After the concert in the Dutch city of Groningen, proposals were made for the group to play in the United States, Australia, South Korea and other countries, says Otiniel.

Universo wishes Angola Conjunto 70 renewed success and thanks Otiniel and Samy for rescuing this important part of Angola’s musical heritage. p

* Angola Conjunto 70 can be contacted via Mano a Mano Productions; telephone Luanda +244 923-824-618 or email otinielfs@gmail.com

Malocha

Pieter de Wulf

Pieter de Wulf

CULTURE

JUNE 2012 37

London 2012

SPORT

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ngola will send seven athletes to the London 2012 Paralympics which take place between August 29 and September 9.

The squad includes the team’s talisman and now veteran athlete José Armando Sayovo. He will be accompanied by fellow runners Octávio dos Santos, Miguel Francisco, Joaquim Manuel and Martinho da Chela. Sayovo, Santos, Francisco and Manuel were the first Angolan para-athletes to qualify for London 2012.

They were later joined by female track hopefuls Maria da Silva and Esperança Gicasso. Maria da Silva is African paraathletic record holder in the 200 metres.

Strong support

GOING FOR GOLD As Angola prepares its Olympic hopefuls for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Universo previews the country’s efforts in this growing segment of sporting activity k

The Angolan government is wholeheartedly supporting its estimated 150,000 disabled citizens with policies designed to integrate them socially, said Gonçalves Muandumba, Minister for Youth and Sport.

“It has been the preoccupation of head of state José Eduardo dos Santos to create policies and legislation to support the rights of the disabled. This was seen with the approval in May of the setting up of the National Council for the Disabled,” he said.

Reaffirming its commitment to the Paralympics teams, the government also backed the sport’s African section conference in May where Leonel da Rocha Pinto, the president of Angola’s Paralympic Committee, was re-elected as president of the African Paralympic Committee until 2016.

Athletes going to London

José Armando Sayovo.....................................

Octávio dos Santos..........................................

Miguel Francisco..............................................

Joaquim Manuel...............................................

Martinho da Chela............................................

Maria da Silva...................................................

Esperança Gicasso..........................................

38 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Jornal Da Saúde Angola

London 2012

The African committee has also gained new offices at the Cidadela Stadium in Luanda.

London 2012

José Armando Sayovo José Armando Sayovo is Angola’s most successful athlete. He was triple Paralympics gold-medal winner at Athens in 2004 and set records in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre races.

Sayovo followed this up with three silver medals at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics Games.

In recognition of his inspirational stature, Sayovo has been asked to be a special ambassador for the UN to promote social causes by the organisation’s president Ban Ki-moon. “I recommend all disabled Angolans to take up a sport. It does you good. And you can even be a champion and win medals,” says Sayovo.

The runner, who lost his sight aged 26 after a landmine explosion, says adapting to blindness was not easy but that there was help available which made it possible for him to be rehabilitated into society.

He is confident that Angola will do well in London after the team’s preparatory training courses.

London 2012

At the end of May, the team set off for a 15-day training camp in Lubango in the cool highlands of southern Angola with a view to adapting to London’s climate.

The Paralympics team will then have training sessions in Cuba before heading for Bedford, England, for final intensive training ahead of the Games.

Bedford is 76km north of London and will be hosting 14 Paralympics and one Olympics team, almost all of them from Africa.

Speaking at an event organised to mark the 100 days before the Olympics, Richard Wildash, Britain’s Ambassador to Angola, described Angola’s participation in the Olympics and Paralympics in London as “an excellent opportunity to showcase a new country that is developing in an extraordinary way. In itself, sport has the potential to bring together the integration of cultures, nations and ethnic groups.”

Paralympics team trainer José Manuel believes Angola has the chance to gain three gold medals in London with the most likely winners being José Sayovo and Octávio dos Santos in the 100 and 200 metres.

We wish them good luck! p

London 2012

Preparation

.......................................................... Luanda

BP Angola

Place of birth

.......................................................... Luanda

.......................................................... Luanda

.............................................................. Huíla

..........................................................Namibe

....................................................... unknown

........................................................ Malange JUNE 2012 39

Sonangol news briefing

40 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Communication Affair

ent Affairs Departm

Communication Affairs Department

re-elected non-executive president of the African Refiners Association (ARA) at its March conference in Morocco. Angola has led ARA since March 2011.

Fonseca will occupy the post until 2013.

The central theme of this year’s meeting was ‘The Development of African Downstream’.

Fonseca, accompanied by Ana Joaquina da Costa, president of Luanda’s refinery, along with Baltazar Miguel, a board member of Sonangol’s Luanda refinery, and João Silva, director of new business at Sonaci (Sonangol Comercialização Internacional), took part in the inauguration of ARA’s new offices in Abidjan in May. ARA represents refiners in Angola, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

s Department

■ Sonangol board member Anabela Fonseca was

Communication

Communication Affairs Department

Pierre François Photographie

ARA presidency confirmed

Sonangol news briefing

■ Porto Amboim’s shipyard project is on schedule for completion

in June. Sonangol is supporting the development, which covers an area of 23 hectares, in partnership with South Korea’s Daewoo and Singapore’s SBW Shipyard.

The shipyard project, begun in 2007, aims to produce vessels to support Angola’s burgeoning offshore oil and gas operations. It will also provide ancillary services such as boat repairs, metal working, oil-production equipment and buoys.

Cabinda drilling starts ■ Sonangol’s exploration arm, Sonangol P&P, began drilling in the

Cabinda Norte on-shore field in April. The block is located in the municipalities of Cacongo and Buco Zau. Block director Ernesto Pedro Taya told the Angop news agency that Sonangol is now ready to accelerate drilling operations after the completion of seismic surveys of the concession area.

Taya added that he expected Sonangol’s work in the area would stimulate new jobs for local people.

Raising standards ■ The First International Conference on

Company Certification in Angola took place in Luanda from March 27 to 29.

The event was promoted by Sonangol EP in partnership with the Ministry of Oil, Total Angola and the Angolan Institute for Standardisation and Quality.

The aim of the conference was to publicise best practices and make Angolan companies aware of the use of international standards for quality, job safety and environmental protection.

On opening the event, Sonangol board member Sebastião Gaspar Martins said that certification for any company was a factor for development, given that it made it more transparent to the market that an organisation was seeking to obtain high-quality standards.

Filomena Rosa, president of the executive commission of Sonangol Distribuidora, Sonangol’s distribution arm, said that company certification was the only way for a business to professionalise and ensure its growth in the Angolan market.

Block 31 production on track

■ Production is scheduled to begin in Block 31 in the second

half of the year, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The block is expected to reach peak oil output of 150,000 barrels per day between 2013 and 2014. Sonangol’s partners in the venture are BP, Exxon Mobil, Statoil, China Sonangol International and Marathon Oil. IStock Photo

IStock Photo

IStock Photo

Shipyard nears completion

JUNE 2012 41

Sonangol news briefing

SPORTING SUCCESS

SIIND adds more industrial units at Viana

Sonangol opts for renewable energy

IStock Photo

■ Mines and Industry Minister Joaquim

■ Sonangol is installing solar panels and wind generators to power its communications

equipment alongside Angola’s highways.

According to Sonangol’s co-ordinator for the environment, Maria Luísa Ndembo, a pilot project at Cabo Ledo in the south of Luanda province has proved successful, and the next step is to implement the project between Benguela and Kuito. Here, seven new renewable, energy systems will be installed; six will be solar-powered and one wind powered. The equipment will replace generators using fossil fuels.

David inaugurated six new industrial units at the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone at Viana at the end of May. The new factories bring the total at the site co-ordinated by Sonangol Investimentos Industriais (SIIND) to 14 and job numbers up to 3,600. Investment in the new units is estimated to be worth $78 million.

Manufactured items now include foam and spring mattresses, cushions, high-density plastic pipes and joints, PVC, medium- and low-voltage electrical equipment, cables, transformers and insulators.

SIIND’s executive commission plans to have a total of 26 industrial units up and running by the beginning of 2013, expanding to 53 units by 2014.

Established in October 2010, SIIND performs the role of promoting, developing and co-ordinating the management of industrial projects on behalf of Sonangol EP and its subsidiaries.

Sonaref trans-africa pipeline plan ■ A pipeline connecting Sonangol’s proposed new

42 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

IStock Photo

refinery (Sonaref) at Lobito to Zambia’s Copperbelt has been mooted.

Contracts for building the 200,000-barrels-aday refinery are expected to be awarded late 2013 or early 2014. Sonaref would supply Zambia with several types of refined products such as petrol, diesel and aircraft fuel.

The main mover behind the project is reported to be Zambia’s Basali Ba Liseli Resources.

Zambia’s Copperbelt currently receives its oil products from the Middle East via Tanzania.

Sonangol news briefing SPORTING SUCCESS

Tribute: Dr Alberto Serafim Araújo ■ Dr Alberto Serafim Araújo,

Sonangol GCI Archives

Sonangol GCI Archives

known affectionately as ‘Beto Araújo’, passed away on April 11. Dr Araújo had been president of the executive commission of MSTelcom SA, Sonangol’s telecommunications subsidiary, since 2008, having spent a total of 34 years in the Sonangol group.

Born in Luanda in 1958, Dr Araújo joined the MPLA guerrilla movement in Congo Brazzaville in 1974 and took part in the defence of Luanda.

Wounded in combat, he was demobilised in 1978 and then joined Sonangol, initially in the operational services office and then in the studies and projects department.

He later took a degree in economic science at the University of Saint-Étienne, France. In 1988, he joined Sonangol Distribuidora, where he rose to be head of the finance and planning office by June 1992.

Dr Araújo, pictured left and inset left, had a strong personal interest in the protection of the environment and biodiversity.

Sonangol Universo offers its condolences to Dr Araújo’s family and friends.

JUNE 2012 43

LNG

Sonangol news briefing

LNG ANGOLAN GAS GOES TO MARKET

Angola is about to initiate shipping operations of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and add a new income stream alongside its huge crude oil exports.

Universo examines the country’s first foray into this lucrative trade k

44 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

T

he $10 billion Angola LNG (ALNG) project at Soyo, Zaire province, in the north-west of the country, is now largely completed, tested and set to start exporting its first cargoes of liquefied natural gas.

Shipping tests including mooring and loading took place in May with the LNG tanker vessel Sambizanga, and regular exports will begin after official plant inauguration in late June, just five years since the giant project was initiated.

ALNG’s target market is no longer the United States but Asia and Europe, where gas commands much higher prices.

US prices have dropped dramatically, thanks to the rapid development of shale gas unleashed by new drilling and extraction techniques known as ‘fracking’.

This involves the use of explosives deep underground to release trapped pockets of gas.

At the same time, Asian prices have been boosted by the extra demand caused by the emergency shutdown of the nuclear facility at Fukushima, Japan, after a tsunami hit the site following an earthquake. European prices, where demand is buoyant, are still three to four times higher than the current US price of around $2 per million British thermal units (MMBtu).

The timing of the plant start-up is favourable as delivery prices for June have soared up to $17 per MMBtu in Asia.

The 5.2-million-ton capacity Soyo LNG plant could earn over $4 billion a year if prices stay at the current level – an important addition to the country’s export income.

Chevron

Sonangol newsLNG briefing

Environmental benefits ALNG is currently Angola’s largest investment enterprise and is a huge step towards adding extra value to its hydrocarbon resources, allowing the country to develop and benefit from its natural gas deposits.

Thanks to the project, the gas is now being piped ashore instead of being burnt off as a waste by-product from oil drilling. The wholesale stoppage of routine flaring has also contributed to reducing Angola’s greenhouse gas emissions with long-term environmental benefits for the planet.

Some of the natural gas, 125 million cubic feet per day, will be piped ashore for Sonangol’s domestic use. This will provide a cheap energy source for Angolans and help to replace electricity generators currently burning less-clean diesel oil.

“This is a huge venture, which has involved building a new company from scratch in a remote corner of Angola,” says Craig Bloomer, ALNG project director.

Angola LNG partners Sonangol....................................................... 22.8% Chevron......................................................... 36.4% Eni.................................................................. 13.6% Total............................................................... 13.6% BP................................................................... 13.6% Chevron

JUNE 2012 45

Sonangol news briefing

Environmental concern ALNG is conscious of its impact on the local community and the environment and has acted to address this throughout the construction process and beyond.

The project team has created a comprehensive and positive relationship with local fishermen and fish traders. This includes protecting the mangrove swamps that act as fish hatcheries and habitats.

In addition, it has improved fishing equipment by providing nets, floats, safety equipment, navigation lights, radar reflectors and rain jackets to help them fish at a safe distance from the ALNG site.

ALNG has also provided training 11 SONANGOL UNIVERSO 46 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

for safety at sea and equipment use.

Before site preparation and the dredging of trenches for tanker access began in 2007, ALNG drew up an ‘impact mitigation and development programme’. This identified and counted the fishermen and fish traders likely to be affected. It gave them identity cards and bank accounts so that any compensation due could be paid directly to them.

ALNG also wanted to add value to the fishing industry by developing fish- cleaning and storage facilities employing local women. The processed fish now has improved consumer quality and commands a better price at market.

The scheme has benefited from exchanges between ALNG team members and experts from Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Western Australia. Chevron Angola has the lead role in developing the ALNG operation.

To make liquefied natural gas, ALNG gathers natural gas associated with oil production from offshore oilproducing fields and from a number of operators throughout Angola – unlike most LNG projects, which are supplied by only a few non-associated fields that are primarily gas wells.

The gas is then transported through Sonangol’s 500km pipeline network to an onshore processing plant where it is cooled to minus 160 degrees centigrade.

This process converts the gas into a much more compact liquid, roughly 600-times smaller in volume, which can then be more conveniently shipped to customers around the world. The ALNG plant also produces condensate, propane and butane. The latter two are liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) ingredients and will enable Angola to be self-sufficient in the domestic fuel arena.

Located on a 240-hectare site south of the Congo River near the city of Soyo, the plant includes LNG tanks and a loading jetty able to accept the docking of ships with capacities up to 210,000 cubic metres.

Since ALNG began building the plant in 2007, the project has been a major provider of jobs and has helped 4,500 local workers to develop skills. It has also created business opportunities for nearby companies.

“Sonangol is intent on building industrial capacity and developing the Angolan workforce,” says Emanuel Leopoldo, ALNG operations manager.

ALNG protects biodiversity in all places where it operates, creating local partnerships and support for biodiversity schemes further afield. It also funds research and environmental education in schools and communities, publicising and promoting activities linked to protecting wildlife.

ALNG is particularly strong in stimulating local participation in initiatives such as beach cleaning and monitoring the protection of mangrove swamps around the Soyo site.

This is demonstrated in its extensive turtle-protection scheme, which goes far beyond minimising the

impact of ALNG operations on turtleegg laying on local beaches.

During the October to March laying period, ALNG-backed projects organise night patrols for turtle nest sites for the four species concerned, the green, leather-back, olive and big-head turtles.

An educational programme is being undertaken by locally-contracted ‘turtle guardians’. They patrol over ten miles of beach, identify and tag turtles and have built a hatchery. Turtles lay about 130 eggs each 15 days, but only one in a thousand will survive bird predators and reach adulthood.

SONANGOL UNIVERSO 12

JUNE 2012 47 Chevron

“ALNG also has a comprehensive training programme for its Angolan employees that will position fishermen well for careeradvancement opportunities.”

As part of this training, Chevron sent newly-hired Angolan workers for several months’ on-the-job practice at the company’s North American refineries. The ALNG project also acts as a catalyst for the development of Zaire province.

“We show our commitment to the Soyo community by creating good jobs; sourcing goods and services locally; investing in infrastructure, education and health; and implementing various social projects,” says Laurentino da Silva, ALNG development manager for Chevron policy, government and public affairs.

Infrastructure investments include improvements to roads, Soyo Airport and a community-housing development.

ALNG plans to spend nearly $100 million to renovate and expand the Soyo municipal hospital and the city’s electricity supply. It has also refurbished and expanded a local school to help improve education in Soyo.

As part of the project, ALNG had a seven-ship fleet built at South Korean shipyards in time to carry the first shipments of the liquefied gas. The tankers, named in honour of towns and cities in Angola, are mid-size vessels relative to the worldwide LNG carrier fleet, which gives them the ability to trade in almost any LNG port in the world.

Each is equipped to load a full shipment of LNG in 16 hours. When the plant is fully operational, it is expected that the ships will make about six loadings each month.p

Preserving biodiversity

BP Angola

Chevron

Sonangol news briefing

Sonangol news briefing

iStock Photo

OIL & GAS

OIL AND GAS EVENT SETS AGENDA FOR

Luanda hosted Angola’s international conference and exhibition on oil and gas in early May, attracting exhibitors and analysts from around the globe. Universo went along too

k

48 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

The use of high technology has made Angola a world-class oil country In a speech made at the official opening, Minister of Petroleum José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said that the opening of the Angolan oil sector to international companies after independence in 1975 has been crucial to its rapid development in recent years.

The government had successfully opted for an oil-sector policy offering attractive conditions for foreign investment, based on the principles of “reciprocal interests and mutual benefits”.

The use of high technology had

made Angola a world-class oil country, the minister said. In a strategy based on increasing natural gas and oil reserves, geophysical studies and mapping has led to the discovery of new exploration areas, which Angola is now exploiting.

Vasconcelos identified these areas as the landward part of the Kwanza basin and the deep waters of the Kwanza and Namibe basins, as well as the ultra-deep basins of the Lower Congo and Kwanza.

Priority in drilling, he said, has been given to the deep and ultra-deep basins of the

JUNE 2012 49

iStock Photo

T

he Angola International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition (AIOGACE) took place between May 7 and May 9 in downtown Luanda to celebrate the industry’s astounding growth over the past decade.

The conference analysed Angola’s hydrocarbon exploration and production operations as well as how to add value to its reserves.

The three-day event was held under the banner of ‘utilising and identifying new oil and gas resources for the benefit of Angola’s future generations’. Among those attending were specialists from Angola’s Ministry of Petroleum, Sonangol, the World Bank and international oil and gas companies. The event was hosted at Angola’s latest venue, the recently-opened five-star Epic Sana Luanda Hotel midway between the upper and lower city.

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Francisco Maria, president of Sonangol E.P. (centre) José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, minister of petroleum (right)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

& GAS Sonangol newsOIL briefing

Sonangol news briefing

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Lula Ahrens

Mr. Simba

OIL & GAS

Angola had estimated oil reserves of 9.5 billion barrels, which could last more than 50 years at current production rates Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Mr. Simba

50 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

& GAS Sonangol newsOIL briefing

Conference topics • An update on current exploration and production activities • Exploring the unknown: Presalt: Angola’s new exploration frontier

Kwanza as these are geologically related to Brazil’s Campos Basin, an area with abundant oil reserves.

The minister also confirmed that the first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the Angola LNG project in Soyo, Zaire province, would take place in June this year and that annual production would reach 5.2 million tonnes a year. He said he expected the project would have a positive impact on Angola’s economic growth and that its provision of butane or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for domestic use would make Angola self-sufficient in the product.

Vasconcelos said Sonangol would also have at its disposal 125 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to produce power and for use by the petrochemical industry, increasing its economic impact on the sector.

Speaking to the press, he said that Angola has estimated oil reserves of 9.5 billion barrels, which could last more than 50 years at current production rates. It also has 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough for the next 30 years.

Discussions held at the various conference seminars included power production in Angola, the exploration of new oil and gas frontiers represented by promising subsalt deposits and had finance and management of risks involved in the country’s oil and gas projects.

Other topics were the updating of current exploration and production techniques, the development of and challenges for the service sector in oilfields, and strategies for training and education in the oil and gas industry.

Angola’s Ministry of Petroleum, the African Petroleum Producers (APPA) Fund for Technical Co-operation, and Africa & Middle East (AME) Trade promoted the event. p

• LNG and gas: The future of Angola’s energy production • Technological innovations in exploration and production • Developments and challenges in oilfield services sectors • Angola’s activities in joint development zones and in projects outside of Angola • Finance and risk management in Angola’s oil and gas projects • Angola’s fiscal, legal and regulatory environment •E mpowering Angola’s entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises to succeed in the oil and gas sector • Training and education strategies in Angola’s oil and gas industry • Corporate social responsibility projects in Angola: Case studies

Event entertainer

•D ata management and information technology in Angola’s oil and gas industry

• Roundtable

discussion: on The challenges and goals for the next decade of Angola’s oil and gas industry

JUNE 2012 51

iStock Photo

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

Africa & Middle East Trade (AME)

• Angola’s downstream sector: Transport, logistics, supply chain and trading