Natural resources and energy
Angola has large assets of oil, natural gas
and diamonds. In addition, the country has iron ore and
gold, which, however, have not been mined since the
colonial era. Marble, black granite and copper are
mined. Angola is considered to be a major producer of
electricity from hydropower.
Oil reserves off the coast of northern Angola, mainly
in the Cabinda province, are estimated to comprise just
over 12 billion barrels. In 2015, Angola was the second
largest oil producer in Africa (after Nigeria) and has
periodically been the largest. Angola has for several
years been China's largest supplier of crude oil. New
Angolan oil wells are regularly used, both further south
and deeper into the sea. Production increased from
740,000 barrels per day in 2001 to close to 2 million
barrels per day in 2008. Subsequently, production has
decreased due to technical problems in several of the
deep water fields; In 2014, production averaged 1.6
million barrels. However, a completely new deep-sea
deposit was expected to lead to a sharp increase in
production: the government estimated 3.5 million barrels
per day by 2020.
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COUNTRYAAH:
Major exports by Angola with a full list of the top products exported by the country. Includes trade value in U.S. dollars and the percentage for each product category.
There is a small refinery for the country's own oil
consumption. A larger refinery is being built. Until it
is clear, Angola must continue to import most of its
refined oil.
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Abbreviationfinder: A popular acronym site in the world covering abbreviation for each country. For example, AO stands for Angola.
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lyrics of national anthem and all songs related to the country of Angola.
Foreign interests in the oil
The leading US oil companies have paid billions of
dollars for the right to drill for oil. In recent years,
they have received competition from China's state oil
company Sinopec, which cooperates with Angolan oil
company Sonangol. This company is a state in the state
and makes huge profits, controlled by the inner circle
of political power. Other countries also participate in
oil recovery. Prior to President dos Santo's state visit
to France in April 2014, for example, the French oil
company Total promised to invest around $ 16 billion in
a joint offshore oil recovery project with an estimated
start in 2017.
The oil fields also contain large quantities of
natural gas. Sonangol, together with an American
company, has built a plant that, after major delays and
unexpectedly high costs, could begin exporting frozen
natural gas in liquid form (LNG) in 2013. Plans are
underway to build another plant.
Angola has large assets of high quality diamonds,
mainly in the northeastern provinces. Since the unita
guerrilla movement in 2002 was forced to hand over
control of all mines to the MPLA government (see Modern
history), production has increased. Diamond mining is
mainly carried out by a growing number of domestic and
foreign companies, but there is also an informal sector
with thousands of individual diamond miners, although
many of them have been expelled in recent years. They
sell diamonds to the state's procurement companies or
smuggle them out of the country, which usually results
in higher profitability. Earnings from smuggling were
previously believed to have been about one-third of
total income, but smuggling has recently declined.
Hydropower is being expanded
In the early 2010s, the government estimated that
around a third of the population had access to regular
electricity supply - in the countryside, only one-tenth
was available. Electricity is mainly extracted from
hydropower plants in the country's many rivers. At the
end of the war in 2002, the power plants were
old-fashioned and too few - maintenance and expansion of
dams and power lines had been hampered by the war. A few
large dams in the Kwanza River - Capanda and Cambambe -
have since been equipped with, among other things,
Russian and Chinese assistance and electricity
generation has increased significantly. Power lines have
been repaired and new ones are planned.
Southwestern Angola receives electricity from the
Matala dam in the Cunene River and in the central parts
of the country there are several small power plants
which are, among other things, powered by biofuels.
Despite the expansion, the grid is still weak and poorly
maintained. Electricity consumption has risen so much in
recent years that long power outages are constantly
occurring in the capital Luanda, where three quarters of
electricity consumption in the country takes place but
where only one in four residents have access to the
electricity grid. The electricity shortage is a major
obstacle to Angola's economic development.
FACTS - ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
Energy use per person
606 kilos of oil equivalent (2014)
Electricity consumption per person
347 kWh, kWh (2014)
Carbon dioxide emissions in total
34 763 thousand tonnes (2014)
Carbon dioxide emissions per inhabitant
1.3 tons (2014)
The share of energy from renewable sources
49.6 percent (2015)
2013
November
Intelligence manager may go
President dos Santos dismisses the head of the
intelligence service. No reason is officially stated but
the incident is linked to the arrest of four people who
worked for the security agencies and accused of
kidnapping two regime-critical activists in May of that
year. The activists have disappeared and are feared to
be dead.
June
The president's son takes over as chairman
President dos Santos eldest son José Filomeno de
Sousa dos Santos is appointed chairman of the new state
investment fund (see October 2012).
May
Armando Manuel becomes Minister of Finance
In the first government reform since the 2012
election, the State Investment Fund's Chairman Armando
Manuel is appointed Minister of Finance.
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