Around 103 fuel trucks were filled from 00:00 to 13:00 this Tuesday, at the Sonangol Integrated Logistics Services (SONILS) base, to alleviate the product crisis that has been occurring since last Saturday, in Luanda.
According to a SONILS source, to which ANGOP had access, only at the Boavista 1 point are two filling islands in service with 14 filling points, with a capacity of one thousand liters per minute each.
The source explained that, during this period, 66 diesel trucks and 37 gasoline trucks were filled, with capacities of around 35 thousand liters.
To supply the trucks, SONANGOL is using the points at the Luanda Maritime Terminal “São Pedro da Barra” and Boavista (1 and 5).
The product is extracted from two cargo ships that docked at the Port of Luanda, with fuel “enough for one month’s consumption”, according to Jornal de Angola.
The country’s capital has been experiencing fuel shortages at almost all supply points since last Saturday, which has caused embarrassment to the population.
Since last Monday, long queues have been recorded at SONANGOL gas stations, justifying the lack of fuel with the scarcity of currency to import refined petroleum products.
Because of this situation, several citizens are reselling fuel at speculative prices in Luanda and other locations in the country.
Regarding this crisis, the President of the Republic received, this Tuesday, a detailed report on the fuel shortage situation.
The matter was on the table, Monday, at a meeting held at the Presidential Palace, which aimed to give “precise explanations” to the President of the Republic, about the lack of fuel in the country.
The meeting was attended by ministers of Mineral Resources and Petroleum, Energy and Water, and Finance, as well as the governor of the National Bank of Angola and the president of the Board of Directors of the Angolan oil company Sonangol, entities responsible for producing the report .
The Angolan oil company Sonangol justified, last Saturday, the shortage of fuel at the country’s main filling stations with an alleged difficult access to currency for the import of refined oil.
The Angolan State, through the National Fuel Society of Angola (Sonangol), disbursed, in the first quarter of 2019, a gross amount in the order of 221 million 434 thousand and 672 US dollars, with the import of 397 thousand and 458 tons oil metrics.
In a statement made public in Luanda, the company pointed out another negative factor, this one related to the “high debt” of the main customers in the industrial segment, who consume approximately 40 percent of all fuel.
According to the oil company, systematic damage to cabotage ships also contributes to the shortage, in addition to other factors, such as the technical condition of national roads, as well as weather conditions, which, at certain periods, make it difficult for transport ships to dock. of refined petroleum.
With a production of just over one and a half million barrels of crude oil per day, Angola ranks second in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria, which produces one million and seven hundred thousand barrels per day.
Angola imports 80 percent of refined products, with only 20 percent of its needs being nationally produced, processed at the Luanda Refinery, whose capacity is 65 thousand barrels per day.
To ensure the increase in internal fuel production capacity, a project is underway to build the Lobito refineries, with a capacity to process 200 thousand barrels/day, and the Cabinda refinery, with a capacity of 60 thousand barrels per day.