Angola`s reviving coffee

SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Universo
www.universo-magazine.com
MARCH 2013
Angola’s reviving coffee
ISSUE 37 – MARCH 2013
SONANGOL TARGETS
2 MILLION BARRELS
NETHERLANDS
PARTNERSHIP
CABINDA $1BILLION
DEVELOPMENT
INSIDE:
oil and gas news
Glenn R. Specht-grs photo
Contents
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
Managing Editor: Mauro Perillo
Art Director: Tony Hill
ANGOLA NEWS BRIEFING
ngola-Brazil cable project; TAAG numbers take
A
off; satellite launch by 2016; GDP data shows
diversification; Cabinda industrial hub; AngolaNamibia rail connection
6
ANGOLA-NETHERLANDS RELATIONS
David Maska
4
Board Members
Francisco de Lemos José Maria
(President), Mateus de Brito, Anabela
Fonseca, Sebastião Gaspar Martins,
Fernando Roberto, Baptista Sumbe,
Raquel Vunge
COASTING ALONG
The Dutch doing what they do best
14
ANGOLAN DESIGNS ON YOUR BODY
Three sisters on the trail of fashion success
22
CABINDA: QUAYS TO SUCCESS
6
Peter Moeller
Universo is the international
magazine of Sonangol
Sub Editor: Ron Gribble
Hefty investment in new infrastructure
Project Consultant: Nathalie MacCarthy
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:
[email protected]
Circulation: 17,000
Davenport House
16 Pepper Street
London E14 9RP
United Kingdom
Tel + 44 20 7510 9595
Fax +44 20 7510 9596
[email protected]
www.universo-magazine.com
Cover: Pavel Hlystov / Tony Hill
VISITS ANGOLA
Welcome changes
G
oing on foot is one of the most direct ways of getting to know
a city and its people. In Luanda’s case, it’s also one way to
check the rate of the country’s economic development.
Regular visitors exploring the city’s busy highways and
byways over the last year or two are struck by the speedy multiplication
of shops, restaurants and cafés.
A parallel trend has been the increase in the quantity and quality
of fresh produce available in these establishments and on the colourful
displays of street-sellers.
Both these welcome changes indicate two important recent
advances in Angola: firstly, greater efficiency in logistics, permitting
easier flows of goods from factories, farms and fisheries, and secondly,
rising productivity in this vast land.
Stacks of gorgeous golden pineapples and buckets of tasty lobsters
symbolise much more than a bargain as prices fall – they signal
Angola’s advancing economy!
John Kolodziejski
Editor
2 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
haak78
30
GOLDEN SHOES JOHNSON
Production Assistant: Sebnem Brown
22
Top athlete tracks local progress
32
STIRRING INITIATIVES
ANGOLA’S COFFEE
32
Projects point to greater growth
41
SONANGOL NEWS BRIEFING
Eco race win; Petro Atlético win SuperCup; two
Desert Runner.com
Production Manager: Matthew Alexander
more Suezmax tankers; Sonangol stake in Puma
Energy; $1 billion debt deal; refinery foundation
41
stone laid; welcome to the bridge; Sonaci signs
LNG trader partnership; Sonangol women in
desert rally; Mamufeira project gets go-ahead;
PSVM starts up; literary prize winner
Malocha
Proofreading: Gail Bonebrake Nelson
46 SONANGOL PRESS CONFERENCE
Production and investment on the rise
50 SONANGOL LTD CELEBRATES
30TH ANNIVERSARY
46
MARCH 2013 3
Angola news briefing
Angola news briefing
TAAG numbers take off
■ Passenger numbers on Angola Airlines (TAAG) grew from 1.05 million
in 2011 to 1.2 million last year. Company chief executive Pimentel Araújo
said the increase in traffic would enable TAAG to purchase new planes
and consequently further increase passenger numbers.
TAAG signed a contract with Boeing in March 2011 for three more
planes, with the first expected in May 2014, the second in December 2015
and the third in March 2016.
The company also has the option to buy another three planes for 20192020, but they may be delivered earlier if required.
■ Telecommunications company Angola Cables
launched an intercontinental fibre-optic link project
on December 14. The South Atlantic Cable System
(SACS) will run for 6,000 km and link Luanda to
Fortaleza, in the northeastern Brazilian state of
Ceará. The cable will be used for the transmission
of voice and data as part of a network connecting
Africa to Latin America and Asia. The project will
cost $278 million and should be completed by the
end of 2014.
The existing link between the three regions is
currently carried out by undersea cables that travel
via the United States and Europe.
Angola Cables, established in 2009 by the five
main Angolan telecommunications operators, aims
to turn Angola into the main telecommunications
platform in Africa and dramatically increase the
availability of services. It is also expected to cut
costs to users by 80 per cent.
Satellite launch
by 2016
■ Angola will launch its first telecommunications satellite,
Angosat, within three years, says Alcides Safeca, Secretary of
State for Telecommunications and Information Technology.
“Construction has already begun and is led by a Russian
consortium with experience in the field,” he said. The
$40 million project is financed by a group of Russian banks
led by Ruseximbank and VTB. The satellite belongs to the
Yamal class and will have a lifespan of 12 years.
Cabinda
industrial
hub
■ A consortium made up of
Portuguese construction groups
Edifer and Soares da Costa has
been awarded the contract to
build the infrastructure and seven
buildings at the Fútila industrial hub
in Angola’s Cabinda province.
The $68 million project is to
be completed in 12 months. The
contract includes building roads
and electricity, water and sewage
systems at the industrial park,
as well as administrative and
support buildings.
The Fútila hub was established in
1998 and is located on the Malembo
plains, some 30 km north of the
city of Cabinda. It is funded by the
World Bank, Sonangol, the Angolan
government, the Cabinda provincial
government and other investors.
Angola-Namibia rail connection
Kamene M Traça
Anteromite
Angola-Brazil in cable link-up
■ Construction of a rail connection between Angola and Namibia as a branch of the
Moçâmedes Railway Company (CFM) may start in 2013. CFM board chairman Daniel
Paxe said that the aim was to link the two countries and enable the flow of people and
goods as part of the regional integration process.
“The Angolan executive intends to extend its line over 300 km which will link
Chamutete [Huíla] and Santa Clara [Cunene] on the border of Namibia,” he said.
Angola’s railway authorities are also in talks with General Electric to import a large
number of locomotives, which will benefit CFM.
In the 1970s, CFM operated 72 GE locomotives, mostly to exploit iron ore traffic. The
planned re-opening of mines at Jamba and Chamutete, together with the complete
rebuilding of Angola’s two other east-west railways, means that the number of GE
locomotives could double.
FIGURED OUT
Angola in numbers
200,000 jobs
created in 2012
GDP data shows
diversification
■ Oil’s share in the Angolan economy’s gross domestic
product is expected to be around 39 per cent at the end
of 2012 compared to 56 per cent in 2002, according to
Álvaro Sobrinho, chairman of Angolan bank Banco Espírito
Santo Angola (BESA). He said the figures are a sign that the
economy is diversifying.
4 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
$8.8 billion
Sonangol oil investments planned in next ten years
4 million Angolans
have gained access to water since 2008
1.2 million
TAAG passengers in 2012
$40 million
the cost of Angola’s first satellite
MARCH 2013 5
INTERNATIONAL
ANGOLA-NETHERLANDS RELATIONS
COASTING
ALONG
The Dutch are famous for their low-lying lands, windmills, canals, tulips and
cheese, but their small country also punches way above its weight in economic
terms. Universo looks at its contributions to rebuilding Angola
6 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
MARCH 2013 7
T.W. van Urk
By Lula Ahrens
INTERNATIONAL
T
he Netherlands is inextricably
linked to the sea. The country
name means ‘low lands’, and
indeed one-third of its territory is
below sea level. Most of the rest would be
under water if it were not for the protection
of dykes, dunes and pumping stations.
Large parts of the country were
reclaimed from the North Sea, and its
emblematic windmills, once considered
new technology, were used to drain its now
highly-productive farmland.
The Dutch also have a long tradition
as a seafaring nation. Explorers from its
shores discovered Australia in 1606 and
New Zealand in 1642. Dutch inventions
include the microscope (1590), the stock
exchange (1606), the submarine (1620) and
the compact disc (1979).
The country’s ingenuity and industry,
supported by a proud tradition of
democracy and openness to the world,
INTERNATIONAL
have made it a significant trading partner
and thus well placed to support Angola’s
rapid economic revival.
Susanna Terstal, Netherlands
Ambassador in Angola, points out that
Holland is the third-largest exporter to
Angola and one of the largest investors in
the country. Dutch exports to Angola are
worth around €e200-300 million a year,
compared to €e450-700 million of Angolan
exports, mostly oil, to the Netherlands.
The figures illustrate the fact that the
Netherlands’ emphasis in Angola lies in
economic diplomacy.
“Angola offers many opportunities
for Dutch businesses, and also in the
areas of water, transport and energy,” the
ambassador told Universo. “On the other
hand, Dutch investments create many
jobs. The Angolan president himself has
assured me that the relationship between
our countries is very good indeed.”
According to Ambassador Terstal,
the Netherlands can help the Angolan
government diversify the economy.
“The Dutch are experts in areas such
as water, transport, logistics, smart
grids for electricity, information and
communications technology, the offshore
industry, retail, agriculture, horticulture
and poultry.”
One of the areas in which the countries
form a perfect match is in potato farming.
“Angola’s goal is to be self-sufficient in
its potato production within a year, and
the Netherlands happens to be one of the
world’s top potato-producing countries.
We definitely can help Angola to reach selfsufficiency,” said the ambassador.
While Angola is used to governmentto-government relationships, the
Netherlands focuses on relationships
between companies, she explained. The
Netherlands has a Ministry of Development
Dutch inventions
The
microscope
The world’s
first stock
exchange
8 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Baitong333
The
compact
disc
michaeljung
Hxdbzxy
Sea of opportunities
Mariusz Szczygiel
The
submarine
and Trade, which up until now fell under
separate ministries. “Particularly in Angola
it is very interesting to see how one can
combine those two,” she said.
“An example is the Dutch government’s
private sector investment programme
(PSI), which aims to stimulate co-operation
between Angolan, Dutch and other foreign
companies. These companies started joint
operations under the PSI programme
in 2013.”
However, independent Dutch
consultant Peter-Jan van As believes there
is “room for improvement” in Dutch
economic relations with Angola. Van As
has many years of experience in Angola
as a local content co-ordinator and has
organised various trade missions to Angola
as the representative of the NetherlandsAfrican Business Council.
“The Dutch government offers a
matchmaking programme whereby
Angolan entrepreneurs are invited to the
Netherlands to visit a variety of companies
and see what Holland has to offer. Dutch
companies are strong in knowledge transfer
and like working together as equal partners
so that both bring something to the table:
for example under the PSI programme.”
Angola and the Netherlands have had
diplomatic relations since 1976. Large
Dutch companies operating in Angola
include Damen Trading, NileDutch,
Boskalis International, Philips, Heineken,
DAF Trucks, Van Oord, Heerema and Van
Vliet Trucks.
Given the Netherlands’ extensive
engagement in all areas connected to
the sea, the country unsurprisingly
has developed similar projects in
Angola. Dredging, land reclamation,
dock engineering and shipping figure
prominently in the country’s Angolan
business portfolio.
A recent dramatic example of Dutch
water engineering and land reclamation
was the preparation of the giant site for the
$10 billion Soyo LNG plant located south of
the Congo River, in Zaire province.
A joint-venture led by Boskalis
International, the dredging division of Dutch
Heerema has installed the majority of Angola’s large offshore facilities
Dredging, land reclamation, dock
engineering and shipping
figure prominently in the Netherlands
Angolan business portfolio
marine infrastructure and maritime services
company Royal Boskalis Westminster
and Belgium’s Jan De Nul, undertook the
contract in a tight two-year schedule.
The contractors required a high degree
of flexibility as the scope of work changed
over time. Extensive environmental
mitigation measures presented a
further challenge, as did the handling of
unexploded wartime munitions found
lying on the seabed in the area.
Large-scale site preparation and
related works included widening and
deepening the existing 4.5 km shipping
access channel in the Bay of Diogo Cão,
dredging a turning basin for the LNG
facility, shore protection works and
drainage, as well as improving the existing
Kwanda Basin. The operation dredged a
volume of 28 million cubic metres and
raised the level of 125 hectares of existing
land was raised on the north side if
Kwanda Island. It also reclaimed a further
65 hectares of new land in the Congo River.
In 2010 Boskalis won a further fouryear major dredging and maintenance
contract for Angola LNG in partnership
with Dredging International.
Another major Dutch company
active in the same area in Angola is Van
Oord which has over a century of global
experience. Some of Van Oord’s most
prestigious and spectacular projects
include Dubai’s artificial islands, the
MARCH 2013 9
INTERNATIONAL
INTERNATIONAL
Haider
One of Van Oord’s most
spectacular achievements:
Dubai’s artificial islands
Since the 1970s, Damen has supplied
Angola with a great number and variety of
vessels. “Our delivery of two ferries and
recently three FISVs are the most important
projects to date,” said Friso Visser, regional
director for Africa at Damen Shipyards.
There has been a lot of publicity lately
on the deployment of Damen’s fishing
surveillance vessel, Ngola Kiluange, in
Angola. Two new similar vessels will
operate in Angola’s Exclusive Economic
Zone waters. Currently two of its vessels
operate from the Port of Luanda. “Angola
is certainly seen as a serious option to
install a local base,” said Visser. “Damen
will focus on ship maintenance in Angola
in the near future.”
Dutch shipping company NileDutch
has had an office in Luanda since 1985.
It was the first shipping company to run
a regular schedule from the Netherlands
to Angola, as part of a now wider itinerary
between Europe, western and southern
Africa and Brazil. Unlike many foreign
shipping companies, NileDutch has never
left Angola and, as a result, has built a
solid reputation among importers and the
10 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Angolan government. NileDutch also runs
one of Luanda’s port terminals.
Another prominent Dutch company
in Angola is Heerema Marine Contractors,
which works in the offshore oil and gas
industry. Present in Angola for over
a decade, Heerema has installed the
majority of the large offshore facilities. This
includes traditional fixed platforms (Block
0), compliant towers (Block 14), tension
leg platforms (Block 15) and offshore FPSO
modules (Block 17).
As a natural progression from facilities
installation, Heerema has moved into the
Angolan deepwater market in general, and
specifically into the subsea installation
of flow lines, umbilicals and risers. As
a result, in 2008 Heerema was awarded
its first subsea installation contract for
Block 31 (PSVM). This contract included
engineering, procurement, construction
Netherlands
and installation works.
0
0
50
100
50
Assen
S
NETHERLAND
Drenthe
Ijsselmeer
150 km
100 mi
North Sea
North Holland
Lelystad
Zwolle
Flevoland
Haarlem
Waddenzee
The Hague
Friesland
Rotterdam
Assen
Drenthe
Ijsselmeer
Utrecht
South Holland
Groningen
Leeuwarden
Overijssel
Amsterdam
Gelderland
North Holland
North Sea
Arnheim
Lelystad
Zwolle
Flevoland
Haarlem
Overijssel
Amsterdam
Hertogenbosch
North Brabant
Middleburg
The Hague
Utrecht
Gelderland
South Holland
Arnheim
Rotterdam
National Capital
Social commitments
Arlon
City
Onshore, Heerema has
developed
a
International
Boundary
Province Boundary
partnership in an oil industry
equipment
Name
Drenthein Province
manufacturing yard
Porto
Amboim,
Provinces have the same name as
completed in 2010.
That
same
year,
their capital unless otherwise noted.
km
Heerema also incorporated40 a
joint venture
0
Miles
for offshore marine
transportation 40services.
“Within the next five years, Heerema
intends to have a sustainable fabrication
yard and logistics facility employing
around 600 people,” said general manager
Bob van der Meer.
As part of its social commitments in
Porto Amboim, Heerema recently built a
small library in co-operation with the local
municipality. Here children can do their
homework and adults attend workshops
in several subjects. Heerema is also
expanding and improving Porto Amboim’s
Remar orphanage for boys.
Heerema currently employs 180
people, of whom 83 per cent are Angolan
nationals. It has an Angolanisation plan in
place which it has strictly followed since the
beginning of its activities. According to Van
der Meer, “Heerema’s roots are firmly in
the soil of Angola. We have been developing
our fabrication yard for almost a year, and
also have plans to provide logistics support
to the pre-salt developments.”
Friesland
ANGOLA
30x
Groningen
Leeuwarden
Waddenzee
Zeeland
Limburg
Hertogenbosch
Netherlands
North Brabant
Middleburg
National Capital
Arlon
Zeeland
City
International Boundary
Maastricht
Limburg
Province Boundary
Netherlands
Drenthe
Province Name
Provinces have the same name as
their capital unless otherwise noted.
40 km
0
40 Miles
Maastricht
Mark Clydesdale BZO
Malongo, Cabinda; sand deliveries for the
Lobito Mineral Terminal; and maintenance
dredging for Angola LNG in Soyo.
Continuing with the sea theme,
Damen Trading sold Susanne, one of the
first vessels supplied by a Dutch company,
to Angola in the 1970s. Following this
sale, Damen became well known around
the world for its shipping expertise. More
recently the company built three fishery
inspection surveillance vessels (FISVs) for
the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture, Rural
Development and Fisheries, allowing
Angola to strengthen its control over its
rich fishing grounds.
Netherlands key facts
Land area 41,543 sq km (Angola 1,246,700 sq km)
GDP $709.5 billion (2012 estimate, source: CIA World Factbook)
Exports $556.5 billion (2012 estimate, source: CIA World Factbook)
Imports $490.1 billion (2012 estimate, source: CIA World Factbook)
Population 16.7 million
Europe’s fifth-largest economy in the eurozone
MoinMoin
Dutch Delta Plan, the Port of Rotterdam
Maasvlakte II expansion and Hong Kong’s
Chek Lap Kok airport.
Recognising Angola’s potential and
swift progress in the reconstruction of
its vital infrastructure, Van Oord opened
an office in Luanda in October 2010. The
company has undertaken a large number
of marine construction works along
Angola’s coast.
Van Oord’s most important projects
in the country to date include the dredging
of the turning basin and access channel for
the Port of Cabinda; maintenance dredging
for Cabinda Gulf Oil at the docks in
MARCH 2013 11
INTERNATIONAL
Netherlands main international airport, Schiphol, is an astonishing 3.4 metres below sea level
KLM’s inaugural flight brought home bones of a 65-milion-year-old mosasaur
Netherlands-Angola trade
Netherlands
ExportImport Balance
(m mln)
(m mln)
(m mln)
2008
363.11,269.5 -906.4
2009
258.0465.4 -207.4
2010
244.2469.0 -224.8
2011
261.2671.2 -410.0
2012 January – August
202.6
430.3
Source: Dutch CBS and Angolan Customs Office
12 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
-227.7
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines began
operating scheduled service between
Amsterdam and Luanda in partnership
with Angolan airline TAAG in the spring
of 2012.
To commemorate this inaugural
flight, the Dutch government returned the
fossilised bones of a mosasaur to Angola,
where it had been unearthed and where
this carnivorous sea reptile lived 65 million
years ago.
to visit the country, interact and better
understand Dutch culture.”
According to Oliveira, “The Dutch
have a reputation for entrepreneurship,
being down to earth and direct in their
communications. That is a good fit
with the offshore industry and it makes
Fugro successful in its ventures. More
importantly, the Dutch are used to
interfacing with other nationalities and
are open and interested in other cultures.”
world’s most industrialised regions at the
end of the 18th century and boasted some
600 windmills. Dutch influence in South
Africa meant that settlers built in the Cape
area, with the first, Oude Molen, beginning
operations in 1718.
The Dutch are not neglecting wind
power in their modern economy. The
country has some 2,000 megawatts of
capacity from onshore wind farms and has
plans to produce 6,000 megawatts by 2020.
On the map
Wind power
Dutch connection
Another fast-expanding Dutch concern in
Angola is Fugro Mauritius which opened
an office in Luanda’s Sonils oil industry
services port in 2002. Present in more than
60 countries, Fugro collects, processes
and interprets data relating to the Earth’s
surface and subsurface in the support of
infrastructure developments on land, the
coast and the seabed.
The Netherlands lays legitimate claim
to having founded modern mapping; in 1569
Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator
invented his famous projection, the
standard map format for nautical purposes.
Fugro also provides services such
as precise global positioning, weather
forecasting, structural monitoring, subsea
engineering and construction. Last year
Fugro was subcontracted by Oceaneering
for operations in the BP Block 18 and
31 project.
The company is currently expanding
its Sonils office, which also comprises a
workshop, warehouse facilities, training
rooms and a geotechnical laboratory.
The laboratory will be the only one of its
kind in Angola and will perform standards
testing, advanced geotechnical testing and
geochronological testing.
Fugro Angola has 68 employees (58
of them Angolan) and has developed a
detailed recruitment and training plan so
that Angolans may occupy posts currently
filled by expatriate staff.
“Some of Fugro’s employees have
lived or have family currently residing
in Holland,” said Fugro spokesperson
Sofia Oliveira. “As our Holland office
also provides training for Angolan staff,
some of our Angolan employees are able
The origins of windmills date back to the
Ancient Greeks, but the Netherlands is
the country most associated with them
because of their great concentration and
how they dominate the flat landscape.
In the mid-19th century, the country
had about 10,000 windmills, mostly for use
in land drainage and flood protection but
also for industrial tasks such as carpentry
and grinding cereals. Today around 1,000
remain; many are ready as backups for
modern pumping stations, while others
are museum pieces run by volunteers.
The Zaan district was one of the
The Dutch occupied the coastal area of
Angola between 1641 and 1648 as part of a
dispute over the sea lanes, slave trade, and
its then long-running global war with Spain.
The Spanish ruled the Portuguese
from 1580 to 1640. Seizing Luanda and
Benguela from the Portuguese in 1641,
the Dutch made an alliance with Angola’s
Queen Nzinga of the Ndongo kingdom and
fought alongside her troops at the sieges of
Ambaca, Massangano and Muxima.
The Portuguese had then withdrawn
to the interior and only returned to
Luanda after Salvador Correia de Sá with
Oleandra
Jelle vd Wolf
INTERNATIONAL
a fleet of 15 ships from Brazil forced the
Dutch out. Correia de Sá had already
successfully fought the Dutch in northeast Brazil.
Angola’s most famous author, Pepetela
describes the years when the Dutch ruled
Angola in his novel The Glorious Family. More
specifically, it is about the fictional family of
Baltasar Van Dum, a Flemish slave trader in
Luanda. Pepetela carried out painstaking
research on Angola’s Dutch colonial history
using archives in Amsterdam, Antwerp and
the Vatican.
Fast-forward into the 20th century
when Angola was one of the world’s main
coffee producers, and the Netherlands
was the second-largest European buyer of
coffee after the Portuguese.
Dutch trade with the repressive
Portuguese Salazar regime led to the
Dutch-Angola Committee successfully
campaigning to stop major Dutch coffee
roasters and distributors from importing
and selling Angolan coffee. This was a
textbook example of how a small group of
civil activists can bring about great changes
by influencing public opinion. p
The Kinderdijk array of historic windmills, open to visitors: see www.kinderdijk.com
MARCH 2013 13
CULTURE
Andgeosilgansn
on your body
Three Angolan sisters have developed
a successful fashion label that is
attracting clients across the globe.
Universo looks at this homespun,
imagination-catching enterprise
14 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
MARCH 2013 15
Gianluigi Guercia AFP
By Lula Ahrens
CULTURE
CULTURE
“Ourexbrclanusdivise,
verymost of our
and is based on
workivate orders.”
pr
Geraldo sisters – Delphinah
(right) and Beatrice
MARCH 2013 17
Geraldo Fashions
16 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Geraldo Fashions
Y
oung and strikingly welldressed, Beatrice and
Delphinah Geraldo ooze
an air of modest selfconfidence as they gaze across the
gleaming, serene waters of Luanda Bay
from their restaurant table.
No wonder; Angolan women’s
magazines Caras and Caju have already
named the two Geraldo sisters along
with a third, Lauretta, who make up
Geraldo Fashions, one of Angola’s most
influential brand names in 2011, and
their star continues to rise steadily.
A skirt Delphinah made and wore
to university in 2001 was the first step
along the catwalk of success. Her fellow
students fell so in love with its cut and
style that the sisters began making more
clothes for them on a manual sewing
machine at home.
At the time, the sisters, who grew
up in Botswana and Namibia, were not
planning a fashion career. Delphinah,
now aged 32, studied economics in
Namibia while Beatrice, 29, studied
interior design in Cape Town. Lauretta,
22, is currently studying computer game
design in Florida.
After their first official fashion
show things took off. The sisters bought
electric sewing machines and, together
with a friend, launched GSquare, their
first label. GSquare won the Young
Entrepreneurs Prize worth 10,000
Namibian dollars at the Namibian
Entrepreneurs Competition in 2001.
Soon afterwards, their friend left the
partnership. “That’s when Delphinah,
Lauretta and I launched our own label,
Geraldo Fashions. It’s named after our
late father, who was an artist, painter
and carpenter,” says Beatrice.
The sisters buy most of their fabrics
in South Africa, Namibia, Portugal and
France. Silk and chiffon are among their
favourite materials, as are feathers, fur
and laces. Daring, detailed tailoring and
a wide array of colour variations mark
their designs.
CULTURE
New York success
The sisters’ career shifted up a gear in
2012 when Geraldo Fashions participated
in Moda Luanda, Swahili Fashion
Week, Cape Town Fashion Week and
Mozambique Fashion Week. They were
also admitted to the prestigious Africa
Fashion Show New York. This was a
great success and it brought them a lot
of media coverage and an even
larger number of international
clients. “Various shops in New
York now want our stock,”
says Delphinah.
After the show, the Geraldo sisters
were approached by organisers of
various fashion events, including
African Fashion Week Toronto and
African Fashion Week Los Angeles. They
received Angolan TV coverage from the
TPA breakfast show, TV Zimbo’s Sexto
Sentido and Zimbando.
Features on the Geraldo sisters also
appeared in Angolan magazines O País,
Vida, Super Fashion and Chocolate.
Internationally, they were featured in
Forbes Africa, US-based LIVID Magazine,
Zen Magazine, Crème Magazine and
numerous fashion blogs from Africa to
Asia and Europe.
“I think we got all this attention
because our collection was different
from that of other designers,” says
Beatrice. “We offer a new approach to
African design, meant to suit a variety of
international clients.”
Delphinah adds: “We do have African
touches in different pieces. In New York,
for example, we had a piece made of nonAfrican cotton, but with pieces of wood.”
Success has brought some dilemmas.
The choice of upcoming fashion shows is
currently overwhelming. “The question
now is which shows to participate in
Inspired by Angolan woman
next, given our tight time schedule,”
says Delphinah. “In any case, we’ll take
part in shows in the US, Europe and in
Africa. We want to spread our exposure
over various continents.”
Geraldo Fashions’ Angolan clients
buy their fashion items online. “Our
brand is very exclusive, and most of
our work is based on private orders,”
Beatrice explains. “We have our own
website, Facebook page and Twitter
account. Our online store should be up
and running within a few months.”
Renting a store in Luanda is
expensive, and Geraldo Fashions is still
a small business.
“But agreements are under way in
New York and other capitals to enlist
various boutiques as regular buyers,”
says Beatrice. Those who want to wear
Geraldo Fashions’ exclusive designs
and materials have to place a personal
order. “A dress will cost you between
$100 and $700,” she says.
Gaining ground
The United States is currently Geraldo
Fashions’ largest market outside Angola,
but the domestic market still tops
Geraldo Fashions
Success did not take long to unfold. Apart
from their mostly Angolan clientele,
Geraldo Fashions now has American,
German, South African and Namibian
customers. In 2011, TV presenter and
model Vânia Vilela, singer and Big
Brother Africa reality TV star Tatiana
Durão, Channel O presenter Weza da
Silva and Angolan top model Karina Silva
were all seen wearing Geraldo Fashions.
Angolan celebrity Lígia Henriques
has bought more than half of their Moda
Luanda 2012 collection. “She wore the
items to big events, and most of them
ended up in magazines,” says Beatrice.
In 2002 the sisters joined the Pan
African Fashion Show. That same year
they were elected Best Young Namibian
Designers by an international judging
panel at the Sense of Africa fashion show.
Beatrice and Delphinah moved back
to Angola in 2005. They participated in
Angola Fashion Week 2009, 2010 and
2011 and in Africa’s
biggest fashion event, Fashion Business
Angola, in October 2011.
“I would say that Angolans are more
fashion sensitive than most southern
Africans,” says Beatrice. “They are label
sensitive, and strikingly unique and
creative in the way they dress.”
According to Delphinah, Angola’s
eye for fashion has greatly increased
over the last few years. “We’re more
exposed to fashion than ever before,
partly thanks to Angolan magazines
such as Super Fashion, Chocolate, Caras,
and Angolan bloggers.”
the list. “Next, we plan to approach
the European market. We have a
few international shows lined up.
An accessory line is part of the 2013
plan. Hopefully by the end of this year
we’ll have the male line running,”
says Beatrice.
The Geraldo sisters still make
their clothes at home themselves, but
their label’s popularity surge is forcing
them to think about ways to increase
their production. “We’re trying to find
manufacturers that can produce outfits
at an affordable price outside Angola,
which is quite a challenge. Our eyes
are currently on Namibia and South
Africa,” says Delphinah.
Whatever route they take next, one
thing is certain – Geraldo Fashions was
born at the right time. “Our fashion
has a modern African feel, for which
there is an increasing demand,” says
Beatrice. “We see more and more
people wearing national designers at
events, parties, clubs and restaurants,
but also in African magazines like
Chocolate and Caras. Five or six years
ago, Angolan labels were almost nonexistent in people’s daily lives.”p
www.facebook.com/GeraldoFashionsofficial
Geraldo Fashions
Going global
CULTURE
Glossy fashion magazine Chocolate has been published in Angola
since 2007 and mirrors the image of the new African woman; her
desires and aspirations in the area of fashion, behaviour, work
and study. Chocolate’s main inspiration is the Angolan woman.
Chocolate is distributed throughout Angola and since 2012
in Mozambique and Brazil with the aim of taking the image of
the ‘New Angolan Woman’ ever further afield. It also promotes
Angolan women’s fashion brands and products abroad and
keeps readers up to date on new trends.
18 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
MARCH 2013 19
CULTURE
CULTURE
Geraldo Fashions
20 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Geraldo Fashions
Geraldo Fashions
In 2013, Portuguese fashion aficionado Soraia Mangi
concluded her master’s degree in Milan, one of the
big four fashion capitals of the world. She has been
a fashion blogger since 2011 and visits Angola every
three to four months.
Fashion-trend spotter, blogger and regular visitor to
Angola, Soraia Mangi says the country is one to watch
carefully when it comes to global fashion.
“Angola was ‘shut down’ for a few decades, but
thanks to political and economic stability, Angolans
have travelled and let themselves be inspired by other
countries, cultures and international artists. Along with
the creativity that is already part of the Angolan DNA, this
has resulted in an explosion of art and innovation,” says
Mangi who completed a master’s degree in Fashion,
Experience and Design management in Italy this year
and blogs on retropopvintage.com
One of her main inspirations is the blog Estilo &
Etiqueta: “First, because it truly reflects Angolan and
African fashion in general, and secondly, because it is
written mainly for men,” she says of the website*. “Angola can be seen as a powerful new source of
information and creativity. Most markets and countries
have been contributing to fashion for ages; their ideas are
being recycled. They don’t really come up with anything
new and revolutionary. Angola does,” says Mangi.
“Angolan designers started from zero, and are full of
ideas. They have often travelled, learned, and succeeded
outside Angola. They are ready to tell the world that
they’re Angolan, that they have potential, that they see
things from a new and different perspective. They want
to share the idea that Africa has changed, and ignite the
world’s curiosity in their ‘new’ mother country.
“Angolans in general are very fashion conscious.
They aren’t afraid to take risks and to be bold, to try new
trends, new brands.”
The Geraldo sisters are Mangi’s favourite Angolan
fashion designers. “They are a breath of fresh air in the
Angolan and African fashion scene. This brand is young,
dynamic, proactive, innovative, creative, sexy and fun. I
love how they combine elegance, freshness and fashion in
their garments. They are successful thanks to their unique
fabrics, new style concepts, boldness and awareness of
Geraldo Fashions
Angola fashion on the web
their target group. They know exactly who the ‘Geraldo
Woman’ is,” she says.
Other Angolan designers who have caught Mangi’s
attention include Projecto Mental and Nadir Tati.
“Projecto Mental are very bold, colourful and original.
I love their concept of combining the classical suit with
traditional patterns and non-traditional fabrics.
“At the 2012 Fátima Lopes Collection show, Nadir
Tati was the main guest. She stole the show. Her
collection mixed modern, stylish and elegant cuts with
what resembled traditional Angolan patterns and fabrics,
combining African origins with modern style. Her ability to
introduce what is happening in Paris, London, Milan and
New York to African fashion is what made the collection
so unique.
“The Moda Luanda fashion show plays a major role
in enhancing Angolan designers’ position,” says Mangi.
“It also plays a fundamental cultural role in stimulating
creativity and innovation, and in showing to Angola and
the rest of Africa and the world what has recently been
achieved in Angola.”
www.facebook.com/ESTIETIQUE
estietique.tumblr.com
“We do have African
touches in different pieces.
In New York, for example,
we had a piece made of nonAfrican cotton, but with
pieces of wood.”
MARCH 2013 21
PROVINCE
CABINDA
QUAYS TO
SUCCESS
22 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
MARCH 2013 23
Igor Stevanovic
Cabinda, Angola’s most northerly province, is taking
giant steps to upgrade its infrastructure and industrialise.
Universo looks at the projects
PROVINCE
PROVINCE
Caio deepwater port
Transport Minister Silva Tomás said
the new quays were just the first step
in a broader programme and that the
government would also begin construction
of a completely new deepwater port at
Caio, 9 km north of Cabinda city.
“We are doing our best so that the port
24 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Peter Moeller
M
Rig service facility
Ship repair facility
Phase 1
Phase 3
Potential for oil jetty
Phase 2
Anneka
ore than $1 billion US dollars
will be invested in the ports
sector of Angola’s northern
Cabinda province over the
next five years, according to Minister of
Transport Augusto da Silva Tomás.
He made the announcement during
the inauguration ceremony of new quays
at the Port of Cabinda. The Nova Ponte
Cais, as the new installations are known,
allow medium and large-sized ships to
dock, thus improving Cabinda’s links with
the rest of Angola and ending dependence
on transhipment at Pointe-Noire’s port in
Congo Brazzaville.
Previously, the only way to ship
goods without a call at a foreign port
was to unload them onto smaller vessels
which sailed out to collect them at sea,
an expensive and laborious method that
pushed up the prices of basic consumer
products in Cabinda.
Goods can now be taken by sea from
Luanda straight to Cabinda city on the
same day. The new 319-metre-long metal
and concrete quay was built by Chinese
construction company China Gezhouba
Group and adds capacity to an original
125-metre quay built 50 years ago.
Manuel Nazareth Neto, board president
of the Port of Cabinda, said he expected
2013 to represent an historic upturn in the
company’s history with the full functioning
of the new quays. Although Cabinda
handled 418,192 containers last year, more
than double had been expected, but long
delays in building the new quays, along with
poor weather, confounded the plan.
“If we take into account the projects
completed and the actions executed in
2012, we can expect for 2013 the same
production plan as for last year of handling
coastal imports and exports of 991,939
containers,” he said.
Cabinda aims to double container movements
gains an important role in the group of
Angolan and neighbouring countries’ ports
in the two Congos,” he said.
All the investment was proof of the
strong commitment of the Angolan
government to growth, development and
the better distribution of the wealth in
Cabinda province, as well as the rest of the
country, he added.
President José Eduardo dos Santos laid
the foundation stone for the construction
of the Caio deepwater port complex in
August 2012.
Work will be in three phases and
take three years to complete. In the first
Caio Porto deepwater port plans
phase, budgeted at $600 million, the Caio
commercial port will have a 775-metrelong quay which will eventually extend
to 1,550 metres in the final phase. The
deepest quayside will be 12.5 metres.
The port’s storage area will cover 1,640
hectares and the area for container cargo
will stretch to 3,690 hectares.
A public-private partnership is
developing the Caio project with
construction, operation and eventual
transfer to the Angolan state assigned to
Caio Porto SA.
Caio Porto SA is a mixed capital
company, employing 75 per cent Angolan
employees and having significant private
sector participation, particularly local
business people from Cabinda province.
Foreign investors will provide $60 million
and Angolan investors $180 million. The
port is expected to provide about 1,000 new
direct jobs in the short term, rising to 1,500.
Malembo project
The first phase of the 141-hectare Malembo
Development Centre (MDC), reportedly
the province’s largest private investment
project, was officially completed in
February 2013.
MDC offers support services to the
oil and gas industry in Cabinda while
promoting local community development.
The site is just 3.5km from Chevron’s
Malongo terminal compound but allows
the free circulation of goods, services
and, most importantly, access by the local
population. Employees and residents
will benefit from scheduled transport
services to and from Cabinda city and the
Malongo terminal.
MSB OPS Angola, an Angolan company
created from an existing joint venture
between Operatec and OPI International,
operates MDC.
OPI general superintendent David
Smith told Universo: “We want Angolans
to be represented heavily at MDC. Just
for phase one operations, we’re already
training 50 people. By the time phase four
has been completed, close to 200 people
will have been trained. Most of them come
from the surrounding villages. That’s very
good news for the Malembo area.”
There are currently only two
expatriates on site at MDC, including
Smith. “While MDC is being built, it will
stay like this. That’s unheard of, but it’s
OPI’s goal. We do not want an expat face
on the facility,” he said. “We’ll set up a
core staff and train them very well, so
MARCH 2013 25
PROVINCE
that they take on subordinates and begin
to train them themselves.”
OPI finds candidates at the local
university, or through village elders and
leaders. “Village chiefs give us a list of
people whom they deem competent, and
we bring them in,” said Smith.
“What’s so intriguing about MDC is
that local entrepreneurs are ready to set
up businesses here. The authorities will let
them have the land for free. Our goal is to
let Angolans take over. Then we go home.
MDC is unique, well planned and has a
great vision. It’s going to do well, and I hope
its success will be duplicated,” he said.
The development project includes 31
hectares of accommodation for up to 1,440
contractor personnel and a 110-hectare
site for industrial development. It provides
communications, logistical, laundry and
catering services, as well as classrooms,
a supermarket, a training workshop with
over 5,000 square metres of equipped
space, and various recreational facilities
such as a swimming pool, and tennis and
basketball courts.
MDC’s internal power station, on-site
water wells, holding tanks and a waterfiltration system are set to expand with the
facility’s growth.
The centre’s primary power supply,
however, comes from the new Malembo
power station. In 2012, global infrastructure
company Isolux Corsán installed two new
35-megawatt gas turbines at Malembo,
providing sufficient energy for the whole
of Cabinda.
Chevron History
Denis Kuvaev / Shutterstock.com
Mark Clydesdale BZO
PROVINCE
Any story on Cabinda would not
be complete without mentioning
the long-standing presence of
Chevron, Angola’s largest individual
oil-producing company.
Chevron’s predecessor, Cabinda
Gulf Oil (CABGOC), has a history
dating back to the 1930s, when
Texaco first started selling lubricants in Angola.
In the 1950s, Gulf arrived in Angola to drill the first oil. Its oil production
started in the 1960s in Block 0 after the discovery of the Malongo field. Texaco,
too, entered Angola for oil exploration and production.
After Chevron acquired Gulf, Gulf and Texaco merged. What was ChevronTexaco for a while eventually became Chevron. Today, the Cabinda Gulf Oil
Company is a Chevron subsidiary. In the 1990s, CABGOC began operating in
Block 14, in deeper waters offshore Cabinda. The company also has a stake in
Block 2, near Soyo and the Angola LNG project.
“When Malongo was set up in the 1960s,
Angola was a very different place from
what it is now,” said Eunice de Carvalho,
Chevron’s current Deputy Country
Manager Brazil.
“There were grave security concerns,
so the camp was created in a fairly isolated
fashion. It was, and still is, self-sufficient
in everything from food supply to water
and energy. After 13 years of peace, we no
longer have the same concerns.”
Chevron’s contractor workforce
outnumbers its regular Chevron workforce
two or three times, Carvalho explained.
26 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Toa55
Malongo oil camp
In Cabinda the company has about 2,000
regular employees, but in the Malongo
camp, on any given day, there might be
5,000 people.
“Two to three years ago, we began
letting some of those contractors set up
their bases outside the Malongo camp. This
contributes to Cabinda’s socio-economic
development because as these contractors
move out, they’ll either buy land to build a
house, or they will rent a house.
“Their employees will use restaurants,
banks and other services in town, which
contributes to the city’s growth. More than
1,000 people have moved out already and
we expect that effort to continue. Only
those who are critical to operations will
have to remain at the Malongo camp.”
Carvalho told Universo: “We would
eventually even like some of the
contractors’ workspace to be outside the
Malongo camp. This is part of our future
MARCH 2013 27
PROVINCE
The Fútila industrial hub covers an area
of 2,342 hectares on the Malembo plain,
30km north of Cabinda city. In addition
to industrial plots it has streets, electricenergy plants, drinking-water plants and
administrative support centres for local
companies. It was created to answer the
needs of investors eager to set up or expand
their businesses in Cabinda province.
The $68 million project is expected to
create thousands of direct and indirect
jobs in the region and aims to prove that
Cabinda is capable of producing a lot
more than just oil and timber for export.
That, in turn, fits into Angola’s nationwide
economic diversification plans.
A paint, zinc and ceramics factory
Fertiliser future
Another major resource ripe for economic
development is Cabinda’s huge deposit
of phosphates, used in making fertilisers.
The province has estimated reserves of 380
million tonnes.
Ehud Levy, director of fertiliser
company Vale Fértil, the Angolan subsidiary
of Israeli group LR, says mining work could
begin at the Cácata deposit, 80km from
Cabinda city, as it was a region with the
purest reserves, facilitating exports.
Levy, a phosphates expert, believes
Cabinda could initially produce 800,000
tonnes a year. “The next phase of the
project’s development will include
construction of an industry to process
the phosphates, including production of
phosphoric acid and fertiliser, which will
be followed by exploration of the remaining
deposits,” he told the Angolan press.
According to Levy, the first phase of
this project will require investment of $182
million, $73 million of which will be used
to build port facilities.
While the main use of phosphates
is farm fertiliser, they are also used in
cleaning products, water treatment, the
food industry and toothpaste.
Cabinda’s phosphates are also likely
to play an important role in nourishing
Angola’s steadily improving agricultural
sector, making this fertile land even more
abundant in crops.
Eric Isselee
Industrial hub
in the Fútila hub will focus primarily on
the needs of the local population. Other
industries planned are a brewery, a
mineral-water bottling plant, steelworks
and an industrial gases plant, as well
as soap, palm and nut oil factories. The
idea is to make the industrial hub as selfsufficient as possible by transforming its
raw materials locally.
Mayombe
Cabinda is also famous for its dense
jungle, the Mayombe, a smaller but no
less precious reflection of its cross-Atlantic
cousin, the Amazon.
Mayombe teems with wildlife such as
gorillas, chimpanzees and rare butterflies.
Like the Amazon jungle, the Mayombe’s
southern extension stretches towards a
giant river – in this case, the Congo. With its
superb natural assets, including attractive
beaches, Mayombe has great potential as a
tourist destination. p
Peter Moeller
plan. We’ve looked at the Fútila industrial
hub as a possible destination, but obviously
each contractor company is responsible
for finding its own adequate space.
“We’ve experienced an openness
of the constraints around the camp,
which has benefited the city of Cabinda.
Eventually, that decentralisation will
probably also benefit Cabinda’s industrial
and provincial development.”
PROVINCE
All about Cabinda
Capital: Cabinda
Area: 7,270 sq km
Population: 100,000
Climate: equatorial
Agriculture: coffee, cocoa, palm oil, manioc, maize
Other products: high-value tropical hardwoods; mahogany, ebony
28 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Peter Moeller
Minerals: oil, gold, phosphates, potassium, uranium, diamonds
MARCH 2013 29
SPORT
SPORT
Michael Johnson – Profile
JOHNSON
VISITS ANGOLA
O
lympic legend Michael Johnson, a
member of the athletics world’s royalty
and with golden running shoes to match
his four gold medals, arrived in Angola in
December to explore the possibilities of co-operation
between his sports-performance school and Angola’s
Olympians and Paralympians.
Johnson’s visit was sponsored by the Angolan
Paralympics Committee and BP Angola.
BP believes that Johnson’s high profile and his
know-how, discipline, rigour and determination
could add value to Angola’s athletic performance
and benefit sport in the country. The visit could
pave the way for training in preparation for future
international competitions with the Rio de Janeiro
Olympics and Paralympics foremost in mind.
Johnson’s programme during his Angola visit
included courtesy calls on sporting, political and
social figures and also hands-on activities such
as workshops with sporting entities and Olympic
athletics associations.
The US athlete had meetings with the Minister of
Sport Gonçalves Manuel Muandumba as well as with
Gustavo da Conceição and Leonel da Rocha Pinto,
the presidents of Angola’s Olympics and Paralympics
committees, respectively.
During his stay Johnson travelled to the highland
city of Huambo, where he met local sporting
authorities and discussed the development of the
future African Centre for High Performance Training.
The high spots of Johnson’s visit were two
exhibition races with blind Paralympian José Sayovo
held in the Coqueiros stadium in downtown Luanda.
Triple Paralympics record holder Sayovo and
former Olympic champion Johnson ran two 100-metre
races. Johnson ran one of the races blindfolded to
experience the difficulties Sayovo faces.
Who is Michael Johnson?
Henrique Malungo
Michael Johnson experiments running ‘blind’
30 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Sprinter Michael Johnson is considered one of the
world’s greatest athletes. He has won four Olympic
gold medals and nine other gold medals in world
athletics competitions. He represented the United
States in three Olympics and until this year was world
record-holder for the 400 metres. He also formerly
held the 200 metres record until Usain Bolt beat it. In
indoor athletics Johnson conquered the same titles.
Johnson retired from racing in 2001 but did not
leave the world of athletics. He created the Michael
Johnson Performance project, which aims to help
athletes of all ages and all sports reach their maximum
potential, using the same philosophy and techniques
he employed as an athlete. p
Born Dallas, Texas,
September 1967
First man to win
the 200 metres and
400 metres in the
same Olympic
Games
Height: 1.85m
(6 feet 1 inch)
Weight: 77 kg
(170 pounds)
World’s fastest
man in the 1990s,
winning the 200
metres, 400 metres
and 4x400 metres
relay
Johnson
was
nicknamed
Superman, the
Duck and the Statue
because of his
elegant, straightbacked running
style
His best 400 metres
time was 43.18
seconds in 1999
Johnson won
54 consecutive
victories in
the 400 metres
MARCH 2013 31
© PCN/Corbis
GOLDEN SHOES
America’s nine-time World
Champion sprinter Michael
Johnson paid a special visit
to Angola and held exhibition
races with Angola’s London
Paralympics hero José Sayovo.
Universo reports
INDUSTRY
STIRRING
INITIATIVES:
ANGOLA’S
COFFEE
Angola is currently breathing new life into
its once highly-important coffee sector.
Universo examines progress in projects
aimed at reviving its fortunes
T
here are some modest signs of a
reversal of Angola’s mass rural
exodus, thanks to a number
of new schemes aimed at
resurrecting the fortunes of the world’s
most valuable farm commodity, coffee.
Angola was formerly the industry’s
fourth-largest grower, but its coffee output
plummeted in the 1980s and 1990s as
farmers abandoned the land to seek the
safety of the towns. The country produced
a quarter of a million tonnes of coffee
beans at its peak in 1973, but sank to a low
point of just 3,000 tonnes in 1992.
A farming project in the Porto Amboim
region of Kwanza Sul province is in the
vanguard of efforts to reinstate Angola’s
past coffee glories, but this time with the
added incentive of ensuring better prices
and conditions for the producers.
Programa de Fomento da Cultura
do Amboim was developed in tandem
with similar initiatives in two other postconflict countries, Nicaragua and the
Democratic Republic of Congo. The aim
is to resettle people on the land, cut rural
unemployment and restore neglected
coffee plantations. The hope is that these
MARCH 2013 33
Iryna1
32 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
pilot projects will provide examples and
knowledge for replication elsewhere.
The project has the financial support of
the International Coffee Organization (ICO),
the Angolan and US governments, as well as
institutional, technical and sales assistance
from US Aid, the Cooperative League of the
United States of America (CLUSA), and CABI
(formally known as the Commonwealth
Agricultural Bureaux International).
Since the peak and decline of Angola’s
coffee output, the world coffee market
has changed markedly. Coffee now enjoys
historically high prices thanks to a general
commodity price boom stimulated by
increasingly heavy global demand.
This change has benefited small-scale
producers and not just the large plantation
owners. Consumers are nowadays also
Justyna Kaminska
proactively seeking coffee from small
growers and consciously agreeing to
pay premium prices for their efforts in
producing coffee.
Family holdings, especially those
farming organically and in harmony with
the environment, are now able to take
advantage of this new situation. Angola
scores highly in this regard as 90 per
cent of its coffee now comes from family
smallholdings instead of the huge colonial
plantations which accounted for 70 per
cent of production in the past.
Doing it for themselves
The Porto Amboim project started in
2008 when the government and NGOs
encouraged 4,917 families to farm 8,000
hectares of neglected plantations covering
three types of farming areas: low-lying
savannah, cool forested highlands and an
area of transition between the two.
The lower areas could grow the more
resilient yet less valuable coffee variety
Robusta, while the highlands were suitable
for the more sought-after and thus pricier
Arabica variety. Arabica is milder tasting,
while Robusta gives higher yields and
is used more in instant coffee and in
stronger roasts.
Producing Arabica in its shady forest
locations also helps efforts to protect the
environment. Here, yields currently reach
610 kilograms per hectare compared to
409kg per hectare on the savannah, and
550kg per hectare in the area of transition.
These yields have far exceeded the
target originally laid down for the project
Brazuk Ltd
Porto Amboim farmers are responsible for their own coffee bush nurseries
area of 350kg
per hectare.
Each family
was given $500 in
credit, around two
hectares of land and
2,000 coffee plants in
plastic bags from a stock of
10 million. The families had
to nurture these young plants
in home-made nurseries and
then replant the mature bushes on
their plots. So that the families could
survive during this process, they also
received help to farm a mix of subsistence
crops such as bananas and cassava.
Replanting the coffee saplings had “an
excellent success rate of 87 to 90 per cent,”
José Mahinga, assistant administrative
director at the National Coffee Institute
(INCA), told Universo.
Coffee production has steadily risen
at the project (see table on P.39), thanks
partly to local model farms which served
as examples of best practice. Here growers
have been taught the importance and
benefits of pruning trees to raise output
– a chore traditional farmers resisted but
seeing much higher yields on the model
farms within just two years won them over.
In order to improve coffee flavour,
farmers have also learned to use simple,
raised drying tables to reduce the earthy taste
of the coffee and thus gain higher prices.
Organic fertiliser made from coffee
husks has also aided yields not only in
coffee but in all the smallholders’ farm
crops. Angola’s farmers have been able to
make a virtue of a necessity: the previously
abandoned coffee plantations had not
used mineral fertilisers nor industrial
insecticides for 40 years, and this gives
Angola’s coffee farms the right to claim
in their marketing that they have been
organic for longer than most!
To maintain this organic ‘tradition’, the
project uses botanical insecticides such as
soap-based soups that have proved effective
and doesn’t use any mineral fertilisers.
Social support
The Porto Amboim project also addresses
the wider development issues of education
34 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
INDUSTRY
Brazuk Ltd
INDUSTRY
The Porto Amboim
project had an
87% to 90%
success rate
in cultivating
coffee bushes
MARCH 2013 35
Peter Moeller
INDUSTRY
INDUSTRY
and healthcare. Project workers and coffeegrowers in areas with difficult access have
communally constructed 17 classrooms
from local materials to serve 1,683 pupils.
They have also developed community
health centres and small-scale infrastructure
such as bridges, with the government
providing teachers and health workers.
America’s CLUSA helped the project’s
institution building. This involved
encouraging the farmers to form associations
and promote common objectives. Some
101 Porto Amboim farmers’ associations
formed 13 cooperatives, which in turn have
united under one umbrella organisation
called Cesacopa.
This central organisation’s office and
warehouse act as a focal point of contact
for marketing and trading the coffee. So
far it has struck sales deals with Portugal
and South Korea. In addition, Cesacopa
supports farmers seeking credit and
channels finance from banks while also
providing a democratic forum for growers
to articulate their demands.
Cesacopa won the 2012 Incubator
Award for business development in
Africa, beating a field of 30 competitor
presentations at Utrecht in the
Netherlands. The award was granted
by the Dutch Humanist Institute for
Development Cooperation (Hivos) and
partner organisation Venture Capital for
Africa. The Dutch Humanist Institute for
Cooperation with Developing Countries
(Hivos) and partner organisation Venture
Capital for Africa granted the award
which recognises Cesacopa’s efforts in
developing quality coffee exports, creating
jobs, providing community support and
protecting the environment.
One successful outcome of the Porto
Amboim project, according to INCA’s José
Mahinga, has been that growers have, as
intended, gained more income. In 2011 the
families involved in the project received
73.4 per cent of the selling price.
Looking ahead, Mahinga said the next
step in adding value to Porto Amboim’s
coffee was to process it locally. An
organisation such as Cesacopa would have
a key role in such a development.
Coffee in its husk, known as mabuba in
36 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Angola, fetches around $0.60 per kilogram,
while when hulled it brings in between
$1.30 and $1.50 per kg. However, roasted
coffee sells at a hugely increased $12.50 per
kg, explained Mahinga. “We want to reduce
the gap between these values to favour
the producer.”
In the longer term Mahinga said he
hopes to maintain the quality of the coffee
and strengthen the power of coffee-growers,
allowing them to do the business themselves.
Over the next five years he also expected
to see the Porto Amboim farmers produce
6,000 tonnes a year, double the low point
for the whole country in 1992. “It’s very
possible to achieve this,” he predicted.
“Amboim coffee can be a reference point
for all Angolan coffee.”
Flavour favourite
Another factor favouring Angolan coffee
sales is the high quality of Amboim’s
Robusta variety. Mahinga recounted that
Brazilian coffee-taste experts had great
difficulty in distinguishing the region’s
Robusta from the much higher-valued
Arabica variety.
Coffee fair
In July 2012, Angola held its first coffee
fair in Gabela, at the heart of its leading
coffee province, Kwanza Sul. The fair,
promoted by INCA, attracted around 5,000
people. The aim was to exhibit the region’s
productive potential and promote coffee
production and consumption.
Agriculture and Rural Development
Minister Afonso Pedro Canga, speaking
at the event, said the fair was “a space
to identify opportunities and establish
credible partnerships”. Trade Minister
Idalina Valente, also attended along with
31 producers, coffee roasters, trading
companies and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs).
Kwanza Sul’s coffee production
depends on 8,276 families, 7,495 linked
to Robusta and 781 to Arabica. Robusta
accounts for 90 per cent and Arabica 10
per cent.
Gabela is home to an INCA research
station which gathers data on coffee
varieties. Here, more than 80 members of
MARCH 2013 37
INDUSTRY
INDUSTRY
staff have been trained in good agricultural
practices, while two went on to Brazil to
train in coffee classification and grading.
Coffee is also produced in other
provinces such as Kwanza Norte, Uíge
and Huíla. Angola-based oil companies
including BP and Chevron have provided
financial credit to small coffee growers.
Vietnam co-operation
Market changes
While Angola has been absent from world
coffee markets, changes have taken place
in the sector’s profile. Apart from much
higher prices, the industry has seen a
transformation in the structure of farming
and sales. Small-scale planting operations,
often a number of family farms organised in
co-operatives, have grown in importance.
Coffee drinkers have become more
discerning in choosing their favourite
variety and are also keen on seeing
farmers get better payment for their
efforts. As a result, small growers, perhaps
using organic growing methods, can ask
premium prices for their coffee.
Developed coffee markets also
prefer and give added value for traceable
products and identifiable small farmers.
Today’s consumers of expensive coffee like
to know where their drink originates and
which particular farmers will benefit from
their purchases, and they are inclined to
pay more for this coffee experience.
Over the past decade world commodity
prices have risen dramatically, largely
thanks to the emergence of new economic
powerhouse countries where consumers with
greater spending power are drinking more.
Arabica coffee dropped to a 30-year low
of $0.45 a pound in 2001 and rose to a 34year high of almost $3.09 in 2011. Robusta
in the same period slumped to $0.17 before
recovering to reach $1.20. Some NGOs have
acted to reduce the impact of low prices on
poor farmers through the fair trade movement.
Port Amboim coffee production table
Year
Tonnes per year
2006529
2007439
20081,129
2009
1,150
20101,274
20111,610
20121,537
(fall due to drought)
38 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
World coffee output averaged
6 million tonnes per year in the 1990s
and averaged 7.6 million tonnes from
2007 to 2011, thanks mainly to higher
production in Brazil and Vietnam.
Peak global production was 8.1 million
tonnes in 2010.
Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and
Indonesia are the largest producers
and account for more than 60 per
cent of world output. In 2011, the total
output was 7.9 million tonnes worth
$70.9 billion, of which 6.2 million tonnes
was exported. Production is forecast
to rise to 9.1 million tonnes in 2019.
Coffee is the most valuable
and widely traded tropical farm
product, and consumers drink
an estimated 1.6 billion cups
every day.
Consumption has almost doubled
in the past 40 years, led by producing
countries Brazil and Vietnam, with
Eastern Europe and Asia contributing
46 per cent. Angola with its favourable
geology and extensive under-used
fertile farmlands is well placed to meet
some of this demand.
Valentyn Volkov
Coffee growing is labour intensive.
Trees need to be planted, weeded and
harvested. A bush needs four years to
mature and its best yields come after
five or six years. Its green fruits are
known as ‘cherries’ and each one has
two beans. These cherries take seven
to eight months to ripen and turn red
and are then ready for harvesting,
which is mostly done by hand.
Coffee bushes are most productive
from the age of five to 15 years, but
many of Angola’s coffee bushes are
over 30 years old and therefore in need
of replacement.
Some 25 million smallholders
produce 80 per cent of the world’s
coffee and another 100 million people
are employed in the sector in coffeeproducing countries.
Brazuk Ltd
Growing coffee
Brazuk Ltd
Africa Studio
Angola’s coffee development policy is not
restricted to small producers. In July 2012
the country signed an agreement with
Vietnam’s Thai Hoa Group, the country’s
top Arabica producer and trader, and
Brazilian consultants, to help refurbish
coffee plantations. The idea is to plant
100,000 hectares over the next decade.
Vietnam is the world’s second-largest
coffee producer after Brazil.
The Vietnamese and the Brazilians will
partner an Angolan coffee producer to grow
6,000 hectares of Robusta over the next
three years. When signing the agreement
in Hanoi, Angola’s ambassador to Vietnam,
João Manuel Bernardo, told the press:
“Now we want to regain our position in the
production of coffee, along with cotton and
other agricultural products.”
If the first stage is successful, a $250
million credit line from Brazil and other
sources will extend the Angolan project to
the full 100,000 hectares. Brazil could be
the likely importer of the Robusta variety
because of Angola’s higher production
costs. Brazil produces Arabica mainly
for export, but also Robusta chiefly for
domestic consumption.
MARCH 2013 39
INDUSTRY
Sonangol news briefing
INDUSTRY
Fairtrade Foundation
Founded in the UK in 1992, the
Fairtrade Foundation endorses
markets and buys coffee from
producer organisations owned and
governed democratically by their
members. It offers a minimum price of
$1.40 per pound for Arabica beans or
market price if higher and a minimum
$1.01 per pound for Robusta.
Fairtrade gives an additional
$0.20 per pound if farmers make
investments in community,
business and environment projects
– education, healthcare and farm
improvements – to increase yield
and quality, and processing facilities
to increase income.
Organic farmers get a $0.30 per
pound premium. Fairtrade also
pre-finances up to 60 per cent of
purchase prices and thus helps cash
flow. It is already active in Africa in
Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, Cameroon,
Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Rwanda and
Tanzania and has 294,000 members
in 32 organisations.
Fairtrade also gives help and
support in the areas of marketing,
branding, ethical assurance,
sales, supply-chain and producer
partnerships (bringing buyers closer
to their suppliers), and changes
trading practices to ensure growers
are treated fairly and consumers
drink with a clear conscience. p
Sonangol Africa
Eco Race winner
Coffee history
Coffee is traditionally believed to have
originated in 9th-century Ethiopia and
was recorded as a drink in Yemen in the
15th century. Muslim pilgrims and traders
spread the stimulating drink across North
Africa and the Middle East.
Later expansion came in the 1600s
thanks to Dutch colonists in Sri Lanka,
India and Java, and then in South America,
where it was an important product of the
slave trade.
Coffee worldwide statistics
Pie chart 1 –Largest producers of coffee as % of world production
2007-2011
Brazil
34.0%
Vietnam 14.0%
Colombia 7.0%
Indonesia 7.0%
Ethiopia
4.5%
India
3.7%
Mexico
3.4%
Guatemala 3.1%
Peru
2.9%
Honduras 2.9%
Uganda 2.3%
Others 14.0%
Source: International Coffee Organisation (ICO)
Largest producers of coffee as
BRAZIL
per cent
of world production 2007-2011
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
p
Brazil.......................................
34.0%
VIETNAM
Vietnam................................... 14.0%
Colombia.................................. 7.0%
COLOMBIA
Indonesia..................................
7.0%
Ethiopia..................................... 4.5%
India..........................................
3.7%
INDONESIA
Mexico...................................... 3.4%
Guatemala................................ 3.1%
ETHIOPIA
Peru.......................................... 2.9%
Honduras.................................. 2.9%
INDIA
Uganda.....................................
2.3%
Others..................................... 14.0%
USA
SPAIN
GUATEMALA
UK
40 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
PERU
Largest exporters as per cent
of world exports 2007-2011
BRAZIL
31%
GERMANY
p Brazil..........................................
Vietnam.
.
....................................
17%
p
Colombia.....................................
9%
VIETNAM
p
JAPANIndonesia..................................... 6%
p
4%
p India.............................................
COLOMBIA
Guatemala...................................
4%
ITALY
p
Peru.............................................
4%
p
Mexico.........................................
3%
INDONESIA
p
FRANCE
Ethiopia.
.
......................................
3%
p
Honduras.....................................
3%
p
ETHIOPIA
CANADA
Uganda........................................
3%
p
Others........................................
13%
p
MEXICO
Pie chart 2 – Largest exporters as % of world
exports 2007-2011
Brazil
31%
Vietnam 17%
Colombia 9%
Indonesia 6%
Ethiopia 3%
India
4%
Mexico 3%
Guatemala 4%
Peru
4%
Honduras 3%
Uganda 3%
Others 13%
Source: ICO
INDIA
Pie chart 3 – Largest importers of coffee as % of world total
2006-2010
USA
23.0%
Germany 9.8%
Japan
7.8%
Italy
6.3%
France
6.0%
Canada 3.6%
Spain
3.5%
UK
3.3%
Others 36.5%
Source: ICO
Largest importers of coffee as
per cent of world total 2006-2010
USAUSA.........................................
BRAZIL
23.0%
p
p Germany................................... 9.8%
7.8%
GERMANY
p Japan........................................
VIETNAM
Italy...........................................
6.3%
p
France.
.
.....................................
6.0%
p
JAPAN
COLOMBIA
Canada.....................................
3.6%
p
Spain.
.
.......................................
3.5%
p
UK.............................................
3.3%
ITALY
p
INDONESIA
Others.....................................
36.5%
p
USA
FRANCE ETHIOPIA
FRANCE
CANADA INDIA
CANADA
GERMANY
JAPAN
ITALY
Source: International Coffee Organization (ICO)
MEXICO
SPAIN
MEXICO
SPAIN
GUATEMALA
UK
GUATEMALA
UK
■ Former Formula 1 driver Jean-Louis Schlesser of Team Schlesser Sonangol won
the fifth Sonangol Africa Eco Race on January 14 in his Renault-engined ‘buggy’.
It was remarkably Schlesser’s fifth consecutive win in the 11-stage, 6,500km-long race.
Sonangol Africa Eco Race 2013 (Top 10)
1 Schlesser-Esquirol (Buggy): ................................................. 37h 09 ´45˝
2 Fromont-Fromont (Tuareg): .................................................. 42h 59 ´28˝
3 Van Cauwenberge-Castelen (Toyota): ................................. 43h 08 ´38˝
4 Grigorov-Mishin (OSC): ........................................................ 44h 07 ´13˝
5 Jorda-Lormand (Buggy): ...................................................... 46h 46 ´54˝
6 Martin-Metz (Volkswagen): .................................................. 48h 11 ´02˝
7 Shagirov-Morov (Toyota): .................................................... 56h 16 ´03˝
8 Saukans-Ducens (OSC): ...................................................... 57h 56 ´48˝
9 Van Putten-Zoetaert (Toyota): .............................................. 58h 43 ´33˝
10 Aivazian-Luans (Toyota): .................................................... 60h 41 ´29˝
MARCH 2013 41
Sonangol news briefing
Sonangol news briefing
Two more Suezmax tankers
■ The Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool took delivery of its 25th and
26th vessels in January. AST Sunshine was named at Samsung
Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea. The vessel will
be employed on the spot market via the Stena Sonangol Suezmax
Pool, although it is owned by Asahi Stena Tankers, a joint venture
between Stena Bulk and Japanese Asahi Tankers. Its first cargo
was gas oil from South Korea to Europe.
“We are very satisfied with the vessels delivered so far and the
quality and precision of the Samsung shipyard. With this tanker we
now have yet another addition to the successful pool collaboration
with Sonangol,” said Erik Hånell, president and chief executive of
Stena Bulk.
Sonangol Cabinda, the tenth and final Suezmax tanker
in the series ordered by Sonangol, was named at the Daewoo
42 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard in Okpo, South
Korea, and its maiden voyage was a cargo of gas oil bound for
West Africa.
Mark Heater, president of Sonangol Marine Services, said:
“The delivery of the Sonangol Cabinda marks the achievement of
a long-term objective of Sonangol Shipping and offers direct proof
of Sonangol’s ability to actively and effectively compete in one of
the world’s most challenging markets.”
The Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool is controlled by Stena Bulk
and Sonangol. It currently consists of 26 fuel-efficient Suezmax
tankers and the average age of the fleet is about three years. The
pool has a presence in Houston, Gothenburg, Rio de Janeiro and
Singapore from where the operations and chartering of these
vessels are managed.
■ Sonangol has bought a 20 per
cent equity stake in Puma Energy,
an international oil company
focusing on the midstream and
downstream sectors.
Sonangol board president
Francisco Maria said: “This strategic
participation brings together the
strengths and expertise of both
companies. We look forward to
more opportunities for collaboration
between the two companies in
Angola, in Africa and elsewhere in
the world.”
Puma Energy is a subsidiary
of Trafigura Beheer, a Dutch
multinational commodity-trading
company established in 1997. It
has grown rapidly and is now one of the biggest independent operators in the world.
The company has a presence in 34 countries and has more than 5,000 staff. Pierri
Eladari, its executive director, said that after many years of successful collaboration
in the downstream sector and in Angola, the company was pleased to reinforce its
partnership with Sonangol as one of its main shareholders.
Puma Energy
Sonangol board president Francisco
de Lemos José Maria (left) is
presented with the 2013 Angolan
SuperCup trophy by the president
of Petro Atlético de Luanda, Mateus
de Brito, in February. Sonangol is
the official sponsor of the team.
Petro disputed the final over
two legs with CRD Libolo of
Kwanza Sul province and emerged
2-1 winners on aggregate. The
SuperCup is played between
the Girabola champions and the
Angolan Cup winners.
Sonangol stake in
Puma Energy
Angop
Petro
Atlético
win
Angola’s
SuperCup
Sonangol
signs
$1 billion
debt deal
■ Sonangol EP has completed a loan
arrangement via its wholly-owned
subsidiary Sonangol Finance Ltd to the
tune of $1 billion. The contract with the
China Development Bank is repayable
over a period of ten years at a cost
of 3.5 per cent above the London
Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
The bank has given Sonangol
Finance a corporate guarantee based
on the quality of Sonangol EP’s
operational, commercial and financial
performance indicators.
The loan also demonstrates
the solidity of Sonangol’s long-term
investment finance, which over the
past seven years has allowed the
company to borrow $18 billion, half of
which it has already repaid.
New Lobito refinery
foundation stone laid
■ Sonangol board president Francisco de Lemos José Maria announced the formal start of work on
the 200 barrels per day (bpd) Lobito oil refinery on December 10. Angola’s Vice-President Manuel
Vicente laid the foundation stone.
The refinery had been planned since 2000 and its completion should take five years. Once in
operation, it will reduce imports of fuel and lubricants with a view to making
Angola self-sufficient in these products.
The project will create 10,000 jobs directly and indirectly during
the construction phase on the coastal site 10km north of Lobito. The
refinery will be well placed to serve Angola and neighbouring
countries. It will also be connected to the Benguela Railway,
which traverses southern Africa.
MARCH 2013 43
Sonangol news briefing
Sonangol news briefing
Sonaci in
new LNG
partnership
Sonaci, the trading arm of
Sonangol, and the DT Group, a joint
venture between Trafigura Pte Ltd
and Cochan Ltd, are to create a new
company to trade liquefied natural gas
(LNG) globally. Subject to regulatory
clearance, Sonaci DT Pte Ltd will
have offices in Geneva and Singapore
where it will combine trading expertise,
clients, risk evaluation, management
and middle-market experience.
“We have an excellent opportunity
to build a world-class LNG-focused
trading business by combining the
strengths of our two companies,”
said Rute David, president of Sonaci.
“We intend to source products on
the international market as well as
trade volumes gained in Angola LNG
market tenders.”
Mariano Marcondes Ferraz, chief
executive of the DT Group, said: “Our
objective is to apply our expertise
and capabilities to become a leading
independent LNG trading company.
We will also evaluate the acquisition
of vessels and other assets to support
the business.”
Mafumeira Sul project
gets go-ahead
to be promoted to ship’s captain. Vita, aged 36, took charge of the 73,400-tonne oil
tanker Loengo, a vessel contracted by Sonangol Shipping, after a promotion ceremony
presided over by Sonangol board member Anabela Fonseca.
Vita, who was trained in Angola, India and the United Kingdom, said his success
was the result of working in a team and that to reach the heights in one’s career, “We
have to always believe that it is possible.”
Sonangol’s desert rally women
■ Winne Cadete and Zola Diavita,
working respectively in the office
for quality, health, safety and
environment and the directorate
for technology and information at
Sonangol EP, have been selected to
take part in the women-only Aïcha
des Gazelles Rally in Morocco. In
preparation for the Total-sponsored
rally, the two received practical
training in desert navigation and
driving in Morocco. During the race,
which takes place March 17 to 28,
all the competitors will be tracked in
real time by satellite.
44 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
James Jones Jr
■ Nembamba Camilo Miezi Vita has become the first Angolan trained by Sonangol
Oleksandr Kalinichenko
Thor Jorgen Udvang
■
■ Sonangol and the Cabinda Gulf Oil
Company (CABGOC) are to invest $5.6 billion
in the Mafumeira Sul project in Block 0.
Mafumeira is located 24km off the
coast of Cabinda province in waters just 60
metres deep. This is the second phase of the
project, which includes 50 wells, two wellhead platforms, processing and interpreting
installations, and approximately 121km of
undersea pipelines.
Production is expected to start in 2015
and should reach a maximum daily output of
110,000 bpd of oil and 10,000 bpd of liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG). The natural gas will be
processed at the Angola LNG plant at Soyo.
CABGOC is the operator of Block 0 with
a 39.2 per cent stake. It shares the rest with
partners Sonangol EP (41%), Total Petroleum
Angola Ltd (10%) and ENI Angola (9.8%).
PSVM
starts up
■ Sonangol and BP Exploration (Angola)
Ltd announced the start of production at
Angola’s offshore Pluto, Saturn, Venus
and Mars (PSVM) project in Block 31 in
January. Initially the team will tap three
wells in the Pluto field, which are expected
to produce 70,000 bpd.
The PSVM development will reach a
maximum output of 150,000 bpd when the
Saturn and Venus fields start up in 2013
and are followed by the Mars field in 2014.
PSVM is centred on a floating
production storage and offloading (FPSO)
vessel, with a storage capacity of 1.6
million barrels of crude oil. This is the first
facility of its kind to operate in Angola’s
ultra deep waters.
Literary Prize winner
■ The jury for the Sonangol Literary Prize
chose Victor Amorim Guerra as the winner
in December 2012. Amorim was the third
writer to be awarded the prize worth $10,000
and have his book Tales from Heaven and
Earth published.
The competition attracted 49 entries and
was judged by an organisation formed from
representatives of the Angolan Writers’ Union
and Sonangol.
President of the jury – Irene Guerra
Marques – said they chose the book because
it brought together several fictional registers
through an excellent combination of aesthetic
and socio-cultural dimensions.
Benguela-born Guerra said his book
was a collection of stories which touched
upon witchcraft and diamond prospecting in
eastern Angola, as well as Angolan habits and
customs. The author said he was seeking to
portray some aspects of the armed conflict
the country lived through, describing the
huge displacement of people from one
region to another.
João Rosa Santos, Sonangol’s head
of communications and its representative
for the literary prize, said the
book judging was increasingly
rigorous and would help
future candidates to improve
the quality of their writing.
“Attention must be given
to the quality of the texts
in competition and they
must be written with
competence”, he said.
Brazuk Ltd
Welcome
to the bridge
MARCH 2013 45
Sonangol news briefing
Sonangol news briefing
Don Johnston
SONANGOL
TARGETS
2 MILLION
BARRELS
BY 2017
46 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Malocha
Francisco de Lemos José Maria addressed his second
press conference as Sonangol’s board president in
February, announcing higher profits for 2012 and a
future objective of 2 million barrels of oil a day
W
ithin four years Angola will
be producing 2 million
barrels of oil per day,
pledged Sonangol board
president Francisco de Lemos José Maria
during the press conference to celebrate
the company’s 37th anniversary.
To reach and sustain this level of output,
Francisco Maira said Sonangol would
invest $8.8 billion over the next decade in
prospecting and research. He reminded
the audience of Sonangol officials and
international journalists that the Angolan
government had approved a rate of 7 per
cent growth in oil production in 2013.
“This target will be reached. That’s why
we are going to continue to bring in talent
to the company and follow, through the
introduction of other rules, the projects
that are under way,” he said.
In 2012 Angola posted average oil
production of 1.73 million barrels per day.
In order to ensure that the planned
benchmarks are achieved, Francisco Maria
guaranteed that Sonangol would speed up
the identification of additional oil projects
while at the same time exercising influence
and applying pressure on all of Angola’s
oil installations and construction yards to
increase production.
Looking back on 2012, the Sonangol
board president said that Angola’s oil
output rose by 4.5 per cent. “This increase
will have an impact on the real rate of
growth of our gross domestic product,” he
said. However, he did not feel satisfied with
this growth as it was below the company’s
expected increase of 6 per cent.
During the press conference, Francisco
Maria announced the company’s preliminary
results for 2012. Sonangol registered a net
profit of $3.22 billion, 2.35 per cent higher
than the $3.15 billion achieved in 2011.
He said that last year Sonangol’s liquid
assets stood at a massive $30 billion and
that sales reached $42.17 billion, up from
$40.56 billion in 2011, an increase of $1.61
billion. Sonangol’s earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amortisation
declined to $5.21 billion in 2012 from $5.96
billion the previous year.
“Over the last three years we have added
$14.39 billion to our income; 80 per cent of
MARCH 2013 47
Sonangol news briefing
this came from crude oil production and 10
per cent from distribution as a result of fuel
price rises in 2010,” he explained.
The board president revealed that
although average oil prices rose 2.7 per cent
to $111.86 a barrel in 2012, the company
made a profit of only $34.86 a barrel.
During the press conference, Mateus de
Brito, Sonangol administrative executive,
explained that if the government
decided to cut all fuel subsidies, then
petrol in Angola would rise to the level
of international market prices of 150
kwanzas per litre ($1.56) and diesel to Kz
130 ($1.35). Petrol at the pumps in Luanda
currently costs Kz 60 and diesel Kz 40,
about half a dollar a litre.
Francisco Maria went on to say that
Sonangol collected revenues of $20.63
billion in 2012, down from $22.42 billion
in 2011. “The fall was a result of the
regulatory framework and mainly due to a
reduction of 10 per cent in oil production,”
he said.
Sonangol board member Sebastião
Gaspar Martins said the fall in output was
due to a delay in the start of production
in Block 31 and operational problems in
Block 14. “At this moment, production
is back on track to its expected level,”
he said.
Despite these problems, Angola’s oil
production grew 4.5 per cent as it added
75,000 barrels per day (bpd) to output.
However, this was below expectations of a
13.3 per cent rise.
LNG update
Sonangol board member Baptista Sumbe
reported that there were continuing
technical obstacles to start-up at the
Angola LNG liquefied natural gas plant
at Soyo. Sonangol would have a clearer
picture of how to overcome these problems
within four to five weeks, he said.
As far as Angola’s Luanda refinery was
concerned, in 2012 production was stable
at 41,600 bpd, the same as in 2011.
Finance
Francisco Maria reported that Sonangol
EP had debts of $10.98 billion made
up of $7.23 billion long term (that is
between three and seven years), and $3.75
billion with repayment due by the end of
December 2013.
Last year Sonangol contracted new
loans: $1 billion repayable in ten years;
$1.5 billion repayable in five years; and
one of 600 billion kwanzas ($6.2 billion)
due within three years.
The board president also revealed
that Sonangol paid 86 per cent of crude
oil sales directly to the Angolan treasury
in the form of tax and royalties. This
percentage had grown from 77 per cent
in 2005.
Refined products
Sonangol sold 5.85 million tonnes of
refined products in 2012, an increase of 19
per cent on 2011. With the liberalisation of
the fuel market, Sonangol sold 1 million
tonnes of petrol and diesel wholesale
to other distributors. Imports of refined
products experienced a significant
increase in 2012, rising 23 per cent to 4.45
million tonnes.
Shipping
Sonangol’s
shipping
operations
transported 7 million tonnes of crude in
2012 and added $205 million to Sonangol
EP’s revenues.
Sonangol board (left to right) Baptista Sumbe, Sebastião Gaspar Martins, Anabela de Brito Fonseca,
Francisco de Lemos José Maria, Raquel Vunge, Fernando Roberto, Mateus de Brito
48 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Property sales
Arnalda Van-Dúnem, administrator
of Sonangol’s property arm, Sonangol
Imobiliária e Propriedades (Sonip), told the
press conference that it had sold 72 per cent
of the 18,089 homes it had for sale in various
housing schemes in just 15 working days.
She said Sonip built 29,962 homes in
2012 compared to just 3,726 the previous
year. During 2012 Sonip sold homes worth
$734 million.
Francisco Maria said all homes in three
major schemes, Zango, Capari and Km 44,
had been sold but there were still homes
available at the new developments at
Kilamba Kiaxi and Cacuaco.
Industrial development
Sonangol’s industrial development arm,
Sonangol Investimentos Industriais
(SIIND), installed 17 industrial units in the
Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone
(ZEE), a huge industrial condominium near
Viana in 2012. The factories there produce
mattresses, foam, electrical equipment,
cables, PVC and plastic tubes and metal
roofs among other goods.
The previous year eight units were built.
In 2013 SIIND aims to have 26 more units
operational. The planned final tally is to
have 70 factories by 2016.
Sonangol’s air services company
SonAir, flew a total of 456,000 hours in
2012, an increase of 2 per cent on 2011.
Francisco Maria said that Sonangol
had no plans to increase its shares in
Portuguese oil company Galp Energia.
Sonangol is not a direct shareholder but
has shares in it through another company.
“The investment in Galp is good and it’s
stable. We feel well in Galp as shareholders,
although indirectly. We will remain in
Galp,” he said.
Sonangol bank
Sonangol is to open a savings and home
loans bank in the second quarter of 2013,
according to Francisco Maria. Sonangol
will wholly provide the investment capital
for Banco de Poupança e Promoção
Habitacional (BPPH).
“At this moment, the bank has been
formally established and is undertaking
organisational diligence and recruiting
staff,” he said.
The board president also announced
that a planned investment bank, Caixa
Geral de Depósitos (CGD), would no
longer go ahead. “The Sonangol-CGD
bank is formally extinct. It was extinct on
the date that the BNA [Banco Nacional de
Angola – Angola’s central bank] issued the
licence for BPPH,” he explained.
Looking abroad, Francisco Maria said
Sonangol would continue to hold a stake of
around 20 per cent in the Portuguese bank
Millennium BCP, despite losses owing to
the European debt crisis.
“Our investment in BCP is long term,
so we are going to maintain our stake,”
he said, adding that partnerships should
survive the good and the bad times.
More jobs
Sonangol created 1,244 new jobs in 2012:
nearly half of these, 615, in Sonangol EP;
222 in Sonangol P&P, its exploration arm;
and 129 in its healthcare operations in the
Girassol Clinic.
Looking ahead, the board president
announced that Sonangol would auction
15 onshore exporation blocks this year,
ten in the Kwanza Basin and five in the
Congo Basin. p
Malocha
Sonangol news briefing
MARCH 2013 49
Sonangol news briefing
Sonangol news briefing
Sonangol EP board member
Anabela Fonseca
José Carlos Paiva
SONANGOL LONDON
CELEBRATES
Sonaci head Rute David and Sonangol Ltd’s
supply and logistics manager Ceri Evans
London’s Natural History Museum
Nya Lou
Sonangol Ltd held its 30th anniversary
party at London’s Natural History
Museum, where guests were entertained
by Angolan singers Yola Semedo and
Nya Lou. During the evening, board
member Anabela Fonseca paid tribute
to former long-serving Sonangol Ltd
managing director José Carlos Paiva.
Rute David, head of Sonaci, also
thanked current and former Sonangol
staff who had worked at the London
office for more than 20 years.
50 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Sonangol Ltd President and CEO Sandra Júlio
Yola Semedo
Luis Neves (right), Sonangol Ltd trading & marketing manager,
enjoys the night
MARCH 2013 51