universo21

SU21.cover for web:SU21

23/2/09

10:43

Page 1

Universo SPRING 2009

On screen Angola’s new TV station

Express delivery A history of postage stamps

Flower of Luanda Sonangol’s high-tech hospital

Up,up,and away!

Aviation in Angola takes off

INSIDE: oil and gas news

SU21.contents.pp2-3:SU21

23/2/09

10:45

Page 2

8

Universo is the international magazine of Sonangol

18

Board Members Manuel Vicente (President), Anabela Fonseca, Mateus de Brito, Fernando Roberto, Francisco de Lemos

Sonangol Department for Communication & Image Director João Rosa Santos

Enana

Nadiejda Santos, Lúcio Santos, Cristina Novaes, José Mota, Beatriz Silva, Paula Almeida, Sandra Teixeira, Marta Sousa

Sonangol

Corporate Communications Assistants

12

Publisher Sheila O’Callaghan

Editor Alex Bellos

Art Director David Gould

Sub Editor Ron Gribble

Advertising Design Circulation Manager Matthew Alexander

Group President John Charles Gasser

Project Consultant

Kamene M Traça

Bernd Wojtczack

4

Letter from the editor

COVER STORY

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.

5

We need to unite

8

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

6

Nathalie MacCarthy

A message from the President of Angola, extracted from his annual New Year speech to the diplomatic corps

The Papal visit; African Cup of Nations stadiums; the President in China; Angolan wins Big Brother Africa; Miss Angola 2009; a new shopping centre

Circulation: 17,000

53 Chandos Place, London WC2N 4HS Tel + 44 20 7812 6400 Fax +44 20 7812 6413 sonangol@impact-media.com Cover: Getty Images/Mark Horn

2 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Angola news briefing

7

Figured out A snapshot of Angola in numbers

Sky’s the limit Louise Redvers introduces a 12-page special about Angola’s booming aviation sector. Flights are increasing despite the world economic downturn

12 Red-carpet treatment Air 26 is one of Angola’s new small airlines, offering domestic routes and executive charters

14 Wings of a nation An interview with new TAAG commission spokesman Rui Carreira

18 A welcome upgrade Luanda airport gets a makeover in time for the African Cup of Nations

SU21.contents.pp2-3:SU21

23/2/09

10:45

Page 3

CONTENTS

20

Sonangol News

20 Good evening Angola!

A look behind the scenes at TV Zimbo, the country’s first private terrestrial channel that launched in December

26 Eastern promise Oil has been found in Uganda, an important development for East Africa

30 Weathering the storm An analysis of how Angola will cope with the world in financial meltdown and a low oil price

34 Picture post Portuguese literature academic Igor Cusack takes a look at Angolan history as seen through its beautiful postage stamps

Kamene M Traça

30

Firefly Productions/CORBIS

Kamene M Traça

38

38 Sonangol

news briefing Challenges of the first months of Angola’s Opec presidency; Júlia Massoxi da Costa Talaia (above) wins literature prize; Sonangol enters Brazilian race; Soyo pipeline deal announced; Lobito refinery contract awarded to Kellogg Brown Root; BP needs more reserves in Block 31; Esso wants to expand

40 The best treatment

46 Pumping up the action

An interview with Gaspar Martins, the chief executive of Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção, the oil exploration and production segment of the company.

He explains the work currently under way and P&P’s plans for the future

50 The Big Picture A map of Angola and its national parks

Clínica Girassol, Sonangol’s recently opened hospital in Luanda, aims to be one of the best in Africa

SPRING 2009 3

SU21.editor-letters.pp4-5:SU21

23/2/09

10:47

Page 4

OVERVIEW

Alex Bellos

Letter from the editor

Managing expectations

L

ast year, Angola’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an estimated 13.2 per cent, making it one of the fastest-growing countries in the world.

This year, the economic climate is very different and Angola’s challenge is to minimise the inevitable effects of the global downturn.

The Economist Intelligence Unit is predicting that 2009 will see negative growth of 2.3 per cent – the first time the country’s annual GDP will have shrunk since 1993 – before bouncing back to 6.2 per cent in 2010. Whether or not Angola does indeed have a year of negative growth, it is clear that development and investment will not be able to continue at the rapid rate of recent years.

It is ironic that the economic troubles are coinciding with Angola’s presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). Angola joined the group in January 2007, and Angolan Oil Minister José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos became president in January this year for a 12-month period. Confronted with the price of oil at around $40 a barrel – down from a high of $147 last summer – Opec has agreed to cut production, with Angola accepting the largest proportional reduction of all members. The hope is to force the price up to around $75 a barrel.

4 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

The drop in production, added to the lower price, will inevitably mean a fall in revenues for the Angolan government.

The budget will have to be revised, and infrastructure projects will be affected.

Yet, as we report inside Universo, tightening the belt by a notch or two may bring its own benefits in terms of improved efficiency and a more realistic approach to planning and expectations.

Even if the macroeconomic indicators are in the doldrums, individual industries are still thriving. In this issue we focus on Angola’s aviation sector. The years since the end of the civil war have seen a growth in domestic and international air travel. You can now fly from Luanda directly to North America, South America, Europe and Asia. New routes are continually being added. Soon, Delta hopes to offer the first scheduled flight to the United States.

TAAG, the Angolan national carrier, is currently under new management and working to overturn the ban on its planes flying to Europe. We speak to one of the new management team and ask him how TAAG hopes to achieve this goal. We also have a case study of one of Angola’s new domestic airlines, Air 26, which offers executive charters on the fastest small plane in the world, the Cessna Citation X.

Universo also goes behind the scenes at TV Zimbo, Angola’s first privately owned television channel, which launched last December. We find a young team excited about reporting on the great changes under way in the country. TV Zimbo is one aspect of a booming media sector that includes new newspapers, magazines and radio stations.

We are also allowed a peek inside Clínica Girassol, a state-of-the-art hospital in Luanda that was built by Sonangol. It is the first medical establishment in Angola to have a complete oncology service, a neonatal intensive care unit and a department offering IVF. Culturally, Angola has a rich 12 months ahead of it. In March, Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Angola on the first African trip of his papacy, and preparations are well on course for the African Cup of Nations 2010, the largest international event to be held in the country. Four new stadiums are being built, hotels are nearing completion and the airport is getting a makeover.

Angola’s economic wealth is largely down to its hydrocarbons, but a lot more is going on here than pumping oil.

Editor@universo-magazine.com

SU21.editor-letters.pp4-5:SU21

23/2/09

10:47

Page 5

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

We need to unite

“ FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images

It is necessary to change the root causes that deprive some people of their basic human rights

By President José Eduardo dos Santos

E

ven though last year brought with it some unfortunate events, there are many aspects that give us optimism to confront the difficult situations we will face in 2009.

All countries are now feeling the effects of the international financial crisis and the recession in the world’s most developed economies. The circumstances from which the situation emerged and evolved merit deep reflection from all of us. This does not just mean looking for causes and ways to get over the problems, but trying to learn lessons so that they do not happen in the future.

The global character of international economic relations means that directly or indirectly, to a larger or a lesser degree, whether at the centre of the crisis or not, no country can escape its effects.

One clear message is that crises are not just the lot of poor countries. Lack of good governance and transparency, just like corruption, are not exclusive to the less-developed world. There are defi-

ciencies and wrongdoings in all human societies.

Good governance depends on honesty and political will. Based on this statement, we must admit that a new posture is necessary when it comes to co-operation, the building of partnerships and the reconciling of interests – a new posture which leaves egotism to the side and makes international relations more democratic, just and equal.

We also think the time has arrived to find the definitive solution for so many conflicts that are still going on in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East and Africa. Some of these conflicts are in the process of getting worse, provoking dramatic humanitarian crises that require urgent interventions.

It is not enough to make provisional ceasefires. It is necessary to change the root causes that deprive some people of their basic human rights.

The international community should, for this reason, unite its forces to

”

look for appropriate and enduring solutions to humanitarian problems, while being realistic and favouring dialogue.

Among these issues I include terrorism, degradation of the environment and the big epidemic and pandemic diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. It is the responsibility of every state, individually and together, to construct a peaceful world, capable of guaranteeing stability and security for all.

One cannot fail to mention the election of the first Afro-American president in the United States. It has created a sense of expectation, making us believe that there can be a sensitive and positive change in the way the most powerful nation on earth conducts its foreign relations.

We sincerely hope that this change becomes a reality.

The text is an edited extract of the President’s annual New Year speech to the diplomatic corps

SPRING 2009 5

SU21.Angola News.pp6-7:SU21

23/2/09

10:49

Page 6

Angola news briefing Shop shape A new shopping centre with bars, restaurants and cinemas is proposed for central Luanda between the Fortaleza de São Miguel and the planned Museum of Science and Technology. Spread over two floors, the mall will be accessed from Avenida 4 de Fevereiro and will have more than 450 parking spaces, a tourist information point and views across the bay of Luanda.

Pope flies in Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting Angola from March 20 to March 23 as part of his first Papal tour to Africa. The Pontiff will spend 45 minutes with President José Eduardo dos Santos at the Presidential Palace and will then be introduced to a gathering of politicians and diplomats.

As well as attending various meetings with church leaders from the region, Benedict will be holding a Holy Mass at São Paulo Church in Luanda and meeting young people at the city’s Coqueiros football stadium. A second Holy Mass will be held with the Bishops of the Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa at the Esplanada da Cimangola in Cacuaco, to the north of Luanda.

Benedict will also meet with Catholic women’s groups in the Santo António area of the city. A private Mass will be held on his final morning in Angola, before an official farewell event at Luanda’s international airport. Angola is the country in southern Africa with the most Catholics, and the Pontiff’s visit comes 500 years after the first missionaries arrived. Pope John Paul II visited Angola in 1992.

Benedict’s African tour will begin in Cameroon before he comes to Angola.

6 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Angola further strengthened its relationship with China when President José Eduardo dos Santos made an official visit to Beijing. Dos Santos was accompanied by a team of ministers including Foreign Minister Assunção dos Anjos, Finance Minister Severim de Morais and Transport Minister Augusto Tomás. The Angolan president met his counterpart Hu Jintao (pictured below) and a number of other senior Chinese government officials and businessmen. At the end of the three-day visit, President dos Santos announced that he had secured a number of financial credits between the countries to help pay for national reconstruction, particularly in the water and infrastructure sectors. The value of loans from China to Angola is believed to exceed $5 billion. Tens of thousands of Chinese are working in Angola, helping to rebuild the country’s roads, bridges, schools and hospitals after nearly three decades of conflict.

ADRIAN BRADSHAW/AFP/Getty Images

Alberto Pizzoli/Pool/epa/Corbis

China cheer

SU21.Angola News.pp6-7:SU21

23/2/09

10:49

Page 7

Figured out

6m

Yes we CAN! Completion of the four new football stadiums being built for the African Cup of Nations 2010 is on course for September. The stadiums are in Luanda (pictured below), Benguela, Cabinda and Lubango and are costing $600 million. The continent’s most important football competition, known by its French initials CAN, takes place every two years. It starts next January and will be the biggest event ever held in Angola. As well as the stadiums, a string of new hotels are being built to accommodate teams, spectators and the press. The African Football Confederation has confirmed that work is progressing according to the timetable. The final of the tournament will be staged in Luanda, where the stadium will hold 50,000 people.

tonnage of goods expected to pass through the Port of Luanda in 2009, says chief executive Sílvio Vinhas

$42bn

size of Angolan government budget, of which a third is social spending

4,083 Louise Redvers

anti-personnel landmines removed and sent for destruction during 2008

Mr Africa An Angolan has won Big Brother Africa for the first time. Ricardo “Ricco” Venâncio, aged 22, won the third edition of the continent’s best-known reality TV show.

Ricco, who lives in Maianga, Luanda, was the favourite to win the 91-day show from the start, and emerged from the house with $100,000 in prize money. He lived in Portugal for 15 years, then started studying tourism in Manchester, England, before moving to South Africa.

Before entering Big Brother Africa, he was working at Foment Bank of Angola (BFA).

Role model Nelsa Alves, aged 21, has been named Miss Angola 2009. Alves (pictured left), from Luanda, is an environmental engineering student. She said she hoped to spend some of the $3,000 prize money on her studies.

The Miss Angola pageant is supported by the First Lady, Ana Paula dos Santos, and winners maintain a high profile throughout the year by raising awareness of social issues.

$1.1bn

value of Chinese bank Exim Bank’s credit line for 18 separate projects around Angola in 2009

30

new hotels being built for the African Cup of Nations next year

1.6m

Angola’s new Opec quota for oil output, in barrels per day

SPRING 2009 7

SU21.airlines.pp08-13:SU21

23/2/09

10:51

Page 8

AVIATION

Sky’s the limit Check Six

8 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

SU21.airlines.pp08-13:SU21

23/2/09

10:51

Page 9

With new destinations, new planes, new airlines and maybe a new airport, Angola’s aviation industry is booming. Louise Redvers reports

W

hile European and American airlines have been slashing routes and seeing passenger numbers plummet, Africa, and particularly Angola, is enjoying a boom in air travel.

Planes arriving in Luanda are usually full, and one-way tickets in economy can sell for up to $5,000 on some routes because of the demand. It’s no surprise that airlines are queuing up to fly to Angola.

Already you can fly from Luanda to cities including Houston, Havana, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, Brussels, Moscow, Paris, London and Addis Ababa. Delta is hoping

to become the first US carrier to fly to the Angolan capital, and Kenya Airways intends to start a route from Nairobi as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, national carrier TAAG is expanding and hoping to overturn the ban preventing it from flying to the European Union. This all means that passenger numbers are set to increase this year. Aviation in Angola is “the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – elusive yet promises riches,” according to South African publication Business Day. At home, Angola’s domestic airspace is

thriving, with several airlines expanding and competing for local routes. Luanda’s 4th February Airport is soon to undergo a $74 million refit to help cope with the growing passenger numbers, and there are also longer-term plans to build a new airport 40km outside the capital.

Last year, Lufthansa started a weekly service from Frankfurt. Spokeswoman Karin Webr says that the airline hopes to increase frequency this year: “In terms of revenue, this is one of our best-performing flights, and there is certainly a potential to increase the frequency of the flight to

SPRING 2009 9

SU21.airlines.pp08-13:SU21

Sonangol

Jet set: SonAir, owned by Sonangol, runs a charter to Houston and several domestic schedule flights

10 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

10:51

Page 10

SU21.airlines.pp08-13:SU21

23/2/09

10:51

Page 11

AVIATION

more than once a week. It’s a very profitable flight and seat sales are around 90 per cent, which is very high in industry standards, especially for a relatively new route.

“As well as the oil traffic, we are seeing a demand from the Asian market using Frankfurt to transfer into Luanda from China and other parts of the region.

Lufthansa certainly sees Africa as a major potential growth area, and Luanda is a major part of that.”

South African Airways (SAA), which operates five flights a week between Luanda and Johannesburg, also sees Angola as a priority route. Robyn Chalmers, head of SAA group corporate affairs, says the airline would like to introduce more services but is constrained by bilateral agreements on routes.

“We are hopeful that the South African Department of Transport and the Angolan Civil Aviation Authority will amend the Bilateral Air Services Agreement between South Africa and Angola to all additional flights to be operated between the two countries.”

According to the International Air Transportation Association (IATA), passenger numbers in November last year dropped by 1.6 per cent in Africa, compared with 9.7 per cent in Asia-Pacific, 4.8 per cent in North America and 3.4 per cent in Europe – showing that Africa was less affected by the credit crunch. In terms of freight, IATA said Africa was the only region to post a growth (2.2 per cent), while Latin America, North America and Europe all lost between 10 and 15 per cent.

Justice Luthuli, SAA Cargo (SAAC) operations executive, says: “Our strategy is to strengthen our footprint in Africa and establish strategic hubs within the strong markets. This way, SAAC will support trade within the continent and thus stimulate economic activity. Luanda is one of the markets that have been prioritised. We have seen phenomenal growth of economic activity, which has resulted in demand for more capacity in this sector.”

The Luanda-to-Johannesburg flight is extremely popular with expats who use the South African hub to get to Europe and

Sonangol

Priority

“

Angola has more than ten small airlines operating services around the country to the provincial capitals

beyond. Last year, South African low-cost operator 1Time also expressed an interest in a share of the Luanda-Johannesburg route but said it was being excluded by current bilateral agreements, restricting the route to SAA and the national carrier TAAG. A spokesman for Delta confirmed that an Atlanta-Cape Verde-Luanda flight was “pending approval” from the Angolan government. This would cater to the market of thousands of Americans who work in Angola for oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, and also to a large diplomatic and NGO presence in the country. Currently, the only direct route to the United States is via a SonAir (part of Sonangol) charter service, but this is limited to oil workers and their families and, as with other services, flights fill up months in advance.

The ban on TAAG flying to Europe is costing the company millions in lost revenue. Even so, the carrier has continued to grow, extending its destination map to

”

include Dubai, Beijing and São Paulo. The Beijing service has been launched as a twice-weekly charter, but there are plans to extend this to operate on a scheduled basis.

Air China has also started a flight between Luanda and Beijing, running seven days a week and aimed at the tens of thousands of Chinese construction workers who are employed in Angola.

Angola has more than ten small airlines operating services around the country to the provincial capitals. These include SonAir, Heliang, Tropicana, AeroJet, Air Gemini, Diexim, Attair and Air 26.

SonAir, which celebrates 30 years of service in Angola this October, is the largest, with a fleet of 25 planes and 25 helicopters. It operates flights to Benguela, Cabinda, Catumbela, Huambo, Lubango, Ondjiva and Soyo.

Regional airports including Soyo, Benguela and Mbanza Congo are undergoing refits to accommodate the increase in domestic demand.

SPRING 2009 11

SU21.airlines.pp08-13:SU21

23/2/09

10:51

Page 12

AVIATION

Future is orange: Air 26 plane and crew

Red-carpet treatment: start-up aims high

12 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

sandwich and a soft drink, although no alcohol is served on board. A red carpet is rolled out to welcome travellers from their transfer buses before they are guided onto the planes, which are distinctively marked in orange and grey and bear the motto “Fly in good company.”

Monteiro, who has previously worked for TAAG and Air Gemini in his 20-year airline career, says the Huambo flights are

Pics: Kamene M Traça

I

n January, Air 26 took delivery of a Cessna Citation X, model 750, the fastest small plane in the world. Known in the airline industry as the Rolls-Royce of small planes, the Citation X can cruise at a speed of 580mph and at an altitude of 51,000ft.

The airline hopes to use the plane for executive travel to China, America, Dubai and eventually Europe.

As well as offering executive services, Air 26 also flies scheduled domestic flights.

It is one of the ten or so Angolan airlines which have taken advantage of the post-war climate to expand.

Air 26 operates three Brazilian Embraer 120s (30-seater, twin engine turboprops) between Benguela, Cabinda, Catumbela, Huambo and Soyo. Belmiro Monteiro, chief of ground operations, says: “We’re a new company, in operation for around two years, and we’re trying to give our passengers a new service. We respect our customers, make sure we leave on time and, of course, adhere to strict maintenance and security standards.”

Passengers receive a complimentary

the most popular, while the oil workers make good use of the Soyo and Cabinda services.

“Most of our flights are around 95 per cent full. The roads in Angola just aren’t good enough for people to travel these distances, so internal flights have always been and will continue to be a good alternative. We see our flights as good value.

It costs around $140 to fly to Huambo and you’re there so quickly, compared with driving for hours. It’s a good time for business right now. We’re getting a new domestic airport terminal and there’s going to be more space for us to expand.”

One expansion, however, that has been put on hold is Air 26’s plan to offer executive services to Lisbon, Paris and Dubai. This is because all Angolan airlines are currently banned from flying in Europe.

“We still want to do this, but obviously at the moment we are restricted,” says Monteiro.

Air 26 employs 12 captains, 12 pilots and 20 stewardesses who work on a rota.

SU21.airlines.pp08-13:SU21

23/2/09

10:51

Page 13

SPRING 2009 13

SU21.TAAG Man.pp14-19:SU21

Ferdinando Casagrande

Rui Carreira: committed to fixing TAAG’s problems

14 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

10:53

Page 14

SU21.TAAG Man.pp14-19:SU21

23/2/09

10:53

Page 15

AVIATION

WINGS OF A NATION Angolan carrier TAAG is under new management. But can it overturn the ban on Angolan planes flying to Europe? Company spokesman Rui Carreira hopes so

I

n 2007, the European Union banned Angolan national carrier TAAG from flying to Europe, and the ban was extended last year to include all Angolan airlines. The EU said the restriction was based on “significant safety concerns” raised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) which “affect the safety of operations of all Angolan carriers.”

The EU said it was in close consultation with Angolan civil aviation authorities for a “satisfactory completion of the action plan of corrective measures and the recertification of all carriers.”

In response to the extension of the ban to all national carriers, the Angolan government fired the board of TAAG and set up a commission to run the airline and resolve the safety problems. Universo spoke to commission spokesman Rui Carreira about the airline’s current services and its plans.

Carreira has a law degree and an MBA in corporate finance. He started his aviation career as a fighter pilot in the Angolan Air Force, and until he started working for TAAG he was a SonAir pilot.

Soyo, Catumbela, Huambo, Lubango, Ondjiva, Dundo, Negage, Mbanza Congo, Luena, Saurimo, Malange, Namibe and Menongue.

Can you list your full international and domestic destinations?

What was behind the decision to launch the charter to Beijing?

We have 15 international destinations: Paris, Kinshasa, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Harare, Lusaka, Johannesburg, Lisbon, Beijing, Pointe Noire, Brazzaville, Bangui, Windhoek, São Tomé and Sal. We have 14 domestic destinations: Cabinda,

This decision came from the Angolan government as a result of China-Angola co-operation agreements. There are nowadays thousands of Chinese workers in Angola, and they need to fly from Beijing to Luanda and vice versa.

How many people work for TAAG – pilots, air crew, ground crew, management and admin?

TAAG has a staff of 3,993, of which 141 are pilots and flight engineers, and 298 cabin crew.

What is in the fleet?

Our fleet is composed of 13 aircraft: 3 Boeing 777-200s, 4 Boeing 737-7000s, 4 Boeing 737-200s and 2 Boeing 747-300s.

You launched a flight to Dubai last year – how is that going?

We fly to Dubai twice a week and the commercial performance of this flight is increasing consistently. At the beginning, we had load factors of 60 to 65 per cent and now they are about 69 to 75 per cent. Our passengers are mainly businessmen and businesswomen.

Do you hope this will become a scheduled service soon?

We are confident that the market will react positively because business exchange between China and Angola is increasing in the public and private sectors. These charter flights represent only a first approach.

We are ready to initiate the negotiations with Chinese aviation authorities for a scheduled service to China. We are waiting for the green light from both governments.

Are there any other new destinations on your shopping list?

We are currently making an evaluation of our routing network. We will, of course, close some non-profitable destinations and open others that are expected to be more in demand from a commercial point of view.

Our aim is to search for destinations where sales and load factors can cover all operational costs and produce revenues.

How well do your domestic routes perform? Are these flights regularly sold out?

We fly to the capitals of almost every province in Angola. Some destinations are profitable, but most are not. During the civil war, the only means of safe travel was by plane. Now, many people are starting to travel by road, and cargo flights have also fallen dramatically. So, in many destinations the load factors are very poor. However, we are a state-owned company, and SPRING 2009 15

SU21.TAAG Man.pp14-19:SU21

23/2/09

10:53

Page 16

Gratien Jonxis

AVIATION

“

We have 15 international destinations: Paris, Kinshasa, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Harare, Lusaka, Johannesburg, Lisbon, Beijing, Pointe Noire, Brazzaville, Bangui, Windhoek, São Tomé and Sal

Celso Pupo Rodrigues

Ocean Coast, Cape Verde

Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

”

the decision to open or close domestic destinations must come from the government. Therefore, we are thinking about utilising an adequate fleet to improve load factors and profitability, which means that we have to have smaller planes for domestic flights. We are seriously considering this issue.

TAAG has had a difficult year in relation to the EU and its blacklist.

The government has created this new commission to help TAAG win back its European permit – what exactly is being done to achieve this?

The first step is to work very hard to achieve a National Civil Aviation Institute (INAVIC) air-operator certificate where our operating 16 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

manuals comply with new civil aviation authorities’ standards. The second step is to familiarise our personnel with them.

Furthermore, we have been working to fix all the problems raised by European Union and IATA inspections. Soon we expect to be ready for a submission to a new EU assessment.

Does TAAG think the position taken by the EU is fair?

IATA philosophy is to be against the publication of blacklists. The best way is to co-operate with companies facing difficulties. We recognise that TAAG has got organisational problems. We are committed to fixing them. We are implementing an action plan to correct every finding of nonconformity with international civil aviation law and best practices recommended by the

industry. If in the next inspection EU authorities recognise that we are in a good way, the maintenance of the ban will not help us and it will not be fair.

What is the cost to TAAG’s business not being able to fly into Europe?

TAAG is losing about $5 million a month because it was forced to lease airplanes to cover the same destinations, and we were obliged to revise some code-share agreements. From a psychological point of view, the level of confidence of our customers decreased, as well as the sales volume.

In order to get round the current ban, TAAG uses TAP to fly to Lisbon and Air France for Paris.

23/2/09

10:54

Page 17

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Robert Churchill

S. Greg Panosian

SU21.TAAG Man.pp14-19:SU21

Cliff Parnell

Summer Palace, Beijing

NASA/Corbis

Djembe drums, Johannesburg

Did you previously fly anywhere else in Europe?

We were about to fly to London at the time of publication of the blacklist.

Are there more plans to wet lease aircrafts and crews – as you do with SAA for the weekly service to Lisbon?

What were the operational reasons behind your decision to stop the Addis Ababa and Point Noire flights?

Are you involved in any partnerships with international airlines in terms of maintenance or other areas?

No, we are making plans to operate our fleet of Boeing 777-200s as an alternative to wet-lease aircraft.

In the past, we had some co-operation agreements with several European companies such as TAP and Air France.

They helped us in the flight operations and maintenance sectors. Now, we have signed contracts with some maintenance, repair and overhaul services operators such as SAAT for Boeing 747-300s and VEM for new generation airplanes. We also intend to set capacity and commercial agreements with experienced aviation companies in Africa and Europe.

Does TAAG see competition from international airlines such as Lufthansa and Delta (the latter hopes to start flying between Luanda and Atlanta) as a threat to business or as something positive to increase choice in terms of flight availability in Angola?

The flight to Addis Ababa was started as a bridge to the Middle East and Asia. Now, with direct flights to Dubai and Beijing, the Addis Ababa flight does not make any commercial sense.

Our main goal is to serve our customers. We believe that competition will improve the quality of our service and, of course, flight availability.

How can TAAG win back the confidence of passengers and attract new business?

We are making efforts to reorganise our administrative and operational structure, considering a new management and commercial attitude and promoting a new flight-safety culture. To achieve this goal, we set a very ambitious action plan which will result in a better performance.

SPRING 2009 17

SU21.TAAG Man.pp14-19:SU21

23/2/09

10:54

AVIATION

A welcome upgrade

L

uanda’s battered international airport is to undergo a $74 million refit ahead of the country hosting the African Cup of Nations in January 2010.

Currently, passengers are often faced with check-in queues that can last several hours, and the boarding area is cramped and airless. Facilities are also limited when arriving into the country. The poorly maintained baggage hall has only one reclaim belt, and immigration lines can take hours to pass.

Work has already begun and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009, ready for the thousands expected to come to Angola to enjoy the CAN football tournament next year.

Joaquim José Neves da Cunha, director-general of Luanda’s airport, says: “From December, the image of this airport is going to be completely different. It is more than 40 years old and has many technical problems, and this is an opportunity to completely remodel it.

“At the moment, there isn’t enough space for more than two or three flights to check in at once, but we’re going to increase the check-in areas and reduce the waiting time for passengers. We will make arrival easier as well with more immigration desks. We know at the moment that our service is not good enough.”

In addition, he says that staff at the airport will be given training to improve the level of service to passengers.

Somague, the Portuguese firm that constructed stadiums for Euro 2004, is carrying out the work.

A temporary terminal will be constructed adjacent to the existing airport to house passengers while works are ongoing.

Jorge de Melo, president of Enana, Angola’s national airports administrator, says the work will cause some disturbance to passengers, but he hopes that travellers will support the airport while it improves conditions for the long term.

18 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Page 18

23/2/09

10:54

Page 19

T

hese illustrations of the $74 million upgrade show how the car park will be modernised to provide space for 650 vehicles. The money will also go to increasing the number of check-in desks from 12 to 28, enlarging the boarding area and having three luggage carousels. The runway will be modernised to reduce takeoff and landing congestion.

In total, Enana is spending around $400 million refitting and rebuilding Angola’s 30 airports, including $130 million on a new one at Catumbela, Benguela, and $99 million on another at Lubango in Huila. Later, there are plans to rebuild Luanda’s airport 40km from the city centre at Bom Jesus, but no details have been released.

Pictures Enana

SU21.TAAG Man.pp14-19:SU21

SPRING 2009 19

SU21.TV Zimbo.pp20-25:SU21

This is the news: Zimbo anchorwoman Claudia Constance

20 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

10:55

Page 20

SU21.TV Zimbo.pp20-25:SU21

23/2/09

10:55

Page 21

MEDIA

GOOD EVENING

ANGOLA! Angola’s media is flourishing with new newspapers and now has its first private television station. Louise Redvers goes behind the scenes at TV Zimbo

Pictures by Kamene M Traça

I

t’s Friday afternoon and the newsroom is buzzing. Five flat-screen televisions beam out reports from around the world in various languages, phones ring non-stop and young people rush from desk to desk handing out sheets of A4 paper. Welcome to the newsroom of TV Zimbo, Angola’s first and only private television station.

Launched in December, TV Zimbo began broadcasting daily between 5.30pm and 1am and hopes to go to 24 hours by March.

The channel’s schedule is a youthful mix that includes news bulletins, chat shows with studio audiences, music programmes, interactive consumer debates, the homegrown sitcom Maka Hotel (Troubled Hotel), Portuguese soap operas and movies.

Indira Patrício, co-head of programming, says: “We are trying to give the Angolan people something different, especially in terms of our news. We want to be clear, transparent and honest and give people as much information as we can.”

Dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and trainers, 28-year-old Patrício – like most of the staff – is new to TV, having previously worked in corporate and public affairs at the De Beers diamond company.

The shiny, modern building in Luanda Sul is full of construction workers and we struggle to find a quiet room to talk. The one we settle in is full of unwrapped flat-pack furniture. “We’re a very young team and we’re very open-minded,” she says. “We’re still in the experimental stage but we’re all very excited to be involved in such a challenging project.

“There’s so much happening in Angola right now. The whole country is being rebuilt, everything is changing, politics are changing, attitudes are changing – positively changing – and so are we in the information sector.”

TV Zimbo is owned by Media Nova and is the first terrestrial alternative to state-run TPA 1 and 2. Named after a seashell that was used as currency in 16th-century Angola, the station is aimed at those who do not have access to the Brazilian and Portuguese SPRING 2009 21

SU21.TV Zimbo.pp20-25:SU21

Green room: Zimbo’s news studio

22 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

10:55

Page 22

SU21.TV Zimbo.pp20-25:SU21

23/2/09

10:55

Page 23

MEDIA

Fit for broadcast: Zimbo’s offices

“

We want people to make the choice about what sort of news they want to watch satellite channels such as Globo and SIC. On its website, TV Zimbo describes itself as a station of independence, ethics, quality and creativity, which celebrates difference and has team spirit. Patrício says that the station really is independent and that it is free to approach the news agenda in any way it likes.

Youth appeal “That’s our point, that’s our main goal – to be able to transmit all we have in terms of information. If we start hiding information, there’s no point having a new television station. We want to be openminded about the information we send out.”

She adds that it was intentional that the main nightly news bulletin at 8.30pm is timed to coincide with TPA’s evening news.

“We want people to make the choice about what sort of news they want to watch. We are not competing with TPA; it’s more of being an alternative, complementing what they already give to Angola.”

Apart from a few inevitable teething problems, there have been no major technical disasters, according to Emanuel da Mata, one of the station’s three newsroom editors in chief. When I ask him about the launch day, he laughs and puts his head in his hands.

“Ok… it was like… wow, we did it! No, it was good, actually, it was

”

Indira Patrício, co-head of programming

perfect and on time. We were working on the launch for three months and the work paid off.”

Mata, who previously worked at Rádio Eclésia, Rádio Nacional de Angola and most recently in a bank, adds that his job is very different to what he had done before. “I’m really enjoying it and so far it’s going well. We’re a young team. Lots of women work here; you can see that from looking around the office, but that’s part of our aim, to appeal to young people, to be new.”

Mata explains that TV Zimbo’s news stance is very different to the official line of TPA. “The idea is to make the news more peoplecentred and to look at more social issues. For instance, our launch story was about breast-cancer testing and we’re currently working on a story about a five-year-old girl who was abused by a gang. We are getting people to talk about their experiences on camera; it’s more than just the official government line on an issue.”

The launch of Angola’s first private channel comes soon after last year’s general elections, when the European Union observer mission noted a lack of diversity of opinion in the Angolan media because of the control extended by the state-run media group Edições Novembro, which produces Jornal de Angola, Jornal de Economia e Finanças and the sports daily Jornal dos Desportos.

Media Nova says it wants to bring something new to Angola.

SPRING 2009 23

SU21.TV Zimbo.pp20-25:SU21

23/2/09

10:55

Page 24

MEDIA

Small screen, big dreams: Indira Patrício in the production suite

One big difference is that while much of the training for Edições Novembro comes from Brazil, staff at TV Zimbo and its sister outlets, the weekly newspaper O País and Rádio Mais, are being trained by the Portuguese.

The main news studio is bright green and full of camera operators and lighting technicians preparing for that evening’s news broadcast. Claudia Constance, aged 31, is one of TV Zimbo’s news anchors. She presented the first news bulletin on the new channel.

Confidence Describing the launch day, she says: “I was on first with Paulo Duda to do the news. It was pretty demanding. I really felt this big responsibility because everyone was watching in the studio; the producers, the VIPs and, of course, the people watching at home.

But I think it went well. I tried to be full of energy and confidence and to do my best. We’d been preparing for that launch for months and it was really exciting to be a part of it.”

Glancing at her watch, she suddenly looks anxious. Aware that she is due on air soon, I ask if she’s late for make-up. She laughs: “Actually, I usually do my own make-up. They say we’re getting people in and I saw some boxes of products arrive the other day, 24 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

but for now I do it myself.” She adds that there was a power cut the previous day, minutes before the news show, and that the teleprompters do not always work.

Constance, who is also doing a distance-learning MA in communications with Leicester University in England, enjoys the more people-focused approach to news at TV Zimbo: “I love getting out there and meeting people,” she says. “The idea is that as well as presenting, all the journalists can have a go at being out in the field.

We want to cover all sides of the story, and help people by giving them information.”

Less than 200 metres away, past a row of enormous back-up generators and a logo-branded TV Zimbo car, is a second building, still teeming with fitters. Patrício tells me this will be the studio for the chat shows and audience programmes. Cavernous and painted black inside, the ceiling is thick with metal lighting rigs. “We’ll be able to have an audience of around 200 in here,” she says. “There are more offices upstairs, so it will be less cramped in the main building because half the people will be here.”

While we’re talking, her phone rings and she rushes off to another meeting, clutching her clipboard – back to the buzz of the newsroom at TV Zimbo.

SU21.TV Zimbo.pp20-25:SU21

23/2/09

10:55

Page 25

Extra! Extra!

T

V Zimbo is just one relation in the Media Nova family. Also launched late 2008 were O País, a weekly newspaper with a glossy magazine, and Rádio Mais. Like their television sister, the newspaper and radio station aim to bring something fresh to Angola’s media landscape. As well as the usual sports reports, commentary and news, O País has pink financial pages, restaurant reviews, shopping guides and interviews with pop stars and television personalities.

“With O País our objective was to create something absolutely different,” explains director Luís Fernando.

“The private media here was taking a certain direction and we felt that this was not showing the real Angola.

We are trying to show that Angola has things that are good as well.”

Rádio Mais has more independent competition on the airwaves from the popular LAC (Luanda Antena Comercial) and church-run Rádio Eclésia. José Vieira Marques, director general of Rádio Mais, says his station shares the “difference” approach. “We’re trying to be very different in how we talk and the way we deliver news. We do it in shorter bulletins and more packaged – and we are using professional jingles. It’s also deliberate policy to play 50 per cent international music with English lyrics and 50 per cent music with Portuguese lyrics.

“We’re the first to offer traffic updates. Luanda has a real problem with traffic. We have traffic bikes going around the city and we want to get a helicopter as well.”

Printing money: more newspapers is good news for vendors

Stop press!

O

ne of Angola’s newest weekly newspapers celebrated its first anniversary in January. Novo Jornal joined a crowded market but has been hailed for its more investigative style of journalism and its in-depth cultural and business sections.

Editorial chief António Freitas says that the paper, owned by New Media Angola, is aimed at Angola’s new middle class. “I think there is a new type of reader out there who wants more information about different types of things, especially about the economy.”

Albino Carlos, general director of CEFOJOR, Luanda’s journalism training school, believes the more new media outlets there are in Angola, the better it is for press freedom. “Having these new media outlets is a very good thing for Angola because it is increasing diversity and democracy. We are developing as a country economically, socially and democratically, so the social communication sector must develop too. If it does not develop, the country does not develop.

Other Portuguese-backed media companies are also believed to be planning to launch newspapers, radio and TV channels in Angola later this year.

SPRING 2009 25

SU21.Uganda.pp26-29:SU21

23/2/09

10:57

Page 26

EASTERN

PROMISE Is a major oil discovery in Uganda a turning point for oil production in East Africa?

Nick Wadhams reports

Natural reservoir: Lake Edward, Uganda, may be above extractable hydrocarbons

26 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

10:57

Page 27

UGANDA

F

or about a year, the news had come in a slow, steady trickle. Two oil firms exploring the virgin territory of landlocked Uganda had drilled one promising well, then another, and then another. At last, what looked like a jackpot, the Kingfisher-3A well around Lake Albert, said to be the largest oil discovery in East Africa, was announced late last year.

Since then, the news has only got better for Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil, the two firms exploring in Uganda. With a number of wells now drilled and oil confirmed, Heritage and Tullow, which split the Kingfisher well, say they now believe there is enough oil there – at least 400 million barrels and the likelihood of much more – to make extraction worthwhile.

“We’re hugely excited about the volume of oil we’ve discovered,” says Brian Glover, Uganda country manager for Tullow, which has the most licences in Africa. “Both companies are very upbeat about developing oil there.”

More oil is anticipated at other wells in Uganda – possibly another 400 million barrels at the Buffalo block, co-owned by the two companies, making a total of about one billion barrels. There is talk of building an oil pipeline to Mombasa, Kenya, at a cost of $2 billion, to export up to 500,000 barrels a day.

While production is still a long way off, the finds could alter the face of oil prospecting in Africa. Few people, particularly those who work for the oil majors, had anticipated that there was enough oil in Uganda to make extraction worthwhile.

More importantly, the discoveries suggest that there may be oil in the rest of East Africa, a region that has been almost entirely unexplored.

That may now be changing. There is interest in oil exploration in Tanzania and off the coast of its semi-autonomous island

Photolibrary/Nigel Pavitt

SU21.Uganda.pp26-29:SU21

“

Zanzibar. The only thing stopping serious drilling in Ethiopia is political unrest in its eastern Ogaden region.

Dominion Petroleum is working another block in Uganda, along Lake Edward. Explorers are also looking at Madagascar, Mozambique and other countries all down the coast. East Africa, particularly a geological region known as the Albertine Rift, could be shaping up to be the next West Africa.

“Along the entire East African margin, there are 500 wells from Eritrea to Cape Town,” says Chris Matchette-Downes, vice president of Black Marlin Energy, an East Africa oil explorer. “Compare that with the 30,000 to 40,000 wells that have been drilled in West Africa. It’s simply untouched.”

Big finds “The Albertine Rift clearly worked for Tullow and Heritage,” he says. “There will be other finds, perhaps in Malawi or further south in Rwanda. They have already found hydrocarbons in the rifts up in Sudan and Ethiopia.”

Uganda will be a proving ground. If oil can be successfully extracted, major oil companies may take a closer look at the East, a region that explorers say has been chronically ignored despite signs that there is oil to be found.

Tullow now says it predicts big finds in other blocks that will be explored in 2009, and expects production within three to four years. It believes that the reserve figure will go up as it further explores the Kingfisher well. Reserves are likely to grow even more once it tests for oil in Lake Albert itself.

“We’ve discovered this volume of reserves, but we’re very upbeat about there being significantly more underneath the lake and also onshore in the north in areas we haven’t yet tested,” says Glover.

We’re hugely excited about the volume of oil we’ve discovered. Both companies are very upbeat about developing oil there

”

Brian Glover, Tullow Oil

SPRING 2009 27

23/2/09

10:57

Page 28

BananaStock

SU21.Uganda.pp26-29:SU21

“

Large-scale production isn’t expected for another three to four years at the least, with 150,000 barrels a year possibly six years away Heritage Oil has been so encouraged by finds in its Warthog-1 and Buffalo-1 wells that it started drilling another well, Giraffe-1, in late December. “Operationally, 2008 was an excellent year for Heritage as we have made extraordinary progress with our drilling programme in Uganda,” says chief executive Tony Buckingham.

Production will not be immediate, however. Uganda has chronic power shortages, and Tullow says it wants to extract enough in 2009 to get a better understanding of the reservoirs it has. Next year, it would pump enough to assist with power generation. Large-scale production is not expected for another three to four years at the earliest, with 150,000 barrels a

28 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

”

Brian Glover, Tullow Oil

year possibly six years away, says Tullow’s Glover.

“You can imagine that if we’re building facilities, it will take a long time. You have to bring absolutely everything into the country because there is nothing there,” he says.

Daunting Will East Africa, led by Uganda, be the next West Africa? Perhaps. But just as oil in Nigeria and Angola has brought its share of headaches, the risks associated with drilling in Uganda and the rest of East Africa are daunting.

For a start, Uganda’s oil is waxy, which means that it hardens to the consistency of

shoe polish as it comes to the surface.

Moving the oil will require that it be heated, a costly process. That is particularly troublesome as Uganda is a landlocked country. The obvious choice of transport would be east, to the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Tullow says it is considering several options – building a pipeline, or taking oil out by rail or road. But the infrastructure would need major upgrades.

At a time when oil prices are falling, these expenses are hard to stomach. Tullow and Heritage had initially said that 400 million barrels of reserves would be viable so long as oil remained at $80 a barrel. But they now say the costs of materials such as

SU21.Uganda.pp26-29:SU21

23/2/09

10:57

Page 29

UGANDA

Oil on his horizon: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni

Go East!

Oil discoveries in Uganda

Lake Albert

4 3 2

1 Antony Njuguna/Reuters

Kampala

Lake Edward

currently has very few. The government is clearly overjoyed by the prospect of oil riches and is pressing the companies operating there to quicken their pace.

“We are looking at it as a medium to long-term strategic solution to transforming our economy,” Energy Minister Daudi Migereko told New Vision. “The exploration and production programme of oil will not stop. Uganda must stop depending on imported petroleum products. It is expensive, unreliable and not controllable.”

Glover of Tullow says he has been pleased with the Ugandan government’s commitment to transparency, but complicating matters further is the fact that Lake Albert is at the heart of a dispute between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In August 2007, Carl Nefdt, a contractor with Heritage, was shot and killed on Lake Albert as he conducted a seismic survey. The killing caused new tensions between the DRC and Uganda, which claimed that Congolese soldiers were behind the attack.

“The state’s capacity will be tested in the coming years, impacting operators in various ways such as inconsistent policy enforcement, operational delays due to regulatory burdens and possible sanctity of contract as the state seeks more revenue from the sector,” says Monica Enfield, an analyst with PFC Energy.

Oil wells: 1 Kingfisher 2 Warthog 3 Giraffe Skip ODonnell

steel have also dropped, making a potential pipeline cheaper to build.

“Heritage chief financial officer Paul Atherton is confident that should the threshold volume of reserves be proved up (350 to 400 million barrels), then the development programme and pipeline will go ahead to provide a distribution channel and export route via East Africa,” says Werner Riding, oil and gas analyst at Ambrian. “The drop in oil prices from record highs last year has not deterred the desire to construct the pipeline.”

Questions remain, however. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who came to power in 1986, has preached transparency and has promised to make sure oil is a boon, and not a curse, to Uganda’s economy, but he is already making some statements that have puzzled analysts.

For example, last year he told the local newspaper New Vision that he would not allow the export of any crude oil – it must all be refined in-country. He said the country would open a refinery by mid-2008 to produce heavy fuel oil, diesel and paraffin.

“I have held a meeting with companies producing oil. They wanted to build a pipeline, but I told them there would be no export of crude oil from Uganda. We have to refine it here,” he told the newspaper.

If Museveni sticks to that vow, Uganda will have to train up a cadre of engineers and oil experts, of which the country

4 Buffalo

Facts & Figures Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa, surrounded by Kenya, Sudan, the DRC, Rwanda and Tanzania. It has an area of 236 sq km, which makes it slightly smaller than Oregon. The population is 31 million, of which half is aged 14 or under. English is the official national language. Gross domestic product is $1,100 per capita. Coffee is the main source of export revenues, with agriculture accounting for more than 80 per cent of jobs.

Source: CIA World Factbook

SPRING 2009 29

SU21.Economy.pp30-33:SU21

23/2/09

10:58

Page 30

ECONOMY

WEATHERING

THE STORM What will the global downturn mean for Angola? Louise Redvers investigates

A

ngola has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the last four years, thanks to rising oil prices, a burgeoning financial sector and a booming construction industry guaranteeing sky-high property prices.

This year, however, it faces two serious problems that mean it may not be able to continue at the same breakneck pace: the after-effects of the global credit crunch and the lower price of oil. The former means that oil consumption and infrastructure investment will slow down, and the latter that the government may have to cut back its spending plans. The issue now is whether Angola is recession-proof. Can the country weather the storm of the global downturn?

The Economist Intelligence Unit predicts that the Angolan economy will contract by 2.3 per cent in 2009. If this happens, it will be the first time in 16 years that GDP registers negative growth.

The root of the problem is also the cause of Angola’s boom: oil. In order to stabilise the falling price of oil, Opec (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is requiring its members to reduce production. Angola’s new quota of just over 1.5 billion barrels per day compares with last year’s average of 1.9 million bpd, so, independently of the low price, oil revenues will be significantly down.

Diamond exports too are likely to be hit as global demand falls. And foreign investment could also come under pressure as key investors such as China, Brazil and Portugal reassess their priorities.

Oil exports make up around 85 per cent of national income. The world always 30 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

needs oil and when demand and prices are high, income is good. But with lower and unpredictable prices, this income is not guaranteed and budgets will need to be revised.

Ricardo Gazel, senior economist at the World Bank in Angola, believes the country has a tough 12 months ahead. “Unless the global economic situation recuperates quickly, oil prices go up and Opec goes back to the previous production levels, Angola is going to face a difficult year in terms of growth,” he says. He expects investment from oil companies to slow and job losses to rise, and he believes the government will have to readjust its 11.8 per cent growth forecast.

Positive Salim Abdul, an economist at the Catholic University of Angola in Luanda, says it used to be thought that developing countries were by and large immune to a drop in economic activity in the United States and Europe: “But what we are seeing now is that it’s affecting all the countries and all are dependent on each other.”

However, there are some voices saying that the international credit crunch could have a positive impact on Angola’s oil industry. Oil economist Oystein Noreng, a professor at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo, told an audience in Luanda at the end of 2008 that a slowing of demand for oil will be an incentive to cut costs: “This happened in the North Sea in 1985 when oil fell from $28 a barrel to $11 a barrel and the industry had to learn how to cut costs. It’s always possible to be more efficient, and when you use the low-price

period to become more efficient, you will gain when the price of oil goes up again.”

Paul de Sousa, chairman and chief executive of KPMG Angola, also has confidence in Angola’s ability to survive the global downturn. “Of course there will be some negative impact,” he says, “but I am still very, very positive about Angola. Six months ago, I would have said Angola was an economic miracle because it was doing so well on its own. Today, I would say it’s a miracle because it’s still doing so well, perhaps even better, compared to the rest of the economies, including those economies Angola exports its oil to.”

One area of common agreement is that the country’s spending plans will have to be revised downwards. Indeed, Economy Minister Manuel Júnior and President José Eduardo dos Santos have both made public statements admitting that changes to the country’s $42 billion budget could be on the cards.

Some tweaks have already been made.

The government had originally estimated benchmark oil prices at $65 a barrel for its budget, but in November, as the price of crude continued to plummet and the global decline intensified, the Ministry of Finance lowered its calculations to $55 a barrel.

For de Sousa, this belt tightening might bring its own benefits. “If you consider that the country’s infrastructure is straining to handle the economic developments that are going on, perhaps it might not be such a terrible thing after all if growth slows,” he says. “Obviously people want maximum growth in a country where there’s so much poverty and social need,

23/2/09

10:58

Page 31

Photolibrary/David Clapp

SU21.Economy.pp30-33:SU21

SPRING 2009 31

Sonangol

Page 32

Kenneth Willardt / Jupiter / Reuters

10:58

Firefly Productions/CORBIS

23/2/09

Comstock/Corbis

SU21.Economy.pp30-33:SU21

Ups and downs: Oil rises, but oil prices have dropped and the economy is suffering

32 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

SU21.Economy.pp30-33:SU21

23/2/09

10:58

Page 33

ECONOMY

“

In the long term, steady growth could help Angola legitimately compete with South Africa as southern Africa’s regional power

25

5000 4500 4000

iStockphoto.com

Angola Economic Growth 2002-7

20

3500 15

3000 2500 2000

10

1500 1000

5 Source: World Bank

Jonas Horner, of global-political-risk research and consulting firm Eurasia Group, believes pressures on the oil industry will force Angola to diversify its economy and invest in other key potential areas such as agriculture, and that the country will survive the credit crunch relatively unscathed.

“Of course, depressed oil prices, the high cost of doing business and the spectre of Opec quotas will cut into short-term revenues,” he says, “but in the long term, steady growth could help Angola legitimately compete with South Africa as southern Africa’s regional power.”

Another event that will help strengthen Angola’s economy is the long-talked-about stock exchange, tipped to come on-stream this year. Having its own stock exchange will add weight to Angola’s claim to be a leading African power.

The World Bank’s Ricardo Gazel agrees that Angola, while facing challenges, is in a generally enviable position. He says there are good levels of foreign-reserves savings from previous years’ budget surpluses.

He shares Jonas Horner’s belief that the non-oil sectors, like agriculture and construction, will continue to grow and boost diversification.

The next 12 months will be a big test for the country on how to operate without the cushion of oil prices well in excess of $100 a barrel. “The important thing is how the Angolan government will react and adjust in terms of creating a more efficient public sector and how it will prioritise its investments,” says Gazel.

500 0

0 2002

2003

2004

2005

Current GDP (Billions of Kwanzas)

2006

2007

Real Growth Rates

Composition of GDP 2007 iStockphoto.com

Strengthen

”

“The truth is the government has done lots of things correctly,” he says. “It has built up a good level of foreign reserves, which it has saved over the last three years with budget surpluses, so there is certainly some room for manoeuvre. This situation is not because of anything Angola did; it is the global economic situation.”

70 60

50

40

30 20 10 0 Agriculture and fishing

Petroleum

Other Extractive

Manufacturing

Construction

Commerce

Services

SPRING 2009 33

Source: World Bank

and where the country has been at war and hasn’t been growing and developing for the last 30 years. But too much boom and too fast a boom can also have symptoms that are undesirable.”

He believes a slower rate of growth could “add an injection of reality into business and economic planning and into the expectations of institutions and some agencies in government.” De Sousa adds that it is important that cuts do not fall on the social and health sectors, which account for over a third of the 2009 spending plans, because Angola still has a lot of work to do to reduce its child-mortality rate, which is one of the highest in the world.

Jonas Horner, Eurasia Group

SU21.stamps.pp34-37:SU21

23/2/09

11:08

Page 34

STAMPS

Picture post From kings to plants and galleons to butterflies, Angola’s stamps tell the story of the nation. Igor Cusack takes us through his collection

P

Fig.1

34 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Fig.5

Fig.4

ostage stamps are not just small works of art, nor indeed are they just little pieces of gummed paper used to confirm payment. They are tiny transmitters of ideology; able to send what philately expert Jack Child has called “miniature messages” about politics, nation and culture.

Stamps are able to perform multiple functions in a very small space. They are the smallest icons of popular culture. By looking at the stamps of Angola we can see the messages that its governments have wanted to show the rest of the world.

The first Angolan stamps were issued in July 1870, when Angola was a colony of Portugal, which was still a monarchy. They display a crown (Fig.1). From then until the fall of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910, most Angolan stamps showed the head of the reigning king starting with Luís, then Carlos and finally Manoel II – although the short-reigned Manoel’s Angolan stamps only seem to have appeared when over-printed with República (Fig.2).

These were the definitive stamps of this period; everyday stamps used mostly for postage. However, by the end of the 19th century the practice of producing stamps for collectors had already begun, mainly in “commemorative issues,” often larger and more colourful stamps.

Nowadays, for some small countries such as São Tomé and Príncipe, sales of stamps to collectors can form a significant part of the revenue of the state. There are numerous collectors who specialise in particular topics, such as birds, animals, trains or even Princess Diana.

There were no Angolan commemoratives during the monarchy except for a general issue for the five Portuguese colonies in Africa, a very well-designed set showing the 400th anniversary of Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the route to India (Fig.3).

The theme of the great navigators has been a regular feature in Portuguese colonial stamps because for Portugal, a small country Fig.2

Fig.6

on the edge of Europe, it was its Empire and the Discoverers that made it a great country. Overall, the messages from the stamps of this period were one of monarchy and a great colonial empire. Note that from 1894 to 1920, one part of Angola had its own stamps when what is now Cabinda was called Portuguese Congo.

In 1910, Portugal became a republic and the government quickly sought a non-monarchical design for its stamps. It soon came up with a highly praised set showing the allegorical figure of Ceres, the Roman goddess of tillage and corn. A version for Angola was produced in 1914, which with various updates and design changes was used until 1946, an amazingly long-lasting stamp series (Fig.4).

Allegorical figures of women appeared on stamps long before any actual historical women (except for monarchs) did and it was not until after the 1974 Carnation revolution that any Portuguese stamp showed an actual woman.

Apart from three Portuguese stamps showing the Marquis de Pombal and inscribed Angola (Fig.5), the first specifically Angolan commemorative stamps were not issued until 1938. Designed by A.R. Garcia and printed in London, and used throughout the Empire, these include magnificent images of the Discoverers, including Vasco da Gama pointing the way ahead (Fig.6).

Compared with those of some other countries, Angolan stamps are not too expensive to collect. While, for example, an Fig.3

23/2/09

11:08

Page 35

Ken Brown

SU21.stamps.pp34-37:SU21

SPRING 2009 35

SU21.stamps.pp34-37:SU21

23/2/09

11:09

Page 36

STAMPS

“

Another common feature of post-colonial stamp design is the celebration of national arts and crafts

early mint 100 reis Portuguese stamp of Queen Maria II (1853) might cost more than $30,000, the most expensive Angolan stamp seems to be a rather primitive yellow 100 Angolares Air Mail stamp printed in Luanda in 1947 showing the arms of Angola. A mint copy is listed in the Scott 2007 catalogue as being worth $750.

Only a few other stamp series were issued until the late 1940s, after which the Angolan colonial authorities suddenly realised the advantages of appealing to the collectors’ market. A fine set issued in 1951 shows Angolan birds (Fig.7), and then in 1953 a beautiful set of animal stamps (Fig.7a) was released. These stamps are well known to collectors.

The ageing father of a Portuguese colleague of mine had a wonderful collection of colonial stamps, including some of this set. As he grew older and a little forgetful, he started carrying them around everywhere he went. Then one day, he returned home without them, having left his album on a tram. When I recently showed my colleague the images, she remembered her father’s anguish at the loss of his collection – and became very moved herself.

Stamps can have deep effects on people!

During the period up to Independence in 1975, numerous coloured stamps showing all sorts of themes appeared. In 1961, a set featuring 16 different portraits of Angolan women included some pictured topless, which was very different from the fully clothed Madonnas or the women in native costumes series issued in Portugal during the Salazar dictatorship (Fig.8).

The 400th anniversary of Camões’s epic poem The Lusiads was marked by a stamp illustrating a galleon at the mouth of the Congo, issued in 1972 (Fig.9), showing yet again Portuguese preoccupation with the Discoverers.

After 1975, the new government soon set about proclaiming its own messages. The first issue shows an arm aloft carrying a rifle and inscribed República Popular and 1975, Ano da Independência (Fig.10). On the first anniversary of Independence a new set shows President Agostinho Neto (Fig.11) and his image has appeared at regular intervals since that time. For example, in 1980 and 1985 he is portrayed in celebration of National Heroes Day, whereas in 2003 it is his poetry which is remembered with an extract from his poem Aspiraçâo, while an accompanying imprint shows António Jacinto and his Poema do Alienação.

In many countries, images of living people, apart from monarchs, are not included on stamps. For instance, the United 36 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

”

States does not use individuals until ten years after their death, although presidents may be shown after one year. In Britain a great furore arose in 1999 when one of Freddie Mercury’s drummers, Roger Taylor, was shown in the background on a Millennium stamp, when he was still alive.

Angola was willing to include the 1976 image of the then still living President Neto but interestingly no portraits of President dos Santos have been used. If postage stamps and their messages are really “the calling cards of nations,” then Neto is the iconic figure for the new Angolan nation.

As in many post-colonial states, some left-over stamps from the Portuguese rule were used in the early days, here with the República Portuguesa obliterated (Fig.12).

Since 1975, there have been regular issues on Fig.17 more or less overtly political subjects, often of a socialist inclination, such as the Struggle against Apartheid (1979), the Fifth Anniversary of Independence (1980), Lenin at the Smolny Institute (1987), the first free elections (1992) (Fig.13) and finally an Aids Awareness stamp showing a stylised orgy (1994) (Fig.13a).

Various meetings were also noted, such as the MPLA congress in 1980 and the First Women’s Organisation Conference in 1983, while the 20th anniversary of the formation of Sonangol was marked in 1996 (Fig.14).

An increasing number of issues were aimed at the specialist collector, less so than in many smaller African countries, but still a good amount. Some of these showed the usual birds, moths, butterflies and animals (Fig.15). Another common feature of post-colonial stamp design is the celebration of national arts and crafts. One very fine example of this is a 2002 set of stamps showing various Angolan masks (Fig.16).

During the almost 140 years since the first Angolan stamp appeared, there have been some fine collectors’ items based on national and international themes. The message that the governments have wanted to send has changed from monarchy, through republicanism and Empire, to a focus on the heroes of the independent Angola.

There has, however, been some royalty on the stamps since independence: in 1988 a set showing Princess Diana (Fig.17) was issued because of her links with landmine clearing. The souvenir sheet showed her not in regalia but with protective clothing.

Igor Cusack teaches the history and literature of Portuguese-speaking Africa at the University of Birmingham.

SU21.stamps.pp34-37:SU21

23/2/09

11:11

Page 37

Fig.7a Fig.7

Fig.8

Fig.9

Fig.10 Fig.13a

Fig.11 Fig.13

Fig.15 Fig.12

Fig.14

Fig.16

SPRING 2009 37

SU21.Sonangol News.pp38-39:SU21

23/2/09

11:14

Page 38

Sonangol news briefing

T

he first few months of Angola’s presidency of the Organization of the

Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) have been a dramatic time. The world is feeling the effects of a global economic slowdown and the price of a barrel of oil has slumped.

Opec, under Angolan leadership since the beginning of the year, imposed cuts on oil production in January, in order to keep the oil price at a desirable level. Angolan Oil Minister José Kamene M Traça

Botelho de Vasconcelos has said that he believes a fair price is $75 dollars a barrel, which makes exploration and investment viable.

Last year, Angola’s output exceeded 2 million barrels per day. This year, it has had to make cuts of 224,000 bpd and now has production levels of around 1.6 million bpd.

Meanwhile, exploration continues apace. In the following pages we speak to Gaspar Martins, chief executive of Sonangol P&P, about its major projects. We also have a look at Clínica Girassol, Sonangol’s new hospital in the centre of Luanda.

38 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

➔

Prose prize Júlia Massoxi da Costa Talaia was named the winner of the 2008 literature prize Sonangol Revelação, or Sonangol Newcomer. The 31-year-old from Luanda was awarded $10,000 and will have 1,000 copies of her work Neo-Realism in the Poetry of Agostinho Neto published. Neto was Angola’s first president and a respected poet, doctor and nationalist. Sonangol Revelação is the country’s leading literary prize for previously unpublished authors. The judges said Talaia’s work “created an original perspective in the study of Angolan literature.”

Talaia, who completed the book as part of her Portuguese language course at Agostinho Neto University, said she was extremely proud to have won the prize and even prouder that her work would be available for years to come to

help people get more from Neto’s poetry. “I wanted to look more at the aesthetics of Neto’s poetry. Most studies have tended to focus on the content, the nationalism and the politics, but I wanted to focus on the language and the style,” she said.

Talaia, who lives in Alvalade and works in administration at Luanda’s Catholic University, used her prize money to fund her master’s degree in International Relations and European Studies at the Methodist University in the capital. She said the hardest part of the work had been the research because of a lack of books and libraries in Angola, but this was also an incentive.

Sonangol has announced a new literature prize called the Grande Prémio Sonangol de Literatura. See back page of magazine for details.

SU21.Sonangol News.pp38-39:SU21

23/2/09

11:14

Page 39

g

NEWS

Pipe Up

Refinery deal

Supermajor desire Esso is hoping to expand its business in Angola and may bid for new oil-exploration licences. James Seale, head of Esso Angola, told Reuters news agency: “We’d love to expand our business here. As the government plans new licence rounds, we will look carefully into that.”

Esso is also carrying out significant investments in gas-gathering projects to help feed Angola’s first LNG plant.

iStockphoto.com

Houston-based Kellogg Brown Root has been awarded a $6.4 billion contract to build Sonangol’s new refinery at Lobito. The company will provide engineering, construction management and other services needed to build the refinery, which is expected to have a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day. The deal was signed in December and will help Angola meet its goal of reducing the need to import refined fuel.

A consortium made up of Acergy and Frenchbased Spiecapag has been awarded a $550 million contract for the development of 50km of pipelines in Soyo. The pipelines will transport gas from blocks 0, 14, 15, 17 and 18 to Angola’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the north. The work is due to start immediately with offshore installation scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Olivier Carré, vice president of Acergy Africa and Mediterranean, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this contract, which represents an important development in Angola’s plans to reduce flaring from deep-water blocks through the production of liquefied natural gas and condensate. This contract award reinforces Acergy’s strong presence in West Africa.”

More wells BP needs to establish more reserves close to the second of its proposed deep-water projects in Block 31 before it can get the go-ahead. Jim Campbell, vice president of BP’s Angola business unit, said more oil reserves were necessary to make the project commercially viable.

Additional appraisal and exploration wells will be drilled over the coming months. The broad development plan for all BP’s proposed projects in Block 31 and Block 18 has been approved by Angola’s government, but an update is needed and that will also have to be sanctioned. iStockphoto.com

Samba whirl Sonangol is one of 47 companies competing for exploration rights in Brazil. Galp, Partex, BP and Royal Dutch Shell are also making bids. Brazil has the largest area in the world waiting to be explored for oil and gas. Fewer than 5 per cent of the 29 sediment basins with hydrocarbon potential have been explored.

SPRING 2009 39

Kamene M Traรงa

SU21.Girassol.pp40-45:SU21

40 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

11:15

Page 40

SU21.Girassol.pp40-45:SU21

23/2/09

11:15

Page 41

HEALTH

The best treatment Angola is now home to one of Africa’s most advanced hospitals.

Universo is given a tour of Clínica Girassol

SPRING 2009 41

SU21.Girassol.pp40-45:SU21

23/2/09

11:15

Page 42

HEALTH

Pictures: José Quarenta

Dr Cremilda Lima: “The best services”

A

fter seven years of planning, the doors of Clínica Girassol are finally open. The hospital, built by Sonangol, is the first in Angola to have a complete oncology service, a neonatal intensive care unit and a unit offering IVF treatment.

Its facilities also include an extensive maternity ward with a row of private predelivery and post-delivery rooms, a special theatre for performing Caesarean sections and on-site haematology laboratories to speed up testing and diagnosis for patients.

Clínica Girassol is situated near Luanda Airport. It treats Sonangol staff but is also open to private patients. Built with a modern design, the hospital has a clean feel and is full of natural light. There are sculpted garden areas and comfortable waiting rooms.

42 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Dr Cremilda Lima, president of the clinic’s board of administrators, says: “Our mission is to deliver health services with excellence. We want to offer three levels – healthcare, training and research – and we have some of the most advanced facilities available in Africa. The idea was to have a gradual opening, starting with just a few departments, and then the others, such as oncology, neurology and IVF, will come on line later in the year.”

One of the units that is already open is the neonatal intensive care ward. There are nine incubators and 15 cots in the ward, which is run by Professor Fernando Bastos from Brazil, assisted by nurse co-ordinator Patricia Maia and a team of nurses which includes Maria Esperança Daniella, Teresa José and Idalina Amelia de Sousa.

“We have the best equipment here,” says Professor Bastos. “The best you could find anywhere in the world. This is a real beginning for Angola and it’s very rewarding to work here and be a part of this new service. We are very proud of what we are doing here.”

The unit opened in September and, like the rest of the hospital, is building up its workload slowly to make sure everything goes smoothly. Last month, the team performed its first neonatal surgery on a premature baby with intestinal problems.

The operation was a success and the child is making a good recovery.

The hospital was opened by President José Eduardo dos Santos. It was named after one of Angola’s early oil fields, Girassol, which means “sunflower” in English.

SU21.Girassol.pp40-45:SU21

23/2/09

11:15

Page 43

Baby matters: Professor Fernando Bastos, top left, runs the neonatal intensive care ward, which has state-ofthe-art equipment including nine incubators

SPRING 2009 43

SU21.Girassol.pp40-45:SU21

44 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

11:15

Page 44

SU21.Girassol.pp40-45:SU21

23/2/09

11:15

Page 45

HEALTH

“

It’s a wonderful place to work because the equipment is so new and it’s the best you can find

➔

For obstetrics nurse Alzira do Nascimento (pictured above), Clínica Girassol was an opportunity she had long been waiting for. After spending 12 years working in Algeria, she has now returned home to Angola to be part of the maternity team. “It’s a wonderful place to work because the equipment is so new and it’s the best you can find,” she says. “I think Clínica Girassol will encourage more medical professionals to come back to Angola, which is what we need to help our country grow for the future.”

➔

Clínica Girassol is the first hospital in Angola to offer a complete oncology service and has specialist simulators to pinpoint cancers in patients in preparation for more exact radiotherapy treatments.

There are six surgical theatres for head, neck and heart procedures and a specialised room for orthopaedic operations, as well as paediatric and gynaecology departments. The latest

”

Alzira do Nascimento, obstetrics nurse

As well as offering state-of-the-art healthcare, board president Dr Cremilda Lima says the hospital will also be a key training facility for Angola. Dr Lima, who studied medicine in Angola, specialised in gastroenterology in Italy and then did an MBA in health management in Germany, says: “This training element of Clínica Girassol is very important for Angola. We have the best services here and the best equipment, and we can help to consolidate the medical training already in the country by offering speciality training.”

MRI scanners and X-ray equipment will help with speedy diagnosis, especially for those visiting the 24-hour accident and emergency unit.

Other more specialized medical services offered at the hospital include lithotripsy for treating kidney stones, nuclear medicine, which studies the nuclear properties of matter in diagnosis, and therapy using molecular imaging.

SPRING 2009 45

SU21.Martins.pp46-49:SU21

46 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

23/2/09

11:16

Page 46

23/2/09

11:16

Page 47

P&P

PUMPING UP THE ACTION Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção is the segment of Sonangol responsible for exploration and production.

Universo spoke to its chief executive Gaspar Martins about partnerships and projects.

What is Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção (P&P)?

Gaspar Martins: Sonangol P&P is a subsidiary of the Sonangol Group involved in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons. In this respect we give our contribution to materialise the vision of Sonangol EP to become an integrated and competitive company.

How long have you worked for Sonangol and how did you get into the business?

In 1976, I went to Italy to obtain a degree as a production technician with the Enrico Mattei Institute of Eni. I have been with Sonangol since 1978.

How many people work for P&P and how many are Angolan?

The company has just over one thousand employees. Expatriates represent approximately one-fifth of the total workforce.

Which blocks and fields is P&P currently working?

Pictures: Sonangol

SU21.Martins.pp46-49:SU21

P&P holds a working interest in 28 oil licences in the country. Of these, P&P operates eight blocks across all industry segments, namely onshore (Block Cabinda North); shallow waters (blocks 2-05, 2-85, 3-05, 3-05A, 3-Canuku); deep waters (Block 4-05); and ultra-deep waters (Block 34).

P&P is also present as a partner in 20 oil licences across all domestic-industry segments as follows: onshore (Block

Cabinda South, FS/FST); shallow waters (blocks 1, 3-85, 3-91, 5, 6, 8, 10); deep waters (blocks 4, 14-KMI, 15-06, 16, 17-06, 18-06, 23-26); and ultra-deep waters (blocks 31, 32, 33).

Are you working in any joint ventures?

The required volume of investment and high level of risk involved in exploration and field-development activities encourage oil companies to set up joint ventures in order to implement the various projects they are involved in. As such, it is common to work in partnership with the major international oil companies, the independent oil companies and, more recently, with the national oil companies of oil-producing countries.

On the other hand, the highly specialised nature of some services in the oil industry such as seismic acquisition, commissioning of production facilities, drilling, and so forth, require that these are subcontracted out. Thus, it is equally common to work in partnership with the largest oil-service providers.

What is the US dollar value of the P&P business and how has that grown in the last five years?

The company turnover is estimated at $1 billion. Currently, average investments with the Sonangol P&P business portfolio are estimated at just over $2 billion. This represents a sixfold increase in business SPRING 2009 47

SU21.Martins.pp46-49:SU21

23/2/09

11:16

Page 48

P&P

“

Drilling these wells was a major challenge as it was the first time Sonangol P&P had drilled horizontal wells at water depths of 540 to 700 metres, resulting in the longest horizontal well ever drilled in Angolan deep water

”

Great explorer: Gaspar Martins

over the last five years. These investments are essentially channelled into exploration and oil-field development programmes to replace reserves and increase production levels.

How many barrels per day does P&P produce?

In 2008, Sonangol P&P operated volumes that reached a maximum of 80,000 bpd. A substantial increase is expected with the conclusion of the Gimboa development project in Block 4-05 and the Morsa West development in Block 2-05.

Is this mainly for the domestic market?

Some of Sonangol P&P’s crude-oil production is channelled to the domestic market according to the capacity and requirements of the Luanda Refinery. The remainder is traded on the international market.

48 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

Gimboa Block 4 has been a real success story for Sonangol. Tell us more about this.

First of all, the Gimboa project has been implemented by Sonangol from end to end.

It started with a successful exploration discovery in 2004. Previous internal seismic interpretation and G&G [geology and geophysics] studies led to identification of prospect UM1 and subsequently to the drilling and hydrocarbons discovery through exploration well 4-41-1.

The field development is based on three horizontal producing wells and four deviated water-injection wells to sustain reservoir pressures. These wells will flow through a subsea production system tied up to a FPSO with storage capacity of two million barrels of oil.

Drilling these wells was a major challenge as it was the first time Sonangol P&P had drilled horizontal wells at water

depths of 540 to 700 metres, resulting in the longest horizontal well ever drilled in Angolan deep water. The length of the horizontal section was 1,600 metres.

Facilities construction was a further challenge, as most of the design and commissioning occurred in various parts of the world, namely Angola (Soyo and Lobito), Dubai, India, Italy and Norway, to cater for the specific needs of each phase of the project. This required rigorous and complex management of the personnel involved in the project to ensure that it was implemented under the required quality standards, deadlines and budgetary limits.

The human resource side of the project was under the leadership of Sonangol P&P, and most of the positions in the team were filled by Angolan engineers who fully benefited from the knowledge transfer while working with their expatriate counterparts in the initial phase of the project.

The project’s first oil is due in the first quarter of 2009.

Does Sonangol P&P have plans to act as sole operator on other blocks or fields?

It is important to emphasise that normally an oil company will operate an oil licence within an association of various companies. In other words, it is rare to have a sole operator which funds and bears the risk of all operations.

Under this context, Sonangol began its operating activity in 1994, in the Kiabo field, Block 4, with the technical assistance of a partner company.

At the end of the last decade, the company started the operation of Block 5 and Block 34, in shallow and ultra-deep water respectively, also with partner companies.

During this period, however, Sonangol P&P also started the operation of the

SU21.Martins.pp46-49:SU21

23/2/09

11:16

Page 49

Canuku field in Block 3 with its own human and technical resources.

From 2004 onwards, the company has been operating, with its own resources, greenfield Angolan offshore areas such as blocks 2-05, 3-05A, 4-05 and Cabinda Onshore North, as well as mature offshore licences such as blocks 2-85 and 3-05.

Where does P&P see its main focus for the next five years and beyond?

The main focus of Sonangol P&P in the next five years is to consolidate as an efficient and competitive exploration and production company by increasing its production, reserves and business portfolio with the emphasis on areas with high hydrocarbon potential.

How has the fluctuation in oil prices affected P&P’s operations?

Oil prices increased substantially in the first half of 2008, reaching a maximum of around $150 a barrel. This improved profit margins as revenues increased and less feasible projects became more attractive.

However, the cost of goods and services also increased, and further availability of resources became tight as more projects were being implemented around the world.

Oil prices suffered a hit towards the end of the third quarter, calling for tighter management of current project schedules and costs.

SPRING 2009 49

SU21.directory.map.pp50-51:SU21

23/2/09

11:17

Page 50

A

ngola has six national parks. During the civil war, hunting decimated the animal populations in these parks, but in peacetime the numbers are growing again. Among the larger species indigenous to Angola are leopards, lions, hyenas, elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, gnu and many types of monkey. There is little on the exact numbers of animals, but specific projects have been launched to save the most endangered species, including the giant sable, or palanca negra, the black rhinoceros, and the Angolan giraffe. Alison Bird

1. Bicuar National Park Animals that previously lived in the park included giraffe, lion, rhino, gunga, zebra, elephant, red sable, deer, crane, hunting dog, spotted hyena, leopard, honey badger, hippopotamus, bush pig and common duiker. The characteristic mammal of the region is the black buffalo.

2. Cameia National Park Unfortunately, the wildlife here was almost totally wiped out. Previous inhabitants included the cheetah, hippopotamus, bush pig, reedbuck, oribi, sitatunga and hartebeest.

3. Cangandala National Park This is where a population of giant sable has been discovered.

Other animals include the red sable, hunting dog, lion, leopard, wild dog and hyena.

50 SONANGOL UNIVERSO

4. Iona National Park Original fauna of the park included desert elephant, black rhinoceros, black oryx, kudu, zebra, springbok, steenbok, klipspringer, and Damara dik-dik.

There are also reptiles and scorpions.

5. Kissama National Park The game formerly abundant here included savannah elephant, forest buffalo, eland, roan antelope, southern reedbuck, bushbuck, common duiker, blue duiker, lion, gunga, red sable, deer, blue monkey and southern talapoin, hippopotamus and Nile crocodile. There are 300 identified bird species, including seven endemic birds of Angola.

6. Mupa National Park Mupa was initially made a national park to protect the Angolan giraffe subspecies, but by 1974 there were none left.

Although virtually unstudied, the park is significant due to its birdlife. Some 182 species have been collected, including the wattled crane.

SU21.directory.map.pp50-51:SU21

23/2/09

11:17

Page 51

THE BIG PICTURE:

NATIONAL PARKS Cabinda

Zaire Uíge

Bengo Kwanza Norte

Lunda Norte

Luanda

3 5 Lunda Sul Malanje Kwanza Sul

2

Huambo Benguela

Bíe Moxico

Namibe Huíla

1

4

Cunene

Kuando Kubango

nb illustration/David Atkinson

6

SPRING 2009 51

SU21.cover for web:SU21

23/2/09

10:43

Page 2