China to build Angola’s $6bn Lobito refinery

Angola will sign a contract with China National Chemical Engineering Co. on Friday to build the long-delayed $6 billion plant in Lobito.

“The processing capacities of the Lobito refinery remain at 200,000 barrels per day and the estimated cost of the investment is around $6 billion,” Diamantino Azevedo, the minister of Minerals and Petroleum, said in Luanda after a meeting between President Joao Lourenço and the company’s Chairman Wen Gang.

Sonangol, the southwest African nation’s state oil and gas group, partnered with an “American company” to conduct studies that led to decreased investment costs and improved refinery quality, Azevedo said, without naming the firm.

In 2022, Sonangol said it was working with Houston-based KBR Inc. on “engineering works” for the facility.