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SONANGOL
UNIVERSO
Universo
www.universo-magazine.com
DECEMBER 2014
Building a better
Angolan future
ISSUE 44 – DECEMBER 2014
CHEVRON
ANGOLA:
NATIONAL
SHOW TIME:
POOLING
RESOURCES:
Surging ahead
Fenacult 2014 success
Stena Sonangol
INSIDE:
oil and gas news
Houston, home to Sonangol USA and Chevron
OVERVIEW
Universo is the international
magazine of Sonangol
President
Francisco de Lemos José Maria
Executive administrators:
Anabela Soares de Brito da Fonseca,
Ana Joaquina Van-Dúnem Alves da Costa,
Fernandes Gaspar Bernardo Mateus,
Fernando Joaquim Roberto,
Mateus Sebastião Francisco Neto,
Paulino Fernando Carvalho Jerónimo
Shutterstock
Non-executive administrators:
Albina Assis Africano, José Gime,
André Lelo, José Paiva
Shutterstock
Sonangol Department for
Communication & Image Director
Mateus Cristóvão Benza
Corporate Communications Assistants
Nadiejda Santos, Paula Almeida,
Hélder Sirgado, Kimesso Kissoka
Sonangol’s American
mission control
Publisher: Sheila O’Callaghan
Editor: John Kolodziejski
Managing Editor: Mauro Perillo
Art Director: Tony Hill
Sub Editor: Brian MacReamoinn
Proofreading: Gail Nelson-Bonebrake
Circulation Manager: Matthew Alexander
Production Assistant: Sebnem Brown
Project Consultant: Nathalie MacCarthy
Group President: John Charles Gasser
Universo is produced by Impact Media Custom Publishing.
The views expressed in the publication are not necessarily
those of Sonangol or the publishers. Reproduction in whole
or in part without prior permission is prohibited.
This magazine is distributed to a closed circulation.
To receive a free copy:
circulation@universo-magazine.com
Circulation: 15,000
Davenport House, 16 Pepper Street, London E14 9RP
United Kingdom
Tel + 44 20 7510 9595 | Fax +44 20 7510 9596
sonangol@impact-media.com
www.universo-magazine.com
www.sonangol.co.ao
hld.gci@sonangol.co.ao
Front cover: Paenal
H
ouston, Texas, the North American hub of Sonangol’s
global operations, is the focus of our December
issue. Here, Universo visited Sonangol USA’s HQ,
which deals with oil marketing and trading, and,
in the same office suite, Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool, which
oversees shipping operations. Nearby, we dropped in at the office
of WAMS, the body allocating and looking after Sonangol scholars
in North America. A fourth stopping point was Chevron’s Africa
department in Houston’s downtown, where we got an update
on the impressive engineering feat of the Congo River Crossing
Pipeline and other major Chevron projects in Angola.
The lasting, uplifting impressions of Angola’s presence in
Houston’s oil sector were, firstly, the rapid career ascension and
progress of young Angolans, especially in the areas of shipping
and trading, and secondly, the massive rise in the numbers
of Sonangol scholars through the WAMS system, a figure that
recently more than doubled to 500. Even if one does not consider Houston ‘the oil capital of the
world’ as one interviewee claimed, then it is certainly a great place
to see how Sonangol is expanding and how well young Angolans
are progressing professionally in the industry.
John Kolodziejski
Editor
2 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
Brazuk
Contents
ANGOLA NEWS BRIEFING
A roundup of national and international news concerning Angola
7
FIGURED OUT
A brief glance at Angola in numbers
8
CHEVRON TAMES THE CONGO
An update on the colossal projects of the US oil giant in Angola
16
SONANGOL NEWS BRIEFING
Highlights of noteworthy news items from Sonangol EP and
its subsidiaries
20
SONANGOL USA: NEW ERA, NEW CLIENTS
Sonangol’s quest for new markets in the Americas as the United
8
20
Stena
4
States becomes more self-sufficient in oil and gas
An update on Sonangol’s successful joint venture in shipping
28
Stena Brazuk Ltd
28 STENA SONANGOL: POOLING RESOURCES
36 WAMS: SUPPORTING STUDENTS
opportunities in North America for Angolan students
40
ASSET INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT: AIMING HIGH
The steps Sonangol is taking to manage some of its aging
36
Jose Frade
How Sonangol’s scholarship support company is multiplying
production assets
44 NATIONAL SHOW TIME
The highlights of Angola’s national cultural festival, Fenacult 2014
44
DECEMBER 2014 3
Angola news briefing
Indonesia co-operation deal
Jakarta
■ Angolan Vice President, Manuel Vicente
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conveyed President José Eduardo dos
Santos’ congratulations to Indonesia’s
newly elected President Joko Widodo during
a four-day visit to Jakarta at the end of
October. Vicente, on behalf of President dos
Santos, also expressed Angola’s readiness
to reinforce co-operation between the two
countries and thanked Indonesia for its
support in the recent bid for a UN Security
Council non-permanent seat.
Angola is Indonesia’s third-largest African
trading partner, after Nigeria and South
Africa. Vice President Vicente witnessed the
signing of a framework co-operation accord
intended to boost oil and gas trade between
the two countries. The deal also covers
the energy and service sectors. Indonesia
produces about 800,000 barrels of oil per
day, while demand is five times greater.
African art shines at London fair
4 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
art and aims to put together the
best collection possible.
“Not the most expensive, nor
the largest in volume, but that
which stimulates and enriches
the best African artistic scene,”
Sindika Dokolo said.
The foundation is dedicated
to collecting, preserving,
safeguarding and diffusing
artistic production, especially
in Angola. It launched the first
African Triennial and is behind
the Third Luanda Triennial
scheduled for 2015. The
foundation is also believed
to be backing an initiative to
create a contemporary art
centre in the Angolan capital.
Somerset House
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Photographic work by
Angola’s Venice Biennale 2013
winner, Edson Chagas, was
on display at a London fair
dedicated to African art held in
October. The event, titled 1:54,
represented the 54 countries
which make up the African
continent. Pieces by more than
100 artists were on show in 27
galleries at Somerset House on
the banks of the River Thames
in central London.
The fair was sponsored by
the Sindika Dokolo Foundation
as part of its efforts to stimulate
and promote contemporary
African art. The foundation
holds 5,000 works of African
■
IMF sees 5.9% growth in 2015
■ Angola’s economy is expected to grow 3.9 per cent this year and 5.9 per cent in 2015,
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according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook.
In a separate announcement, Angola’s central bank, Banco Nacional de Angola, has
predicted the country’s economy will grow at an annual average of 5 per cent over the
next four years, driven by the growing participation of the private sector.
■ The Angolan government is to receive $250
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million in support from the United Nations
for social sector projects. Angola’s Minister
for Planning and Territorial Development
Job Graça signed the agreement with
UN Co-ordinator for Systems Dr Hernando
Agudelo, on November 5.
The funds will be used in the areas
of sustainability, social and economic
development for the period 2015–19 in line with priorities identified in
Angola’s National Development Plan (2013–17), explained Minister Graça.
The support will allow greater UN co-operation in planning and
implementing specific projects in areas such as education, health and
social care.
The Ministry of Planning and Territorial Development is responsible for
drawing up and implementing Angola’s public investment programmes.
■ Angolan inventors won 10
medals, including two gold, five
silver and three bronze, at the 66th
International Trade Fair – Ideas,
Inventions and New Products (iENA).
The gold medals went to
the Medicines and Toxicology
Information Centre (Cimetox) at the
Faculty of Medicine of Lueji A’Nkonde
University for the production of the
first antiophidic serum and computer
systems firm Sistec for its electronic
voting station.
The Angolan entrants were
competing with more than 700
exhibitors representing 32 countries
from every continent. The fair took
place in Nuremberg, Germany from
October 30 to November 2.
International
golf tees off
■ Angola plans to host an international open golf
tournament in February 2016, under the umbrella of
the professional association for the sport in Europe,
Youth and Sports Minister Gonçalves Muandumba
announced in October.
Shutterstock
Angola in $250 million
UN funding deal
Inventors
strike gold
DECEMBER 2014 5
Finance minister takes charge
Minister Armando Manuel
■ Angola has taken over the presidency of
the Ministers of Finance of Southern and East
Africa regional group for the 2014–15 period.
In the move, Minister for Finance Armando
Manuel replaced his Namibian counterpart Saara
Kuugongelwa in the post.
At the opening meeting of the organisation’s
Council of Ministers, which represents 17
member states, Manuel said Angola would
continue developing and improving measures
to fight money laundering and the financing of
terrorism. He also congratulated Uganda on
adopting money laundering laws in October 2013
and for beginning the implementation of these
laws through the establishment of a financial
intelligence unit.
The presidency of Angola will seek to encourage
member countries to develop legal mechanisms
and structures to comply with the resolutions
of the UN Security Council on preventing,
suppressing and stopping the proliferation of
weapons and their funding, he said.
Angop
Angolan handball champions again
■ Angola’s Primeiro de Agosto female handball team
won the African club championship in Tunisia in
October with a narrow 27–25 win over its national
rivals Petro de Luanda, the champions in 2013.
In a remarkable show of the strength of women’s
handball in the country, Angola’s Progresso de
Sambizanga also took the bronze medal in the panAfrican competition with a 28–25 victory over Étoile
du Congo.
Fans turned out in force to welcome home the new
African champions at Luanda’s International Airport
and on the streets of the city.
6 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
■ Angola was elected a non-
permanent member of the UN
Security Council for two years
(2015–16) on October 16.
Foreign Affairs Minister
Georges Chikoti said Angolans
were proud that their country
had received the backing of other
member states for the position.
He promised that Angola
would strive to make the UN
Security Council more efficient
and balanced.
Minister Chikoti stated that, in
Georges Chikoti
the area of peace and security,
Angola will be promoting dialogue
among nations as an essential element for a culture of peace, respect for
difference and conflict prevention.
“Angola will also contribute to a more efficient identification of the
causes of conflict and to the reduction of violence through preventive
diplomacy, promoting the African agenda and contributing to peace and
security in Africa and the world,” he explained.
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United Nations
Angola elected to
UN Security Council
Population now
over 24 million
■ Preliminary results of Angola’s 2014 census show that
the population now stands at 24.4 million, of which a
little over half is female. Furthermore, the metropolis of
Luanda now houses 27 per cent of Angolans, with only
38 per cent living in rural areas.
Just seven provinces account for almost threequarters (72 per cent) of the entire population: Luanda,
Huíla, Benguela, Huambo, Kwanza Sul, Bié and Uíge.
The nationwide count, the first since 1970, was carried
out in May.
FIGURED OUT
Angola in numbers
$5.6 billion
investment in Chevron’s Mafumeira Sul project
24.4 million
latest Angolan population (2014 census)
$15 billion
amount BP Angola will invest in next 10 years
5.9 per cent
IMF forecast of Angola’s GDP growth in 2015
117 metres
estuary depth where Congo River Crossing is located
DECEMBER 2014 7
OIL MAJOR
CHEVRON
TAMES
THE CONGO
8 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
As well as having a long, proud oil
production record in Angola, Chevron
is currently also at the leading edge in
developing landmark projects. Universo
checks up on their progress
DECEMBER 2014 9
Brazuk Ltd
Chevron HQ in
downtown Houston
OIL MAJOR
O
f Chevron’s three large-scale
projects currently under
way in Angola, perhaps the
most dramatic is the pipeline
crossing beneath the wide estuary of
the mighty River Congo. The Congo
River Crossing (CRX1) project involves
simultaneously drilling vertically from
platforms on both sides of Africa’s deepest,
most powerful river to a depth of 610
metres, then drilling horizontally to join
the pipelines at a mid-way point under
the river bed. The 140km pipeline conduit
has a diameter of 20-22 inches and it will
contain the gas pipeline, thus protecting it
from the river’s strong currents.
“Everything is going well in this
amazing project,” Ali Moshiri, president
of Chevron Africa and Latin America
Exploration and Production, told Universo.
“The drilling across is a very complicated
part of the procedure.”
According to Moshiri, the CRX1 drilling
operations on the pipeline well intersection
should start in mid-December and the
whole pipeline should be finished by the
third quarter of 2015, but he said there were
already plans to build a second crossing
following completion of CRX1.
The CRX1 is a component part of a
much wider project aimed at supplying
natural gas to Angola’s liquefied natural
gas (LNG) plant at Soyo in Zaire province,
located on the southern shore of the Congo
estuary. The pipeline crossings will provide
increased capacity to supply associated gas
from Chevron-operated Blocks 0 and 14 to
the Angola LNG (ALNG) plant and thus
drastically reduce flaring. The well-being
of personnel working on the project is
clearly vital: Moshiri stressed that safety is
Chevron’s “number one priority”.
Angola LNG update
The $10 billion ALNG plant started up
in 2013 but has since then experienced
operational difficulties. There have been
design and engineering problems in the gas
processing unit, but the LNG section has
been run successfully, Moshiri explained.
The plant will only start full production
again once the issues identified have been
dealt with. “We need to get it right and do it
safely,” he emphasized.
Angola LNG aims to produce 5.2 million
metric tonnes per year of LNG and up to
63,000 barrels per day (bpd) of natural
gas liquids.
ALNG was formed as a joint project in
2008 involving Sonangol (22.8 per cent);
Cabinda Gulf Oil Company (CABGOC), a
subsidiary of Chevron Corporation (36.4
per cent); BP (13.6 per cent); Eni (13.6
per cent) and Total (13.6 per cent). The
stakeholders will provide associated gas
from their respective offshore oil fields.
Ali Moshiri said he is very proud of
ALNG which is the first plant of its kind
to be fed only from associated oil and gas
fields alone, rather than just gas fields. In
other words, the plant makes use of the
natural gas by-product of oil production. A
huge system of pipelines channels the gas
towards the LNG plant. The idea behind
ALNG is to monetise the associated gas
while reducing carbon emissions.
Once the Congo River Crossing is
complete, ALNG will absorb gas from a
network of pipelines spread over a large
area of the seabed and shore. One of the
plant’s main challenges and innovations
is the processing of all this natural gas that
arrives at different pressures.
Mafumeira Sul on track
The second of Chevron’s three major
projects underway is at Mafumeira Sul.
Shutterstock / Brazuk
“Safety
is Chevron’s
number one
priority”
– Ali Moshiri,
president of
Chevron Africa
and Latin America
Exploration and
Production
10 SONANGOL UNIVERSO
OIL MAJOR
Satellite image of the River Congo
River Congo data
230
117
cubic metres per second
metres
metres
flow rate
at estuary
maximum depth of
world’s deepest
river
estuary depth where
crossing is
located
140
km
14,500
41,000
length of pipeline
under River
Congo
610
metres
4,700
km
length (second-longest
river in Africa
after Nile)
vertical depth of drilling
before pipeline
laying
km
length of Congo’s
navigable shipping
routes
Corbis
DECEMBER 2014 11
OIL MAJOR
Congo River Crossing
South Well
North Well
0
Depth (Ft.)
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000 11000 12000 13000 14000 15000 16000 17000
Distance (Ft.)
The $5.6 billion integrated offshore project
consists of a central oil and gas processing
unit and an accommodation platform. There
will also be two wellhead platforms, 121km
of subsea pipelines, 34 producing wells and
16 water injection wells. Mafumeira Sul is
designed to produce 150,000 bpd of oil and
350 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.
Chevron is taking advantage of the weather
window stretching from November 2014
through the first quarter of 2015 to place
mobile equipment at the site.
According to Moshiri, there is much
activity around the project at the moment,
with 1,000 workers on-site.
Platform construction began in the third
quarter of 2013 and pipeline construction at
the end of 2013.
Lianzi field firsts
The third of Chevron’s eye-catching new
ventures boasts a number of ‘firsts’. It is the
first joint project with another West African
country: Angola’s neighbour, the Republic of
the Congo. In fact, it is the first cross-border
oil development anywhere in West Africa.
Chevron partners in Angola
Block 0
Sonangol, Total, Eni
Block 14
Sonangol, Total, Eni, Galp Energia, Inpex
Mafumeira
Lianzi
Sonangol, Total, Eni
Sonangol, Total, Eni, Galp, SNPC
The two countries will be co-operating in
oil production in the Angola-Republic of the
Congo Joint Development Area.
“As the first cross-border development
in the region, Lianzi represents a unique
co-operative approach to shared offshore
resources and may serve as a model for
the development of similar cross-border
fields between the two countries,” said
Ali Moshiri.
Chevron’s overall interest in the Lianzi
Unitization Zone is 31.25 per cent. Total
controls 36.75 per cent and other shares are
held by Eni (10 per cent), Sonangol P&P (10
per cent), SNPC (7.5 per cent), and Galp (4.5
per cent).
The Lianzi field is located 105km off
the Angolan coast in a water depth of
approximately 900 metres and will have
a subsea production system with a 43kmlong electrically heated flowline to obviate
blockages, as hydrates can congeal at low
temperatures. This will be the first use of
this groundbreaking technology at this
water depth. The pipeline will transport oil
to the Benguela-Belize-Lobito-Tomboco
(BBLT) platform in Block 14. Lianzi has
a design capacity of 46,000 bpd of oil.
OIL MAJOR
Chevron uses local expertise
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There are lots of Angolans
making successful
careers in Chevron,
and they also have
options outside Angola
DECEMBER 2014 13
OIL MAJOR
“Everything is
going well in
this amazing
project”
Republic of
the Congo
Atlantic Ocean
Angola
(Cabinda)
Nemba
– Ali Moshiri
Ali Moshiri and his Angolan
giraffe sculptures
Block 0
Congo River
Crossing Pipeline
Block 14
DRC
Angola
LNG
Drilling has already begun and first oil
is slated for late 2015. There will be four
producing wells, three water injection wells
and subsea tiebacks to an existing platform
in Block 14.
Apart from CRX1, Mafumeira Sul and
Lianzi, Chevron is also very busy elsewhere
in its Block 0 and Block 14 holdings, said
Ali Moshiri. “The main priority is to focus
on economically increasing production
in Angola. We also need to do this to keep
Angola LNG full – it needs maximum
capacity,” he explained.
Angolans in Chevron...
As far as personnel are concerned,
Moshiri said the Angolanisation rate at
Chevron was now around the 89–90 per
cent level. The company is the largest
international investor-owned energy
company employer in Angola, with more
than 3,400 Angolan employees.
“There are lots of Angolans making
successful careers in Chevron, and they
also have options outside Angola. Eunice
Carvalho, country manager in Brazil, is an
Angolan,” he pointed out.
He also said ALNG was offering
many training opportunities. “We’re an
international company, and we like to
move experience around our operations.
That means using our knowledge of LNG.
Brazuk Ltd
Angola
There is already a significant Angolan
workforce there”, he noted.
Chevron in Angola...
Chevron’s subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil
Company (CABGOC) drilled its first well in
Angola in 1958 and made its first offshore
discovery in 1966 in Block 0. This block is
still in service today and has so far yielded
more than 4 billion barrels.
Most of Chevron’s drilling operations
are off Cabinda province in Blocks 0 and
Block 14 further west. The company also
has a production share in offshore Block 2
and onshore in the Fina Sonangol Texaco
(FST) concession area. p
OIL MAJOR
Chevron’s proud record in Angola
1930s
1958
Shutterstock
1966
starts Angola
business selling
Texaco products
drills first oil
in Angola
makes first
offshore discovery
1999
begins Kuito,
first deepwater
production
2013
Benguela-BelizeLobito-Tomboco
project surpasses
250 million barrels
2013
Angola LNG
starts up
DECEMBER 2014 15
Sonangol news briefing
Sonangol and SBM
set up schools
growth at every turn. Newly built
skyscrapers are accommodating
shops and businesses, including
those from the international oil and
gas industry. However, beyond the
city limits dramatic changes are also
taking place. Four hours from the
metropolis, the fast-developing Paenal
shipyard at Porto Amboim is not only
making history for its pioneering work
on FPSOs (floating production, storage
and offloading vessels), but is also
investing in the local community.
Paenal is a joint venture between
Sonangol and international players
SBM Offshore and DSME. The
company’s concern for, and awareness
of the needs of the local community are
an integral part of its presence in the
region. So when it was brought to the
attention of management that the local
school was in disrepair and potentially
unsafe for children, Paenal immediately
reacted and committed to building a
brand-new one.
Rallying support from a number
of partner companies, Paenal has built
a school that will accommodate 350
local children. Additional resources
provided include a computer room
for Information Technology classes
and a school library. The school will
ensure that the children obtain the
appropriate skills required for their
futures. Coinciding with celebrations
for Angola’s National Day the school
was officially inaugurated by ViceGovernor of Kwanza Sul, Dr Maria de
Lourdes Veiga, on November 17.
As the town of Porto Amboim
continues to prosper, more families will
arrive in the area and the need for better
equipped schools is likely to increase.
Paenal plans to fund other schools
in the future as part of its dedicated
Porto Amboim school
– participating companies:
corporate social responsibility strategy.
In Lubango, another project
completed in December 2011 has
provided a home for up to 120 orphans.
The orphanage has had a hugely
positive impact on the lives of the
girls there, who range from toddlers
to young adults, according to Sister
Bernadete Ngueve, who relies on
the financial support of OPS (a joint
venture between Sonangol and SBM)
to run it.
SBM Offshore Angola financed
construction of the purpose-built
facility, which took place in Huíla
province on land donated by the
Archdiocese of Lubango. The girls
gain an education at the on-site
school, and there are plans to expand
the building to allow 500 children from
neighbouring villages to attend. Paenal
also intends to provide IT and English
language training at the school.
Paenal
■ In Luanda there is evidence of
Paenal (sponsor)
Heerema (library)
Chevron (prefab building with part-funding by Paenal)
Conduril (civil works)
PIC (furniture for teaching rooms)
Sodexo (computer room, computers, desks)
SPIE (desks, chairs, blackboards)
CG Africa (football and basketball court)
Movex (building construction)
Sonnel (one year’s maintenance and cleaning)
Yuri Cazanga, the assistant engineer
who project-managed the construction
of the orphanage
International report sees
rise in Angolan oil
■ Angola is set to replace Nigeria, albeit only temporarily, as
Strategic deal between
Sonangol and Eni
■ Sonangol board president,
Francisco de Lemos José Maria,
and Italy’s Eni CEO Claudio
Descalzi signed a strategic oil and
gas agreement on November 17.
As part of the pact, the two
companies will jointly study the
potential of non-associated gas
in Angola’s Lower Congo Basin.
The idea is to analyse the best
Claudio Descalzi and
Francisco de Lemos José Maria (right)
options for obtaining value for
the gas both at home and abroad.
The Sonangol-Eni partnership will benefit from Eni’s proprietary expertise
and experience in developing gas resources.
“This agreement will strengthen the prolific cooperation between
Eni and Sonangol, confirming Angola as one of the key countries for the
company’s organic growth strategy”, Descalzi said. “In the coming years,
Angola will become one of the most important oil and gas hubs for Eni’s
sub-Saharan activities”.
Eni has been in Angola since 1980 and currently has an equity
production of approximately 80,000 barrels of oil per day. It is also the
operator in the upcoming start-up of the deep water Block 15/06 West Hub
project, which is due to commence by the end of 2014.
Shutterstock
Africa’s leading oil producer, according to an International
Energy Agency report in October.
The IEA forecast Angola will overtake Nigeria from
around 2016, but Nigeria may bounce back in the mid2020s. The change in positions is partly the result of an
expected increase in production in Angola, but is mainly
due to domestic issues in Nigeria.
The report estimated that Nigeria currently loses
150,000 barrels per day to oil theft, the equivalent of $5 billion
per year, which has led investors to postpone decisions.
New oil
discovery
■ Sonangol partner, the Italian firm Eni reported
a new oil discovery off the coast of Angola in
September. Eni estimated the new deepwater
discovery in Block 15/06 contained 300 million
barrels of oil. State-controlled Eni is the biggest
foreign oil and gas producer in Africa and, under
its new CEO Claudio Descalzi, is focusing its
business on exploration.
“This new find exemplifies the results
we can achieve by applying leading-edge
technologies to exploration, and substantiates
the decision to refocus Eni on key oil and gas
competences,” Descalzi said.
Eni is the operator of Block 15/06, with a 35
per cent stake. Sonangol P&P holds 30 per cent,
SSI Fifteen Limited has 25 per cent, and Falcon
Oil Holding Angola SA and Statoil Angola have
5 per cent each.
DECEMBER 2014 17
Sonangol stands out at Rio Expo
Sonangol’s sleek stand
at Riocentro
New crude deal
with Pertamina
■ Indonesia’s state energy firm
Pertamina is to import crude oil from
Angola, the country’s energy minister
Sudirman Said announced in late
October. Indonesia is Southeast
Asia’s largest economy and has
growing demand for energy.
“The government-to-government
discussions have concluded. It will
be a business-to-business [deal]. The
agreement today will still be high level at a global level,” the minister explained.
Minister Said did not reveal how
much crude would be involved in the
deal but, in return for the imports,
Sonangol is expected to invest in a
refinery in Indonesia.
■ Sonangol pulled out all the stops with its eye-catching
stand at Rio Oil & Gas 2014 Expo and Conference, one of
the largest oil industry events in the world, in September.
Over 47,000 people attended the site at Riocentro in Rio
de Janeiro city in the event’s 17th edition. The theme
of the Expo and Conference was ‘The New Geopolitical
Scenario: Overcoming the Challenges’.
The futuristic Sonangol stand was designed to
have an impact. Its dynamic sinuous lines and two
floors linked by a sweeping staircase, together with its
strong colours gave it a strong Angolan and modern
identity. The stand also emphasised the company’s
commitment to technological innovation and respect for
the environment.
During the expo, 828 meetings were held with
176 suppliers and 37 anchor companies. A total of 652
technical papers were also presented in oral and poster
sessions. The conference registered an attendance of
some 3,800 delegates from 31 countries.
In the exhibition, visitors could learn about the main
innovations of the sector in the booths of more than
1,000 participating companies. Of these exhibitors, 72
were debuting at the event. The fair also boasted 14
international pavilions, two of them taking part for the
first time: Singapore and Poland.
Girassol on the
road to excellence
■ Sonangol healthcare subsidiary Clínica Girassol held its second congress ‘Girassol
2014’, at Luanda’s Talatona Convention Centre in October. The theme of the event
was ‘Healthcare towards Excellence, Technology and Humanisation’.
The aim of Girassol 2014 was to offer a panorama of the best knowledge
available in healthcare and also to provide a space for discussion between health
professionals in Angola and those from the countries invited. The focus was on the
use of new technologies in clinical practice.
Around 2,000 delegates took part in the congress, which
covered cardiology, infertility, mother and child health and
intensive care, medicine, video surgery, oncology and infirmaries
among other topics.
The first Clínica Girassol gathering was held in 2012.
Sonangol engineer wins SPE award
chemists, economists, managers and
educators. Its library contains more
than 50,000 technical papers, while
products of SPE conferences and
periodicals are made available to the
entire industry. These papers are now
electronically archived.
The organisation’s head office
is located in Dallas, Texas, and it
also has offices in Houston, Calgary,
London, Dubai, Moscow and Kuala
Lumpur. Any oil industry professional
worldwide can become a member.
Angola chapter
Tako Koning presents the award to Engineer Cruz (on the right)
■ Abel Claudino Cruz, a Sonangol
Pesquisa e Producão drilling completions
engineer, has won the Society of
Petroleum Engineers’ (SPE) African
Regional Service award. It was presented
at a special event organised by the Angola
section of the SPE in August.
The SPE is a not-for-profit professional
organisation founded in the USA in 1957
whose mission is to disseminate and exchange
technical knowledge on the exploration,
development and production of oil and gas
resources and related technologies for the
public benefit and to provide opportunities
for individuals to advance their technical and
professional competence.
The society has sections in all of
the Africa countries where oil production
and exploration is taking place, including
Nigeria, Gabon, Republic of the Congo,
Egypt, Tunisia, Uganda and South
Africa. The SPE’s Africa region has about
4,000 members. The Angola section is
extremely proud that Cruz was able to
beat off strong competition to land this
prestigious award.
Engineer Cruz was given the award
in recognition of his role as a very active
member of the board of directors of the
Angola section for the past 10 years. He
was also involved in organising two of the
SPE’s advanced technology workshops,
held recently in Luanda. “The award
belongs not only to me but to all Angola’s
SPE members. On receiving this SPE
award I would like to thank Sonangol,
in particular the executive commission
of Sonangol P&P,” said Cruz. The SPE
provides a global forum for oil and
natural gas exploration and production,
and a professional hub for more than
124,000 engineers, geoscientists,
There are also university student
chapters in many countries. The first
such chapter in Angola was set up
at Jean Piaget University and was
officially inaugurated on October 31,
2014. Others are due to be formed
next year at the Catholic University
and at Agostinho Neto University.
University student members have
access to the SPE’s technical papers and
can attend the monthly meetings, which
are held in the AAA Building on Avenida
Lenine in Luanda.
The Angola section of the SPE first
began to hold meetings on an informal
basis at Cabinda Gulf Oil’s base in
Malongo, Cabinda, in 1982. This branch
was officially inaugurated in 1986, and
monthly meetings have been held on a
continuous basis since then. A volunteer
board of directors is responsible for
the activities of the SPE in Angola.
Over the years, many distinguished
Angolan engineers have graced the
board, including Joaquim David, former
CEO of Sonangol and former Minister
of Finance; António Orfão, current
CEO of the Angola LNG Project; and
Ruben Costa, current CEO of Sonagás
(Sonangol Natural Gas).
This article was contributed by Tako Koning, a Canadian petroleum geologist and long-term resident of Luanda. He has served since
1998 as Programme chairperson of SPE Angola’s board of directors.
DECEMBER 2014 19
Sonangol USA
SONANGOL USA:
NEW ERA
NEW CLIENTS
Crude oil sales to the United States are tumbling as the country taps its own huge
deposits more effectively. Sonangol’s oil traders are facing the challenge of finding
new clients in the Americas for Angolan oil
Sonangol USA
DECEMBER 2014 21
Shutterstock
Fracking in California
Sonangol USA
S
onangol USA, the Angolan oil
company’s trading subsidiary for
the Americas, is living in interesting
times. From its Houston, Texasbased office, Sonangol USA has a front-row
view of the radical changes underway in
the United States, which are shaking up the
global oil and gas market.
Thanks to the extensive use of more
efficient recovery methods, generally
known as fracking, the United States is
sharply boosting yields of oil and gas from
its vast, once declining, onshore fields. As
it is the world’s largest economy and major
oil and gas importer, this has already meant
sharp falls in US fuel prices and imports.
“The biggest market challenge is
to try to find new clients, but we’re
confident we will do so and Sonangol
will be strengthened as a result,” said
Elma Pegado de Almeida, Sonangol USA’s
president and CEO, whose team faces the
task of identifying alternative outlets for
Angolan crude.
Shutterstock
Houston by night
According to Almeida, Sonangol USA’s
latest sales efforts are concentrated on
Canada, the US West Coast and South
America. The company has already built
network relationships with these potential
clients through industry meetings and
events, but is aware they have current and
long-standing supply chains, free-trade
agreements, local sources or qualities that
have been in these systems for a long time.
“Sonangol USA understands the
dynamic oil supply pattern shifts that
have occurred because of the shale oil and
Canadian oil booms. Indeed, American
shale oil and Canadian production is
impacting global oil flows,” she said.
“Still, Sonangol USA is responsible
for developing outlets for Sonangol crude
cargo sales in the Americas. It is our top
priority to reach all regions there. Selling
sweet crude oil cargoes into the global
marketplace is a highly competitive and
aggressive business. Sonangol USA is
dedicated to working with all American
clients, both existing and new, to explain
Sonangol marketing abilities and Angolan
crude qualities and to understand
individual client needs,” she added.
Notwithstanding America’s new
oil boom, Angola’s oil exports to the
United States had already been falling as
alternative emerging markets proved more
alluring. China took 45 per cent of Angola’s
783,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil exports in
2013, followed by India with 12 per cent.
Taiwan was the third-largest importer of
Angolan oil, and the United States, the
biggest customer a few years ago, occupied
only fourth place.
CEO Almeida, however, is confident
that there will always be room in the
US market for Angolan oil owing to its
qualities. It has heavy and sweet grades
that permit its successful blending with
local grades, whereas US oil from shale is
characteristically light and sweet and often
requires blending with other grades.
“Many American refineries have
Sonangol USA
renewed interest in Angolan grades
because of the economic advantages these
qualities provide in refinery blending and
processing, especially with the abundant
supplies of extra-light sweet shale oil
from Bakken [North Dakota] and Eagle
Ford [Texas] deposits. Angolan crude
qualities assist refiners to achieve optimal
economics,” she explained.
David B. Wayland, crude oil and
trading manager at Sonangol USA for over
four years, agreed. “Angolan oil is a good
fit. Its variety and quality combines well
with fracked oil.
“Globally, fracking is the biggest
development in the oil business,”
said Wayland, who has over 40 years’
experience. As an example of the shake-up
it has caused, he pointed to the fact that
Nigeria, for the first time since 1986, has
not managed to export a single barrel to the
United States. “Texas alone now produces
a massive 3.3 million bpd.” This is almost
twice Angola’s current output.
Despite the challenges, Wayland
sees reasons for optimism in sales of
Angolan oil to the United States apart
from its inherent qualities. “There are
good prospects of selling crude to the US
West Coast and Hawaii. Canada is also a
possible new outlet.”
Sonangol’s efforts to find new buyers
and raise crude exports in Latin America
have made some headway. The company
“Globally, fracking is the biggest development
in the oil business” – David B. Wayland,
crude oil and trading manager at Sonangol USA
DECEMBER 2014 23
Sonangol USA
already has customers in the region, such
as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
Oil trading and exploration cooperation with Brazil is well established.
In addition, Chile signed an agreement in
August 2014 whereby Sonangol will supply
local oil company ENAP with 9 million
barrels of crude in 2015, three times more
than previously, thus making Angola
Chile’s largest supplier.
Apart from US fracking, oil trader
Wayland identified the other big oil marketmovers as China and India, both of which
are already receiving larger shipments of
Angolan oil and have refineries capable of
handling all oil grades.
Wayland believes Angola has made
great progress in consolidating its
reputation and has created a “trustworthy
and safe environment” for the oil business
and investors. He cited the fact that major
operators such as Chevron, Exxon, BP and
Total are well established in the country,
and this enhances confidence in Angola’s
oil trade.
Looking forward, Wayland sees Sonangol
USA working more closely in concert with
Sonangol Shipping as a means to leverage
its oil trading and attract fresh buyers.
“It is important Sonangol USA remains
attentive to client needs and takes time to
develop new partners. Our goal remains to
sell Angolan crude to valued customers and
achieve the best possible market price for
Sonangol crude oil sales,” declares Elma
Pegado de Almeida.
Changing oil world
The US oil and gas market is changing,
and changing fast. Thanks to the
blistering success of fracking, the world’s
largest economy is sharply reducing its
dependence on oil and gas imports.
In November 2013, the White House
announced that for the first time in 20 years
the country was importing less oil than it
was producing at home. By the end of 2014
oil imports are expected to fall below 7
million bpd compared to 10 million bpd in
2009. In 2015, the United States is expected
to become the largest oil and gas producer
in the world.
The writing is on the wall and it is
clear: oil-producing companies serving
North America have to adapt to this new
situation. The oil that major exporters
such as Nigeria once sold to the United
States will now have to find a market
elsewhere, and this will contribute to
falling world oil prices.
There is hope, however, that new
emerging markets will pick up the slack,
especially the huge energy-hungry
economies of China and India, where
Angola is already a major player.
US shale gas success has altered
the destination of liquefied natural gas
(LNG) from the Angola LNG project.
The $10 billion LNG plant at Soyo in
Zaire province in Angola was originally
destined to supply the United States, but
the fall in US prices has reduced demand.
Fortunately, Angola LNG has been able to
gain much higher prices for its gas in the
Far East. p
Elma Pegado de Almeida – Sonangol USA president and CEO
Elma Pegado de Almeida
is a product of Sonangol’s
corporate training scheme.
She joined Sonangol’s
finance department in
1982 and holds a degree in
Accountancy. In 1994/1996
she was seconded to
Italian state oil company
ENI. In Milan, she
concluded her master’s
degree in Economics,
Energy and Environment.
She has lived in the
United States since 2001,
where she initially took
English classes in Austin,
Texas. In 2007 she was
nominated Sonangol USA’s
employee of the year.
Brazuk Ltd
Sonangol USA
Inácio Bueti - Holding to account
Brazuk Ltd
Huambo-born Inácio Bueti is finance manager at Sonangol
USA. He has been based in Houston since 2008, having
originally studied Accountancy and Finance at Scotland’s
Aberdeen University.
Bueti’s role is to ensure that finance funding is available
for operational needs, and he also evaluates customer
creditworthiness. Until now there have been no defaults, he
said with satisfaction.
Although he comes from an upstream background, Bueti
is happy that he gets to handle all aspects of accounts at
Sonangol USA. “Here the accounting is more general. There’s
a good budgeting process. I forecast expenses and provide
advice to meet budget needs so that there are no delays in
office operations. I am also involved in relations with the
banks. Sonangol gives me good support in my work.”
The 34-year-old Bueti likes being in Texas: “It’s the
epicentre of the oil industry. Houston is the oil capital of the
world. It’s a good place to be for oil.”
He also sees Houston as a good place for leisure and
somewhere he can indulge his appreciation of theatre and
music, especially the guitar and drums.
“Selling sweet crude oil cargoes into the
global marketplace is a highly competitive
and aggressive business”
– Elma Pegado de Almeida
Brazuk Ltd
Sonangol USA staff line-up
DECEMBER 2014 25
Sonangol USA
Eunice João - 24/7 service
Whatever the future of oil sales
to the United States, Sonangol
USA’s Houston HQ will continue
to help provide the round the
clock coverage for operations it
shares with Sonangol’s offices
in London and Singapore. These
offices, strategically placed in
three important time zones,
ensure that any cargo of crude
shipped throughout the world is
supervised around the clock.
Eunice João is Sonangol
USA’s operations manager. In
tandem with her colleagues in
Europe and Asia, she oversees
some 25 cargoes a month. Her
role is one of troubleshooting in
the period from the sale of the oil
to receipt of payment.
Born in Luanda’s Maianga
district, João has been with
Sonangol for 18 years. She
started her career in Sonangol’s
IT Department in 1996 after
graduating in Computer Science
at Salford University near
Manchester, England.
She moved to Houston 10
years ago as an operations analyst
and became operations manager
in 2011. She enjoys her job, which
she describes as “never boring
and very motivating”.
“Sonangol’s a good company
to work for and Houston a good
place to work.” João says.
She also derives great
satisfaction from training up
new Sonangol employees in her
department and has mentored
seven people so far.
Life in Houston agrees with
her. The weather is good and suits
her love of outdoor activities,
such as riding bikes, jogging
and hiking. She also enjoys
networking and having friends
from all over the world including,
of course, ex-pat Angolans.
“Sonangol’s
a good
company
to work for and
Houston a good
place to work.”
Brazuk Ltd
– Eunice João,
operations manager
at Sonangol USA
Sonangol USA
What is fracking?
Non-conventional oil recovery
methods, broadly lumped together
under the name ‘fracking’, are the
reasons behind the current US oil
and gas boom. These techniques
exploit large untapped reserves in
existing oil and gas fields, mainly in
the southern state of Texas, in the
north in Montana and North Dakota,
and Pennsylvania in the east.
Fracking,
or
hydraulic
fracturing, is the process of drilling
into the earth, then directing
a high-pressure water mixture
containing sand and chemicals
into the rock to release the gas
inside. This allows trapped gas to
flow out of the well.
Fracking is often used in
conjunction with another non-
conventional oil recovery method,
horizontal drilling, which provides
access to oil reservoirs. One
significant advantage of horizontal
drilling is that it minimises vertical
drilling through non-productive
geological layers. Instead, the drill
is maintained in the geological
layer where there are already
proven oil and gas deposits,
ensuring continuity of flows.
According to the US Energy
Information Administration, just
one per cent of the country’s
natural gas came from shale in
2001. This rocketed to 20 times that
in 2010 and is forecast to reach 45
per cent in 2038. Consequently, US
reliance on imports is now down
from 60 per cent to 34 per cent.
DECEMBER 2014 27
Sonangol shipping
STENA-SONANGOL:
POOLING
RESOURCES
Sonangol shipping
As Sonangol’s shipping joint venture with Sweden’s
Stena Bulk now nears its 10th anniversary, Universo
takes stock of what it has achieved to date
Sonangol Huíla at sea
DECEMBER 2014 29
Sonangol shipping
S
onangol Marine Services and
Swedish shipping giant Stena Bulk
established the Stena-Sonangol
Suezmax Pool (SSSP) joint venture
in 2005. The aim was (and still is) to
maximise profits for Pool tonnage and
attract owners of quality Suezmax tonnage
to join the Pool.
Stena Bulk’s long history, experience
and size has allowed it to be an ideal
partner for Sonangol Shipping and
provide both professional commercial
and operational on-the-job training and
employment opportunities with the Pool
and enable Sonangol to help Angola
develop its seafaring culture.
Sonangol made the strategic decision
to participate in the wider global shipping
market as a semi-autonomous player
rather than concentrate exclusively on
carrying only Angola’s daily oil output.
The logistical thinking behind the SSSP
is similar to that of a co-operative of truck
drivers. After making a delivery, drivers
may find themselves in an area where it
makes much more economic sense to pick
up another load and take advantage of
A Sonangol LNG carrier
The pool has access to
a fleet of 23 modern Suezmax
tankers and recently completed
a fleet renewal programme
their position rather than head fruitlessly
home to base.
The SSSP has access to a common
client base, and the client base has access
to all of the vessels.
“We have a fleet with comprehensive
[geographic] coverage. The shipper needs
to be a one-shop stop. We have the critical
mass and are big enough to get the call,”
Mark Heater, president of Sonangol Marine
Services, told Universo in his office in
Houston’s Energy Corridor in Texas.
On the wall opposite his desk a wide
computer screen shows the details and
positions of all the SSSP ships. They appear
quite evenly distributed across the seas.
The most important client considerations when choosing a carrier are cost
and safety, and the SSSP is able to meet
both client expectations. Currently the
SSSP commercially manages 23 modern
Suezmax tankers, the latest additions to
the fleet arrived in 2013.
The oldest Sonangol Suezmax in
the SSSP was built in 2000 and the last
Sonangol Suezmax to join the SSSP
fleet was Sonangol Cabinda in 2013.
All the ships are double-hulled to meet
environmental protection requirements in
case of accident and to benefit from lower
insurance premiums. Sonangol’s newer
Suezmaxs are also designed to be energy
efficient and allow fuel savings of around
15 per cent compared to the older Sonangol
Suezmaxs. The Sonangol Cabinda is about
20 per cent more fuel efficient than the
Sonangol Luanda (built in 2000).
Performance of all of the SSSP’s vessels
is closely supervised so that they make
the best use of energy and contribute
to profitability.
“The SSSP very closely monitors the
ships, and we note lower energy use
because payout is directly related to
consumption efficiency,” Heater explained.
He believes most of the savings
from design modifications is at a stage
of diminishing returns and the ‘lowhanging fruit’ has already been picked.
Nevertheless, he believes that Sonangol
Shipping’s most recent Suezmax ships,
ordered in late 2014, will continue to show
performance and efficiency improvements.
A measure of Sonangol Shipping’s
increasingly sophisticated workforce is
the fact that it employs Oscar Muteba, a
38-year-old Angolan naval architect who
trained in Genoa, Italy. He has contributed
Sonangol shipping
to construction work on several pool
vessels, his first being the Sonangol Namibe
back in 2006.
The SSSP currently has yet no concrete
plans to expand its pool beyond a
maximum of 30 ships, but as vessels age it
will have to replace them.
Swelling numbers
Sonangol Shipping requires increasing
numbers of qualified Angolan personnel,
and the good news is that they are coming.
There are many students in Sonangol’s
training pipeline, but currently few of them
have substantial maritime experience – this
paucity has meant that the company has
had to deploy the small number with such
experience onshore in managerial positions.
Sonangol and Suezmax
According to Mark Heater, there are two
reasons why Sonangol chose to build
Suzemax rather than Very Large Crude
Carrier tankers: “For the same amount of
funding, we could build more Suezmaxs,
and more rather than fewer ships would
allow Sonangol to train additional sea staff.”
Rates for shipping can be volatile,
so managing a fleet requires both luck
and skill. The highest average monthly
earnings of the Sonangol Suezmax fleet was
achieved by the Sonangol Namibe in July
2008 at $84,160/day. The lowest average
monthly earnings of the fleet came from
the Sonangol Kizomba in October 2013:
just $10,150/day, Heater said.
Heater has calculated that the SSSP
manages to obtain vessel utilisation rates
“above the industry average”. This has not
been easy to achieve but the combination
of quality tonnage, worldwide coverage
(Houston, Gothenburg and Singapore) and
an excellent reputation with the market has
gone a long way to generating these results.
Asked if the boom in US domestic oil
and gas production would affect freight
rates, Heater replied, “Will there be an
impact? Yes. But it’s hard to say what it
will be – of most interest to a ship-owner
is the question ‘Will the global ton miles
travelled increase or decrease?’ The jury
is out.”
The task facing all shippers is a tough
one, given increasing competition in an
unstable market with many factors to
take into account, such as excess tonnage
availability and the effects of depressed
economies on trade.
Owners have to decide when it is best
and cheapest to build new ships, and then
must take a view on whether there will be
cargoes when they are launched.
Sonangol Shipping and the SSSP are
both training up their staffs to meet these
difficult challenges. We wish them well.
Boa viagem! p
The opportunities for the
advancement of Angolans in the
SSSP are significant. Aguinaldo
António Pedro, a 36-year-old from
the Cassaquel district of Luanda, is
an excellent example.
He studied for a year in India
followed by a year in Scotland at
City of Glasgow College - and after
training reached the post of second
mate at sea. He spent nine years at
sea altogether, a relative rarity in
Angola, where very few workers
have such long experience.
He joined the SSSP in November
2009 as a commercial operator and
spent over two years in Houston
on the operation’s desk. He then
moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, to
learn and work on the chartering
side, where he stayed over a year
altogether. Pedro was the first
Angolan to be seconded there.
He analyses spot market
conditions, seeks suitable charter
cargoes and negotiates freight
rates. “I have a lot of responsibility.
The value of the vessel may be $50
million and the freight cost $3-$4
million with a crew of around 25.
“Working for Stena Bulk
Sonangol is very rewarding. There
are so many opportunities. You can
become anything you want,” he
told Universo.
Pedro has always found life
at sea interesting. “The crew is
varied and you may be working
with Indians, Eastern Europeans
and Filipinos, so you are obliged to
speak English,” he said.
This seaman is proud that
Angola is the only African country
to have its own pool.
“I would definitely encourage
Angolans to follow my career path.”
Brazuk Ltd
Aguinaldo António Pedro – Chartering experience
DECEMBER 2014 31
Sonangol shipping
SHIPPING
Oil travels first class with Stena-Sonangol
SHIPPING
Sonangol shipping
Oil tanker types
Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCCs)
The largest oil tanker ever built was Seawise
Giant. This 458-metre-long was indeed a
giant. It weighed well over 560,000 dry weight
tonnes (dwt) and needed a draft of 24.6 metres.
Owing to its size, it was not only too big for
the Suez and Panama canals, but could not
even use the English Channel when fully laden.
Built in Japan in 1979, the vessel has since
been scrapped.
Currently the largest ULCCs in service are TI
Europe and TI Oceania, each with 441,893dwt.
They were built in 2002-03.
Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs)
These carriers are the most common type
of ‘super tanker’. They usually weigh around
250,000dwt and are able to carry 2 million barrels
of crude oil.
Suezmax
Suezmax tankers get their name from their
capability of using the Suez Canal. Maximum draft
is 20.1 metres and they typically weigh around
160,000dwt and have a width or ‘beam’ of 50
metres. Usual capacity is around 1 million barrels.
Stena Bulk Sonangol’s Sonangol Rangel is
157,756dwt and has a 48-metre beam.
Panamax
Panamax are named for to their ability to
traverse the Panama Canal.
Maximum draft is 12 metres, but there are
also length restrictions (294 metres) as ships
must use locks on the canal. A bridge also
causes restrictions depending on the variable
water depth.
Aframax
This is a ship size which has nothing to do
with Africa! An Aframax is an oil tanker smaller
than 120,000 tonnes and with a beam of 32
metres. ‘Afra’ stands for Average Freight Rate
Assessment, a tanker classification introduced
by Shell in 1954 to standardise contract terms.
Aframax tankers can serve most ports in the
world and are optimal for short- and mediumhaul crude deliveries.
Stena
DECEMBER 2014 33
Sonangol shipping
Stena Bulk Sonangol Suezmax Pool
(double-hulled vessels)
DWT
NAME
YEAR BUILT
STENA BULK SUNRISE
2013
159,000
STENA BULK SUPREME
2012
159,000
STENA BULK SUPERIOR
2011
159,236
AST SUNSHINE
2013
159,000
MONTESTENA BULK
2012
159,179
PRINCIMAR COURAGE
2013
158,368
PRINCIMAR INTEGRITY
2012
159,000
PRINCIMAR PRIDE
2012
158,542
SONANGOL CABINDA
2013
157,500
SONANGOL PORTO AMBOIM
2012
157,500
SONANGOL HUILA
2012
157,500
SONANGOL KALANDULA
2011
157,955
SONANGOL RANGEL
2011
157,756
SONANGOL NAMIBE
2007
158,425
SONANGOL KASSANJE
2005
158,706
SONANGOL KIZOMBA
2001
159,165
SONANGOL LUANDA
2000
159,178
ALMI NAVIGATOR
2013
149,999
ALMI EXPLORER
2013
157,786
YASA POLARIS
2009
158,475
YASA SCORPION
2010
158,475
YASA SOUTHERN CROSS
2010
158,475
(dry weight tonnes)
A Suezmax passes under the
Golden Gate Bridge
Celma Zeferino – Making oil add up
Celma Zeferino was cherry-picked as one of
the three best Sonangol scholarship students
completing an Accountancy degree at the
University of Tennessee. Her task now is to work
on the complex accounting procedures involved
with the Sonangol Shipping fleet.
“Each vessel is treated individually for
accounting purposes, and the work is very
technical and demanding,” she explained.
It does however mean she is developing as a
specialist in shipping accounts, she added with
a smile. Zeferino is responsible for the accounts
of four tankers and three LNG carriers, a
robust workload for the 30-year-old born in Vila
Alice, Luanda.
As part of her preparation for this role, she
spent time training in Luanda and Dubai.
Zeferino told Universo that one thing that
pleased her very much was seeing more
Angolans now working in her area.
Sonangol shipping
the fleet’s key performance
indicators and monitors the
ships around the clock. He also
receives daily detailed reports so
he can be promptly made aware
of any deviations from normal
running that may require action.
Almeida is another relatively
veteran sailor among the
youthful group that makes up
the bulk of Angolan seafarers.
He was part of the first Angolan
cadet intake at City of Glasgow
College in 1998. Previously, he
was Sonangol’s representative
in Korea overseeing the
construction of tanker Sonangol
Rangel during the six months it
took to complete.
Almeida said his greatest
satisfaction has been seeing
his former juniors trained and
succeeding in their jobs, such as
chief engineer Francisco Miranda
who he is now managing.
Brazuk Ltd
João Almeida is a general manager
at Sonangol Marine Services, with
technical responsibility for the
day-to-day running of shipping
operations. Almeida, from the
Comandante Valódia area of
Luanda, is a 38-year-old with many
weighty tasks on his shoulders.
He was promoted to his present
position at the end of 2013 and
has to ensure the fleet is operated
efficiently, safely and with due
concern for the environment.
“The decisions I have to take
involve a lot of money and lots of
risks, and they have to be made in
a very short time on a daily basis,
but we’ve been very successful.
We’ve had near misses, but
they have been controlled and
accidents have been avoided.
Our fleet is 15 per cent more fuel
efficient than it was 5 to 10 years
ago,’ he said with a hint of relief.
He keeps a close eye on
Stena
João Almeida – Keeping watch
DECEMBER 2014 35
Sonangol education
Bernabe Ndinofina, WAMS president and CEO
Brazuk Ltd
Sonangol education
WAMS
(WEST AFRICA MANAGEMENT SERVICES):
SUPPORTING STUDENTS
Sonangol is sponsoring the education and training of rapidly growing numbers
of students in North America. Universo looks at the work of its Texas-based
scholarship support organisation, WAMS
B
ernabe Ndinofina is a big, hearty
man who hails from Angola’s
southern desert province of
Cunene. The stifling heat and
humidity outside his cool bright suite of
offices hold no fears for him as he surveys
the wide flat sea of dark greenery that is
George Bush Park on the edge of the mostly
grey concrete city of Houston, Texas.
Ndinofina is president and CEO of West
Africa Management Services, LLC (WAMS),
Sonangol’s scholarship management
company, which has been operating in the
United States since 1999.
The role of WAMS is to select and
monitor the performance of university
faculties in US and Canadian universities
so that Sonangol’s scholars are directed
towards the best places and courses to
study their subjects. Once the students are
enrolled in the universities, WAMS monitors
them to see how well they are progressing.
A second and extremely important
function is to support the everyday needs
of their students, who are often away from
home for the very first time and a very long
way from their families.
Specialist subjects
Reflecting its goals as an oil company,
Sonangol mostly selects courses that are
related to Civil and Mechanical Engineering
Sonangol’s
scholars
are directed
towards the
best places
and courses
to study
their subjects
as well as Mining. Other favoured courses
include Geography, Chemistry, Geophysics,
Computer Science and Mechatronics,
a hybrid subject where electronics and
mechanics meet. This last discipline is
important and useful for specialists in
remote-controlled subsea wellheads.
To date, WAMS has mostly allocated
scholars to places in around 80 US
universities, but in recent years it has
included two universities in Canada.
This move north of the border is part
of the company’s efforts to diversify its
service suppliers. Canada’s prestigious
Alberta University, with its reputation
for producing excellent oil engineers, is a
destination for some of Sonangol’s best
students in Mathematics, Physics and
Chemistry. Canadian universities have
accepted 53 Angolan students via WAMS
since 2013. This growth in student numbers
has benefited from the assistance and close
links WAMS enjoys with the Canadian
Consulate in Luanda.
Only the best will do
WAMS has the task of finding more
and more university places for a
growing number of scholarship winners
as Sonangol expands to meet the
needs of its increasingly technically
sophisticated workforce.
DECEMBER 2014 37
Sonangol education
Brazuk Ltd
Luis Costa, Academic & Logistics
department manager
In September 2013, the number of
students passing through the hands of
WAMS’ Houston office jumped from 200 to
500. By 2017, the numbers will more than
double again to 1,200 as Sonangol expands its
pool of graduates and potential employees.
In the period 2004–13, of the 400
graduates emerging from the Sonangol
scholarship scheme in the United States,
most went on to work for Sonangol and
the Angolan government. One student, a
graduate in Architecture some five years
ago, is now deputy governor of one of
Angola’s southern provinces.
Sonangol is keen to select the best
students and place them in the highestrated universities. To achieve this goal,
Sonangol conducts highly competitive
entrance examinations and rigorous
selection tests for the scholarship scheme.
University courses are constantly monitored
for quality and their rankings revised.
According to Ndinofina, improved
testing at Sonangol has led to a rise in
candidate standards. This comes as no
surprise, as Sonangol selected just 500
students out a total of 14,000 examination
candidates aiming to study in the United
States and Canada in 2013.
US universities with Angolan students
include Texas Tech University in Lubbock,
University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas
A&M University, Louisiana and University
of Denver.
In loco parentis
WAMS also exercises a very important
pastoral role and provides a wide range of
support services for the young Angolans,
who mostly have never travelled abroad
before. These include a welcoming
reception and orientation; help with
visas, tickets and travel arrangements,
accommodation and health insurance
as well as assistance with opticians and
dentists. In emergencies, students can
count on WAMS, which provide support in
cases such as bereavements.
The organisation is called upon to
stand in for the parents of students abroad.
The course completion and success rate of
Sonangol students in the United States and
Canada is testimony that WAMS is doing its
job well. p
Top students: Aurea Dias, José Van-dunem, Bruna Sousa and Ariadne Dias
What WAMS does
West Africa Management
Services, LLC has been in
existence for over 15 years.
WAMS originally operated in
Dubuque, Iowa, under American
ownership, but since June 2004,
the company has relocated
to Houston, and is now under
direct Sonangol control.
WAMS undertakes the
placement of Angolan student
in US and Canadian higher
educational colleges on behalf
of Sonangol EP.
Although mainly functioning
as a scholarship support
company for Sonangol, WAMS
also offers these services to
other companies, organisations
and individual sponsors who
wish to place their students
in the United States, including
those doing short-term courses
such as English Language.
WAMS specialists work with
academic and international
advisors at the universities its
students attend. WAMS manages
the financial, housing and health
aspects of student scholarships
as well as individuals’ living
expenses. It also deals with
their travel requirements and
secures any necessary visas. In
addition, the company organises
annual student meetings where
students get together and report
to their sponsors.
WAMS surveys the colleges
on an annual basis to see how
they perform in the key subjects
Sonangol is seeking and
adjusts its student allocation
policy accordingly.
Sonangol education
Brazuk Ltd
Bernabe Ndinofina – World experience
Bernabe Ndinofina was born in
Nehome, 150km from Ngiva, also
known as Ondjiva, in Cunene
province. He is no stranger
to studying abroad, and his
varied academic life experience
has equipped him very well
psychologically for the demands of
the role he now performs at WAMS.
Ndinofina had a traumatic
baptism of fire during his own
student career, after he was
awarded an Angolan government
scholarship to the former Soviet
Union. He was sent from Moscow
by train to Tashkent Institute
in the very distant republic
of Uzbekistan, where he was
to spend six years studying
Russian and Economic Planning.
Unfortunately for the young
Angolan, he was given just 10
rubles (a few dollars) to cover his
food expenses on the train and,
after seven long days aboard, his
money ran out. In order to buy
food and survive the journey, he
was so desperate that he was
forced to sell his watch!
While in Russia he contracted
malaria and had to be nursed
back to health, surrounded by
staff whose language he could
not speak.
All was not gloom and doom,
though; while he was there, he met
his future wife.
Prior to his trip to Russia,
Ndinofina also spent four years
studying in Cuba.
Later in life and now working
for Sonangol, this much-travelled
Angolan was posted to England to
study English for 6 months.
So Ndinofina has studied
abroad in three greatly contrasting
climatic and economic situations,
has learned three new languages
and has suffered isolation, hunger
and disease in a foreign land.
If anyone should have empathy
and sympathy for the new young
arrivals in Houston, then surely
this is the person.
One hopes that no Angolan
students will have to suffer the
hardships that the CEO did, and
WAMS will certainly be available
to help out should they face any
such difficulties.
Bernabe Ndinofina joined
Sonangol in 1995 and worked as a
crude oil trader from 1996 to 1998,
when he was posted to Sonangol
USA in Houston. He was appointed
to his current position at WAMS
in 2004 and oversaw the move of
operations first from Dubuque,
Iowa, to Sonangol USA’s office in
Houston and then to the dedicated
office WAMS occupies today, just
a 10-minute drive away.
DECEMBER 2014 39
Sonangol knowledge
ASSET INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT:
AIMING HIGH
Shutterstock
A substantial portion of Angola’s oil
and gas production assets is aging,
and output is tailing off. Sonangol
engineer Geraldo André Raposo
Ramos guides us through the scale
of the problem and the remedies
Sonangol knowledge
O
il and gas production
equipment needs to be kept
in good condition throughout
its lifetime. Asset integrity
management (AIM) is the term used in
industry to describe the steps needed to
ensure this is the case.
All major oil companies, including
Sonangol, view AIM as a major concern.
“Sonangol EP needs to reinforce AIM
to reduce production loss by delaying the
decline and extending the lifetime of its
facilities,” says Engineer Ramos.
Oil producers have to make decisions
on how they maintain and dispose of their
assets. A good analogy would be with a car.
Normally someone buys a car with a view
to using it over a period of time – say, 15
years. After that, they might come to the
conclusion that it isn’t worth maintaining
and that it should be scrapped and recycled.
On the other hand, the aim might be to
conserve this asset and keep it running in
the best possible condition for as long as
possible. This is the case with vintage cars
where meticulously maintained cars, some
over a 100 years old, have all their major
parts renovated so that the vehicle can still
perform well and even run a good race.
The maintenance of an individual car
and its eventual disposal probably affects
very few people; however, an oil rig or a
pipeline could have negative impacts on
hundreds of people’s health and safety and
on the environment if not managed well.
Angola’s asset
management
“The age of Angola’s petroleum facilities
ranges from months to 46 years. This
implies a need for more effort and a
good AIM programme with periodic or
systematic inspections and maintenance
of petroleum facilities,” says Ramos.
Angola has 251 offshore oil structures:
wellhead jackets, compliant towers, jackups, conventional and accommodation
platforms, tension leg platforms (TLPs),
floating production, storage and
offloading (FPSO) and floating storage
and offloading (FSO) units, buoys and
accommodation barges.
AIM will reduce unprogrammed
“Sonangol EP needs to reinforce AIM
to reduce production loss
by delaying the decline and
extending the lifetime of its facilities”
– Geraldo Ramos
shutdowns, production losses and delays,
and keep the facilities in good condition
until the end of the production sharing
agreement when these facilities are handed
over to the concessionaire (Sonangol EP).
Good management will allow the
facilities to continue processing safely,
extend the life of aging assets, and ensure
the integrity of wells and marine/platform
or marine/rig interfaces.
Elements that affect installation safety
are fatigue, corrosion, geotechnical and
geological hazards, accidental damage,
extreme weather, modifications or changes
to existing facilities, and marine growth.
Sonangol EP needs to continue
monitoring the operators’ corrosion
programmes by using the cathode
protection method, corrosion inhibitors
and emulsifiers, specific coatings, filling
all storage oil vessels and painting
programmes, or employment of other
technologies available on the market.
Well integrity may be maintained by
monitoring the quality of injected water,
pressures, leaks on wells, work-over
activities, chemicals injected and sand
production. For all changes and for the
addition of new structures, Sonangol EP
needs to consider the weight of topsides
and of new modules.
Angola is not a country with strong or
severe weather, but monitoring structure
foundations is critical because damage
may occur first in members and joints in
steel substructures, structural supports
for risers, topside structural supports, and
equipment on lower decks.
Engineer Ramos believes Sonangol EP
must work on laws and regulations for AIM
to ensure the inclusion of policy, strategy,
objectives, procedures, standards, codes
and systems of data control. This will help
to prevent, detect, control and mitigate
infrastructure deterioration. It will not
only require laws, regulations, and a welldeveloped AIM programme, but it will also
be critical for Sonangol to have permanent
Platforms with 30 or more
years of production (2013)
BlockPlatform
Years
0
GS-Alpha
45
0
GS-Bravo
45
0
GS-Charlie
44
0
GS-Delta
44
0
GS-Delta Aux
44
0
GS-Echo
44
0
GS-Fox
42
0
GS-Hotel
36
0
GIP-Delta
32
0
GIP-Fox
32
0
GIP-Hotel
32
2
Essungo ‘A’
32
0
GS-Julie
31
0
GSL
31
0
GSL-Aux
31
0
GS-KILO
30
DECEMBER 2014 41
Sonangol knowledge
personnel on production platforms or
drilling rigs as well as at the engineering
phase of all projects.
Sonangol EP’s Department of
Production began drawing up an AIM
programme with a number of different
stages in 2012.
Phase I relates to planning and
execution of more rigorous inspection plans
for petroleum infrastructure. The team has
now been enlarged by adding Sonangol’s
Quality, Health, Safety and Environment
(QHSE or QSSA in Portuguese) division and
representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum.
Specialist companies are permitted to
provide AIM and lifetime management
Engineer Geraldo Ramos
support for oil and gas infrastructure,
facilities and equipment. They offer support
to oil companies through the conception,
design, construction, commissioning,
operations and decommissioning phases.
Their goal is to help effectively manage
corporate assets in order to gain maximum
value, profitability and returns while
safeguarding personnel, the community
and the environment.
Thorough AIM programmes incorporate
design, inspections and maintenance
as well as management concepts, as all
these affect infrastructure and equipment.
Therefore, specialists and engineering
support are needed in a wide range of
Number of offshore platforms in Angola
Type of platform
Qty
Block
Wellhead jackets
181
0, 2, 3
Compliant tower
2
14
Jack-up
1
0
Conventional
37
0, 2, 3
Accommodation
5
0, 2
TLP
2
15
FPSO
12
0, 4/05, 14, 15, 17, 18, 31
FSO
1
3
Buoy
8
0, 14, 15, 17, 18
Accommodation barges
2
2, 3
Total
areas, such as process safety, mechanical
integrity, corrosion and metallurgy and
risk analysis.
Management programmes are holistic;
they deal with everything that impacts on
the assets, and there is clearly a community
of interests with QHSE.
The approaches of AIM and QHSE are
similarly all-embracing and they share
the same aims for optimum outcomes in
terms of performance, safety and reducing
environmental risk. A successful AIM
programme will maximise facility reliability,
availability and ease of maintenance
with a view to extending and enhancing
performance and profit. p
251
Sonangol knowledge
Oil and service support companies in Angola
The main international oil companies
with production sharing agreements
in Angola are ExxonMobil (USA), BP
(UK), Statoil (Norway), Eni (Italy),
Total (France), Maersk Oil and
Gas (Denmark), Petrobras (Brazil),
ConocoPhillips (USA), Repsol
(Spain), Cobalt (USA), Chevron (USA),
SOMOIL (Angola), Sonangol P&P
(Angola), Pluspetrol (Spain), Chevron
(USA) under joint venture operation
contracts, and Cobalt (USA) under a
service risk agreement.
In addition, there are some technical
and service support companies such
as ABB Vetco Gray (Switzerland/USA),
BJ Services Company (Scotland), FMC
Technologies (France), Halliburton
(USA), Schlumberger Oilfield Services
(France), Technip (France), Subsea 7
(Norway/UK), Cameron (USA), and GE
(USA); and the main contractor drilling
companies such as Transocean (USA),
Seadrill (Norway), Saipem (Italy) and
ENSCO (USA), among others.
Current oil and gas production
is supported by 12 blocks with
nine offshore and three onshore
(Cabinda Sul, Fina Sonangol and
Fina Sonangol Texaco).
Blocks in production
Block
Operator
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
On
On
0
2
3
4/05
14
15
17
18
18
FS
FST
Cabinda Sul
Chevron
Sonangol
P&P
Sonangol
P&P
Sonangol
P&P
Chevron
Esso
Total
BP
BP
SOMOIL
SOMOIL
Pluspetrol
Shutterstock
Off = Offshore, On = Onshore
DECEMBER 2014 43
CULTURE
NATIONAL
SHOW TIME
Angola has revived its national cultural festival, Fenacult.
Universo witnessed the recent extravaganza and asks what
the future holds for the event
Victor Gama plays his Acrux
Rui Peralta
DECEMBER 2014 45
Minister for Culture Rosa Cruz e Silva
CULTURE
Video art: streets ahead
Miguel Petchkovsky’s multimedia project
Angop
“W
e will show the brand
Angola to the world,
to honour the legacy
of our forefathers.
That’s what Fenacult is – the glorification
of our culture,” said Minister for Culture
Rosa Cruz e Silva at the opening ceremony
of Fenacult (Festival Nacional de Cultura)
2014 at the 11 de Novembro National
Stadium in Luanda.
The festival, in only its second edition
in 25 years, took place in venues across the
country between August 30 and September
20. The first ever Fenacult – in 1989 – was
originally intended to be repeated every
four years. Recognising its importance, the
Angolan Ministry for Culture has worked
tirelessly for the past two years to resurrect
the event.
Thousands attended Fenacult’s
opening, at which a choir of 300 voices
sang the national anthem. The ceremony
featured dance choreographed by Ana
Clara Guerra Marques, symbolising
key moments in Angolan history, from
cultural confrontations during the arrival
of the Portuguese to the recovery of
national identity and the country’s drive
for independence. It also showed the
new Angola, eager to develop further
in the future. It was a splendid start to
what Fenacult embodies: preservation
of Angola’s diverse traditional culture
coupled with futuristic innovation.
Luanda occupied Fenacult 2014’s
central stage. It hosted 28 sub-festivals and
spectacles; 25 speeches; 16 fairs, exhibitions
and workshops; 12 round-table discussions
and seven concerts and colloquiums. These
were held at some of the capital’s historical
landmarks, including the National
Stadium, the Congress Palace, the Angolan
Writers’ Union, the National Library and
the cultural centre Casa 70.
Other events were held at locations that
represent the capital’s modern face, such
as restaurant and club Miami Beach, Belas
Conference Centre, cinema Cine Atlântico,
Hotel Epic Sana and the newly renovated
Bay of Luanda waterfront.
in Luanda was a brilliant example of
the innovative art that is emerging from
Angola. It involved the projection of video
art on buildings on Luanda’s Rainha Ginga
Street. Petchkovsky is a video art lecturer
and curated his project through Video
Guerrilha from Brazil.
“Fenacult aims to build a sense of
creative responsibility for the future. Now is
the time to show the world the creative soul
of Angola’s young generation,” he explained.
The artist was born in North East
Angola in 1956 and has his roots in the
Tchokwe ethnic group, which is known for
the artistic representations of its culture.
He started his career at the Angolan
Cinema Institute in 1980 as a filmmaker,
and then studied painting at the famous
Gerrit Rietveld Academy (1987–92) in
Amsterdam, where he currently lives. It was the first time that Video Guerrilha
had used its new image projection technology
in Africa, Petchkovsky told Universo.
“We plan to use the same technology
at future events in Angola, such as the
inauguration of the new Luanda airport,
the Museum of Science and Technology,
and the Agostinho Neto Memorial during
the celebration of the 40th anniversary of
Angola’s independence in 2015,” he said.
An example of the videos projected
on buildings in Luanda’s city centre was
Closed Circuit (in the Middle of Sweden), a
short work by Mattias Härenstam.
... The video – Closed Circuit (After Peter
Tillberg: In the Middle of Sweden 1972-73)
– is, as the title suggests, a paraphrase of the
older artist’s painting. Rows of houses are
parked along a lead-gray street, which ends
in a circular pothole. We are washed down
the hole, through a mouth opening and
carted around in a winding tunnel system
and eventually spat out on the street again.
The trek begins again. This time the journey
ends with a plunge into something that
looks like an anus. Again, we fall onto the
street. It goes on like this. The organic chaos
put together with the tenacity of middleclass suburbia turns into a surreal, ominous
pulp… Everything is familiar, and yet not.
– Excerpt from a review by Sara Arvidsson
published at Swedish online art magazine
konsten.net
The project also featured five Brazilian
and 12 Angolan artists.
“The audience was so creative and
inspiring during the workshops, seminars
and lectures that accompanied our project.
That underlines the need to let people,
especially Angola’s younger generation,
participate directly in innovative art
technology,” Petchkovsky said.
Angop
CULTURE
Angolan traditional dancers
Interactive instruments
Another highlight of Fenacult 2014 was the
award-winning exhibition INSTRMNTS by
artist, composer and electronics engineer
Victor Gama, shown at Luanda’s National
Anthropology Museum.
Gama has been designing and building
his impressive array of instruments
since the early 1990s, blending current
fabrication technologies with natureinspired materials and traditions. The
exhibition is laden with symbolism.
On display were more than 30 entirely
new, contemporary musical instruments
known as ‘Pangeia instrumentos’, each one
of them a breathtaking piece of art in itself.
“The exhibition is a space for free
experimentation and interaction where
visitors are invited to play the instruments.
Video projections and touchpads offer
them the opportunity to engage more
deeply with my work,” Gama told Universo.
Fenacult’s audience had the
opportunity to play instruments such as the
Toha, the Tahra, the Acrux and the Tipaw.
The Toha comprises two 21-string
diatonic harps in a single instrument with
two resonators. Its design was inspired by
the nests of the sociable weaver birds that
inhabit the regions between the Namibe
and the Kalahari deserts. The Acrux is an
installation of four instruments with metal
discs and glass soundboards that resemble
spaceships. The Tipaw, an instrument
with 10 ringing bowls, was inspired by the
Bengal tiger.
The exhibition included a performance
of Gama’s latest multimedia concert, Vela
6911, written for three of his instruments
plus an ensemble of violins, violas, cellos,
timpani and bassoons.
Tradition and innovation
Gama has closely collaborated with
and recorded the music of artists in
DECEMBER 2014 47
CULTURE
Angola’s interior for the past 20 years.
The instruments’ origins are strongly
influenced by the traditional musical
instruments of Angola” he said.
INSTRMNTS has taken Angolan culture
to the rest of the world. It has enchanted
audiences at the Royal Opera House in
London, Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast,
the Portuguese Cultural Centre in Maputo,
the Fundación Carlos de Amberes in
Madrid and Lisbon’s Centro Cultural de
Belém, among other places.
A five-year collaboration with the
Kronos Quartet had its world premiere at
Carnegie Hall in New York and its European
premiere in Lisbon in 2010.
Rui Peralta
The play’s the thing
Boy playing the Bidon
“Fenacult aims to build a sense of creative
responsibility for the future.
Now is the time to show the world the
creative soul of Angola’s young generation”
– Miguel Petchkovsky
In the realm of theatre, A Tree (Uma Árvore)
by Nuno Milagre took centre stage. It was
performed at Luanda’s oldest theatre, Elinga.
The play was directed by Miguel
Hurst and had a cast comprising Virgílio
António, Helena Moreno, Yuri de Sousa,
Silvio Ferreira do Nascimento and Orlando
Sérgio, who is also the producer. Sérgio
was born in 1960 in Malange, Angola and is
known for Haircut (Corte de Cabelo,1995),
The Hero (O Herói, 2004) and At the
Photographer’s (No Fotógrafo, 2000).
A Tree is a story about conflict between
nature and modernity. In a remote part of
Africa, a tree is affected by the proposed
building of a motorway near Mutu’s house.
Mutu is visited by several people trying to
explain the inevitable victory of progress over
nature. He bursts out in arguments in favour
of preservation of the tree. Every person
visiting him is a step higher in the power
hierarchy, until the king visits him in person.
Mutu gives each a different speech,
increasing the forcefulness of his
arguments. He begins by underlining the
importance of the tree in his daily life,
along with environmental issues. With the
growing importance of the visitors, he uses
rhetorical tricks and techniques in order
to convince them. He creates the tree’s
historic and symbolic value, mixing legends
with historical accounts borrowed from
different African oral traditions. Almost in a
trance, he manages to link the tree to Bantu
myths of the creation of Earth.
Miguel Petchkovsky (left) with worldrenowned video artist Gary Hill
CULTURE
At the end, the king proclaims the
preservation of the tree, while Mutu
himself dies.
Fenacult 2014 was organised in just three
months. “In Europe, a project of this scale
would normally require three years of
preparation,” Miguel Petchkovsky said.
“This extremely short timeframe had
profound implications for the festival’s
promotion. That is the important lesson
we take with us to Fenacult’s next edition
in 2018.”
Victor Gama agreed. He is convinced
that the next festival will manage to surpass
Fenacult 2014 across the board. “It will
become an established national celebration
of Angola’s music and culture.”
Both artists feel that Fenacult 2014 has
far-reaching ramifications.
“I think the exchange of innovative
ideas on how to take Angolan culture to
the next stage is Fenacult’s most important
legacy,” added Petchkovsky. “Minister of
Culture Rosa Cruz e Silva has an open and
Miguel Petchovsky
The future of Fenacult
Fenacult: a festival for everyone
Fenacult 2014 was not restricted to Luanda. A ‘culture’ train with
artists and officials aboard travelled along two lines: from the capital
across to Dondo and Malange and, in the south, from Lubango
to Menongue. Angolan artists exhibited their work inside the train
carriages, and traditional bands gave musical performances both
onboard and at stations en route. Fenacult also staged a jazz festival
in Lubango.
The nationwide event also featured a cultural fair, a music
marathon and a celebration of Angolan cinema in the eastern province
of Moxico, while central Angola saw traditional dance displays in
Huambo and gospel and hip-hop shows in Bié.
The people of Kwanza Sul enjoyed a gospel music festival, and
several poetry events and theatre performances took place in the
coastal cities of Benguela and Lobito.
The province of Uíge had a varied programme that included a
film exhibition, a photographic exhibition on the life of Angola’s first
president, António Agostinho Neto, and a kuduro performance.
Further North, Zaire organised various exhibitions at the Museum
of the Kongo Kings, a traditional dance show and a ‘Feminine Voices
Festival’ in Soyo, while Cabinda hosted a cultural jamboree featuring
many different activities.
DECEMBER 2014 49
CULTURE
Victor Gama
Playing the Tipaw
at INSTRMNTS
explorative mind, and I praise her for that.
“Fenacult 2014 managed to deliver
the message that innovation is key to the
progress of Angolan society. It has proven
to the audience that culture is a dynamic,
multi-layered, multidisciplinary, hybrid,
fascinating platform.”
For Gama, the exhibition INSTRMNTS
in Luanda was one of the most challenging
productions he has ever experienced, but
also one of the most rewarding.
“Organising a festival of this nature
requires building bridges between various
stakeholders interested in expanding
and developing the cultural scene for the
next generation.
“The perspective of dealing directly
with ministry officials, whether in Angola
or elsewhere, is always daunting. But in
Luanda, it was gratifying to gradually
feel that we were all working towards the
same goals.”
Tomorrow’s artists
In Luanda, the closing ceremony of
Fenacult 2014 featured a dance and
multimedia spectacle, 3D historical images
and videos on Angola’s history and its
economic and cultural potential, as well
as a performance by a variety of Angolan
musicians and dance groups.
Although the festival was a success, the
real work has only just begun.
“Angola needs to urgently define a
credible and pragmatic methodology of
art education,” Petchkovsky said. “That
includes an art academy that covers art
history, contemporary art, art research
and new art technology. Angola needs
a museum of contemporary art, and its
existing museums will need a ‘facelift’ to
attract young audiences.”
The Ministry for Culture has already
expressed its encouragement for the
reopening of art schools in Angola.
Petchkovsky feels that the new
generation of Angolan artists is looking
to him and his fellow experienced artists
and cultural managers for support
and inspiration.
“We have the responsibility to pass our
knowledge on to them, and inspire them
to explore new territory. Not in the future,
but now.” p
CULTURE
“We have the responsibility
to pass our knowledge on
to the new generation
of Angolan artists and inspire
them to explore new territory.
Not in the future, but now”
– Miguel Petchkovsky
DECEMBER 2014 51
José Frade
Victor Gama
in a Toha duet
Sonangol wishes a Merry Christmas and a
prosperous New Year to all its employees,
partners, customers, suppliers and friends

PDF Format - Sonangol EP

Transcription

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