Angola: new Cabinda oil refinery secures funding led by Gemcorp, AFC, Afreximbank

Gemcorp Holdings Ltd. (GHL), Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) have announced the financial close of Cabinda Oil Refinery in Angola with a US$335-million project financing facility.
The announcement comes as the project spearheaded by Gemcorp, a UK-based asset management company, to build a refinery in Angola has been well behind schedule, but the London-based investment management firm still repeatedly said it believed in the project and its team in Luanda. The project is being developed by Gemcorp in partnership with Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol. The credit facility covers the first phase of the project and paves the way for construction, which will enable the processing of 30,000 crude oil barrels a day. In due course, the second phase will add another 30,000, bringing the refinery’s refining capacity to 60,000 barrels a day on completion.
While Angola, Africa’s second-biggest crude oil producer, has rich crude oil deposits, but is not processing it and still has to import the fuel it needs. The southern African nation currently has only one operational refinery, located near the capital Luanda. With the construction of the new refinery about to start, “the whole idea is to make Angola less dependent on importing refined products,” says Martin Jooste, project manager at Gemcorp. Adjacent to the planned refinery is the community of Malembo with nearly 13,000 residents, mostly fishermen and farmers, who complain that they have hardly any prospects, while the oil companies next door are raking in big profits. But Gemcorp is reported to have so far behaved differently, as it has launched health projects and promised to employ locals once the refinery is up and running.