It seems that the Angolan oil company Sonangol has given a thumbs down to the contract with Hong Kong-based consortium United Shine to build the Cabinda Refinery. However, the Angolan company is planning to  go ahead and is looking for other partners to implement the project. The contract was terminated due to  non performance  of the consortium to submit additional technical, commercial and financial studies to support the project’s completion, among other things.
Angola’s oil sector is going in the same direction as Nigeria, but a shade better. Though a member of powerful Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) -in the similar league of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait- it imports 80% of the crude it exports. The daily production of the oil rich African country is 1.5 million barrel a day.
In the wake of the termination of the contract with United Shine, Sonangol has signed a memorandum of understanding with London-based investment firm Gemcorp Capital. The upshot of the MOU is to finance and implement the 60,000 barrel per day project. The firm is also actively looking for other potential investors.
Angola has recently undergone fuel shortages, which is an irony for the second largest producer of oil in the African continent, after Nigeria. The refining capacity is far less than the requirement, despite the country taking some concrete steps towards stepping up its  refining capacity.
