Energy in Angola describes energy and electricity production, consumption and export from Angola. The energy policy of Angola reflects energy policy and the politics of Angola. Biomass accounts for 58% of the country's energy consumption; oil accounts for 35%, gas 4% and hydroelectric power 3%. Primary energy use in 2009 in Angola was 138 TWh and 7 TWh per million persons. Angolans use to suffer frequent daily blackouts. In 2012, days before the election, the government announced $17B US in planned energy investment, designed to alleviate the paucity of available energy.
Overview
has increased 19.4 percent in the five years 2004-2009.
Hydroelectricity
has extensive hydroelectric power resources that far exceed its present needs. The Capanda Dam, on the Cuanza River, provides Luanda's industries with cheap power. Two dams on the Catumbela River produce power for the Lobito and Benguela areas. Matala Dam 180 km of Lubango provides power to Lubango and Moçâmedes. The Ruacana Hydroelectric Power Station, near the Namibian border, was completed in the late 1970s, but the power station is in Namibia. A 520 MW hydroelectric station on the Cuanza River at Kapanda was tentatively scheduled to have begun production in early 2003. As of late 2002, only three of the country's six dams were operational; US$200 million has been allocated to repair the remaining dams, which suffered major damage in the civil war. In 2002, electricity generation was 1.728 TW·h, of which 34.5% came from fossil fuels and 65.5% from hydropower. In the same year, consumption of electricity totaled 1.607 TW·h. Total capacity in 2002 was 700 MW. Electricity is produced by Empresa Nacional de Electricidade de Angola.
Crude oil
Angola ranks second in crude oil production in sub-Saharan Africa. Oil has been Angola’s chief export since 1973; it also accounts for half the gross domestic product and is the leading source of government revenue, accounting for $2.9 billion in exports in 1994, or 95% of the total. At the end of 2004, Angola had proven oil reserves of 8.8 billion barrels. Oil reserves are along the Atlantic coast, mostly off the shore of Cabinda Province and the northern border area between and Soyo. In 1999, several oil companies were engaged in oil production, of which the largest was a subsidiary of Chevron, Cabinda Gulf Oil Company. This company has a 49/51% participation agreement with Sonangol, the state's oil company. Other firms included Fina Petróleos de Angola, Elf Aquitaine, and Texaco. In 2004, crude oil production averaged. ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso began development of a section of the Xikomba offshore oilfield in August 2002. Production there ceased in August 2011.
Lobito refinery
Development has been planned but much delayed, of a new refinery in the city of Lobito, on the coast. The Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol would have a 70 percent stake in the Sonaref refinery at Lobito, its then-head Carlos Saturnino said in 2006, and the Chinese oil company Sinopec would retain the remainder.
Oil in the Angolan economy
Angola's economy was profoundly affected by the sharp drop in oil prices in 2014. This is even though new skyscrapers, appeared in Luanda; offices, shopping centres and apartment buildings proliferated in a "mini-golden age" as leading economist Alves da Rocha called it, from 2003-2008. Yet "probably three quarters" of the population of Luanda live in "tumbledown slums". Two thirds of the 16.5 million people in Angola live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank, and the oil industry employs less than one percent of the workforce. Foreigners, including Chinese construction companies and several hundred thousand Chinese workers, and as many or more Portuguese and Brazilian trade and finance consultants and managers. Oil companies set up shop in Angola.
Natural gas
Gross natural gas production totaled in 2002. Total natural gas reserves were estimated at 9,7 trillion cubic feet as of 2015. Domestic demand for refined petroleum products is expected to increase as the economy gradually rebuilds following the end of the civil war, and the environmental impact would be positive, according to project advocates, since the gas is a byproduct of crude oil extraction that would otherwise be flared. As of 2002, Sonangol and Chevron Texaco had joined forces in a $2 billion project to develop liquefied natural gas from natural gas in Angola's off shore fields. Production was slated to begin in 2007 but Angola LNG made its first shipment in June 2013. A system failure brought a design flaw to light in 2014, and production was expected to resume in 2015.
Environment
Oil spills in Angola
Angola fined Chevron Texaco $2m for causing environmental damage in 2002 to fisheries caused by obsolete tubes at the Cabinda oilfield. Chevron promised to spend $108 m replacing the pipes. The company pumps almost three-quarters of Angola's oil, and also reduced crude production about 12%, after a pipeline leak.
