Angola to cut oil production to 1.6 mm bpd

Angola will produce about 1.65 mm barrels of oil a day in 2009, down from around 2 mm a day last year, to comply with OPEC cuts, the head of state oil firm Sonangol said. Manuel Vicente also told that the company's net profits were up 30 % last year to $ 2.9 bn, but said the global financial crisis would likely delay moves for a listing on stock exchanges overseas. Sonangol had previously expressed interest in listing on exchanges in Johannesburg, New York and a planned Angolan exchange.
"The financial crisis means that we are making a revision to this intention," he said.

Last year Angola produced between 1.9 mm and 2 mm barrels of oil per day, but the country has been forced by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to make cuts in a bid to increase the price of crude.
"We are forecasting production in 2009 to be 1.656 mm barrels of oil per day," he said.

Vicente said Sonangol was pushing ahead with plans for a new refinery, and was also considering expanding its investment portfolio in Portugal. He said work on the much-needed new refinery at Lobito was going well and discussions were under way about a third refinery in the northern oil town of Soyo.
"We are inviting private investors for this project," he said, adding that China, which pulled out of the Lobito project, had already shown some interest. Sonangol was also considering investment in Portuguese real estate and could increase its 10 % stake in Millennium bcp, Portugal's largest bank, he added.

Sonangol already has a 45 % stake in holding company Amorim Energia, which controls 33.3 % of Portuguese oil firm Galp Energia.
"Just as Portuguese companies are investing in Angola, it is necessary that we invest in Portugal," Vicente said.

Angola vies with Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer and has been one of the world's fastest-growing economies since the end of three decades of civil war in 2002. The former Portuguese colony is beginning to feel the knock-on effects of the global financial crisis with the falling prices and demand for its two main exports, oil and diamonds.
Growth for 2009 is now expected to be around 3 %, instead of the 11 % forecast last year.