Angola’s national oil and gas company (Sonangol) by 2021 will have reduced its structure but will be “more agile and financially robust,” the group’s president said on Thursday in Luanda.

Carlos Saturnino, who presented the group’s so-called regeneration programme, said that it will cost an estimated 40 million euros, its implementation will take two to three years in three phases and aims to transform Sonangol into a true oil prospecting, exploration and distribution company.

The first phase, called Zero, which began on Thursday and will last six weeks, will cover the preparation and start of the programme, followed by a Phase 1 taking five months, which will execute actions with short-term results and define the roadmap for operational improvements and structuring measures.

“Phase 2” is the execution of the roadmap for operational improvements and structuring measures and will be implemented over 24 months, Saturnino said, quoted by the Angop news agency.

The regeneration programme covers the entire Sonangol value chain and business and involves analysis and organisational, strategic, processes and investments, among others.

The president of Sonangol said that all activities related to oil prospecting will be brought together in one entity and added that the borad had drawn up and already handed in to the government a list of companies in which it intends to sell its stake.

Sonangol will also decentralise the subsidiaries and set up management models that make it possible to hold the respective boards accountable, and the chairman of the group’s Board of Directors will cease to be the president of all 19 subsidiaries. (macauhub)