The lack of fuel at Angola’s fuel stations has led to the dismissal of the board of national oil and fuel company Sonangol, according to a presidential decree signed on Wednesday.

President João Lourenço, as well as also dismissing the non-executive directors, appointed Sebastião Pai Querido Gaspar Martins as chairman of the Board of Directors of Sonangol, who was already a member of the board.

In a statement issued by the Civil House of the President, Lourenço said that there had been a lack of dialogue between state-owned Sonangol and the different state institutions, which had a negative effect on the fuel import process.

The statement gave assurances that the government would ensure the resources needed to fully stabilise the fuel supply market in the next few days.

Sonangol said last Friday that the shortage of fuel at Angola’s gas stations was due to difficulty in accessing foreign currency to pay for the import of refined products.

Although Angola is Africa’s second largest oil producer, with a production of around 1.5 million barrels per day, its refining capacity is limited to the Luanda Refinery, which started operating in May 1958, and has the capacity to process just 57,000 barrels of oil per day. (Macauhub)