"We are restarting the TOBD, after an interruption in 2017," the official began by saying, quoted in a note posted on Facebook by the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas.
The official said that the area "is strategically well located and will serve, like the future Lobito Refinery, where the Angola-Zambia pipeline will exit, to store refined products for domestic distribution and for the Lobito terminal, and from there to Zambia.
Sebastião Martins also revealed that the TOBD is expected to be ready in 2022.
Regarding the open public tenders to hire companies to carry out and supervise the construction work, the official told Angop that there are nine companies, both national and foreign, that are bidding for the work, while four other companies have applied to supervise the works.
He also said that the works will resume after the proposals for the construction engineering tenders are evaluated.
The terminal, located in the future free zone of Barra do Dande, will improve the storage and commercialization capacity of oil derivatives.
Framed in the 2018-2022 National Development Plan, the terminal, in a first phase, will be able to store 580,000 cubic meters of petroleum products.
The TOBD was visited on Thursday by Zambia's Minister of Energy, Mathew Nkuwa.
On the occasion, the Zambian ruler said that his country "has been working for ten years to initial a memorandum with Angola" in the field of oil and gas derivatives.
"The act will strengthen the ties between two countries and peoples, encourages regional trade, facilitates the exchange of resources between Angola and Zambia and creates job opportunities in both countries," Mathew Nkuwa added.
