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Energy

Sonangol to use 340 million funding for research center

Sonangol's center for scientific research and innovation, whose construction is expected to start in 2021, has a financing of around US $ 340 million delivered in 2011, said the president of the state oil company.

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According to Sebastião Gaspar Martins, the funding for the research center "is the result of the amount that was collected in the bidding process that was carried out in 2011, at the time for the pre-salt [in which 13 companies competed]", which currently stands at around 340 million dollars.

An investigation by Norwegian newspapers E24 / Stavanger Aftenblad, published last week, questioned the fate of the funds delivered by the Norwegian state oil company Equinor (formerly Statoil) for the construction of the center, which was designed about a decade ago, and for social projects.

According to the Norwegian press, several oil multinationals transferred sums for the construction of the center between 2011 and 2016, including Equinor, which contributed with 500 billion crowns, leading the Norwegian parliament to question the Government at the time about the transfers to Sonangol.

The case had already raised, in 2014, the alert from Global Witness, an anti-corruption organization that questioned at the time the 350 million dollars paid by oil companies to a non-existent center.

Speaking to Lusa this Wednesday, after the signing of three risk contracts for the Namibe basin, the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Diamantino Azevedo, underlined that there was no “pressure” to continue the process, as it has already was planned by Sonangol.

"What was agreed was to take [the center] to the province of Cuanza Sul, to be close to the National Petroleum Institute and the future Instituto Superior dos Petróleos and create synergies within the scope of the activities of each of these institutions," he said.

Gaspar Martins added that the center "is part of the restructuring program that Sonangol is carrying out" and the objective is "to integrate the largest number of companies in its development" that cooperate with Sonangol.

The president of the oil company explained that the “specific reference to Equinor”, ​​in a statement that announced the center, last week, was justified because it was the entity with which “the discussions” started to develop and put “the center in operation”.

"The objective is not to work only with Equinor, it is to work with all companies in the sector that can contribute to that center becoming a center of excellence" to "increase knowledge in terms of geosciences and renewable energies", he guaranteed.

Last week, Sonangol announced in a statement the start of construction, in 2021, of a center for scientific research and innovation, not to mention the background of the project, which stopped a decade ago.

According to the note, the research center will be built, in phases, in the vicinity of the National Petroleum and Higher Petroleum institutes, in the city of Sumbe, province of Cuanza-Sul, and will act as an advisory, advisory and character body. to monitor, evaluate and decide on research and innovation activities.

The institution, which is expected to be completed in 2022, has Equinor as a partner, according to the statement.

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