José Oliveira believes that fuel smuggling in Angola, which is taking on "worrying proportions" according to the authorities, is due to the low prices charged in the country, noting that the practice generates huge profits and attracts a lot of people.
"The fight (against smuggling) has been carried out, and now this fight has been intensified. It is something that causes a lot of harm to Angola, but I do not believe that this smuggling will disappear completely while fuel prices in Angola are so low", he said in statements to Lusa, after the opening of the fifth edition of the Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) 2024 Conference, which began this Wednesday in Luanda.
The specialist and researcher welcomed the actions underway to combat smuggling – developed by the inter-ministerial commission recently created by the President of the Republic – believing, however, that there is no time frame for the end of this phenomenon.
He stressed that we are in an "intensive phase of combating (contraband), there are casualties", but, he stressed, after months it resurfaces and "nobody has any idea that it will end, as long as the price difference between Angola and neighboring countries is so great".
Aware that the increase in fuel prices, with the removal of state subsidies, has negative implications for the socioeconomic conditions of Angolan families, the specialist pointed out the need to consider solutions to stop contraband.
"One of them, and a fundamental one, is to arrange public transport in the cities, because one of the major problems of the increase in fuel prices is that in the city the average citizen feels it (with the expenses on private transport), because there is no properly organized public transport that serves the majority, this is what should be subsidized and has to be organized", he stressed.
Zaire, Cabinda, Moxico, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul are the provinces where large quantities of fuel are seized every week, resulting from smuggling, a phenomenon that led to the creation of a specific law with increased penalties for offenders.
Regarding the current panorama of the oil sector, the researcher at the Centre for Studies and Scientific Research at the Catholic University of Angola considered that Angola's current challenge is to discover oil.
He believes that the search for new oil wells in Angola has been delayed by Covid-19, and believes that the actions underway in the province of Namibe and the onshore surveys, scheduled for 2025, should guarantee continued production after 2030.
"Ultimately, what the country needs now is to discover more oil, because we have guaranteed that we will produce around 1 million in a few more years, perhaps until 2030, but to produce at that level after 2030, a lot of oil is needed", concluded José Oliveira.
