The National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG), the national concessionaire, presented this Monday the strategy for launching biofuels in Angola, the last stage of the public consultation carried out, according to the head of ANPG's Energy Integration and Biofuels Directorate, Vita Mateso.
The Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, said that this is not a new topic for the oil and gas sector, and to encourage the development of a biofuel exploration and production chain in Angola, the Angolan concessionaire has the responsibility to regulate and monitor this activity.
"Therefore, the act we are witnessing today should be the first of many that will lead us to the reflection and promulgation of legal diplomas relevant to the full exercise of this activity and the achievement of results in the near future", he stressed.
Diamantino Azevedo highlighted that the National Biofuels Strategy approved in 2009, to meet the commitments of the Kyoto Protocol, which brings together among other objectives the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, was revised taking into account current economic circumstances, technological development and of energy transition.
According to the minister, the use of biofuels in Angola's energy matrix could have an impact on the import of petroleum products, thus contributing to foreign exchange savings, remembering that Sonangol, a state oil company, and ENI, an Italian oil company, signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a Biorefinery.
"The memorandum aims to materialize Sonangol's energy transition strategy, and provides for the identification and evaluation of a set of opportunities such as agro-industrial supply chains for the production of biofuels with low carbon emissions, valorization of residual biomass and promotion of synergies between agricultural production chains and bioenergy", he said.
Speaking to the press, Vita Mateso highlighted that Angola has "a lot of potential" for the production of biofuels, looking at the amount of arable land it has, allowing the country to achieve four defined objectives, namely the growth of the Gross Domestic Product, the reduction greenhouse gas emissions, social growth and the export of green energy.
The official highlighted that the Government is looking at biofuels, not only for domestic consumption, but also for export, as a finished product.
The construction of basic infrastructure is one of the challenges for the production of biofuels, with regard to harvest storage, agricultural production, its flow, "that is, appropriate roads", oil extraction factories and biorefineries.
"The ultimate objective of this strategy is not only to produce oil to be exported, but we want to transform the oil in Angola, have our biorefineries spread across the country to produce locally and the final product to be used internally and part of it to be exported", he highlighted.
Vita Mateso said that for production for internal use, an initial investment is estimated, in the first years, of around 12 to 20 billion dollars, with a feasibility study expected to be carried out in the short term in 2024, look at the issue of certification and review of legislation.
"We have been working on new legislation, which covers not only the issue of biofuels, but will refer to the issue of carbon credits, the issue of reducing greenhouse gas emissions", highlighted the official, adding that the first Angolan production of "biofuel, ready-made, finished material" is expected to occur before 2030.
