Angola’s national oil company Sonangol has secured a $2.65 billion financing package from a syndicate of international lenders, strengthening its balance sheet as it pursues major upstream investments across its sprawling hydrocarbon portfolio.
The deal includes participation from Standard Bank, Societe Generale, Absa, and First Abu Dhabi Bank, and will support operational expenditure and capital investment across Sonangol’s operations. As the largest company in Angola, Sonangol operates across the full hydrocarbon value chain, spanning exploration and production through to refining, transportation, and fuel distribution.
The financing underscores the growing role of commercial lenders in supporting Africa’s energy sector at a time when national oil companies are seeking fresh capital to sustain production and accelerate downstream development. It follows another major capital raise in January, when the African Export-Import Bank approved a $1.75 billion facility for Sonangol — together signalling an increasingly aggressive investment strategy as Angola works to sustain crude production, expand domestic refining capacity, and strengthen energy security.
The latest funding round comes as Sonangol pursues additional financing for the $6.2 billion Lobito refinery project, one of the largest industrial developments currently underway in Southern Africa. The company is in discussions with Chinese financial institutions for a separate $4.8 billion loan to fund a major phase of the refinery’s construction — a deal that, if completed, would mark Sonangol’s first major borrowing from China since 2017.
Source: prospect-intel.com