Angola's Cabinda refinery begins fuel production
Angola’s newest refinery, the US$470 million Cabinda Refinery, has commenced supplying the domestic market with diesel and exporting fuel products as of early this month. Last week Gemcorp Capital, which holds a 90% stake in the significant development alongside a 10% share held by the state oil company Sonangol, announced the formal start of phase 1 operations and the beginning of fuel deliveries, including exports of naphtha and heavy fuel oil. Phase 1 currently processes 30,000 barrels per day (bpd), covering approximately 10% of Angola's total domestic fuel demand.
In a Gemcast podcast entitled ‘Delivering energy security live from Cabinda,’ which was released on YouTube on Thursday 7 May 2026, Gemcorp founder and chief executive Atanas Bostandjiev emphasised that the Cabinda project is a central pillar of the US$9 billion global investment firm’s vision for Angola and wider emerging markets across Africa. He stated that the firm aims to act as an impactful and transformational investor on the continent.
As early as 2014, when Gemcorp first partnered with Sonangol and the Angolan government, the country’s energy security crisis was already apparent. At that time, the Luanda refinery was only capable of supplying about 5% of national requirements, despite Namibia’s northern neighbour being the second-largest crude oil producer in Africa.
Once the project was officially conceived in 2019, the first major obstacle was to clear a minefield left by Angola’s prolonged civil war in the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda. Marcio Weyll, the chief executive of Gemcorp subsidiary Imbondeiro, explained that the project site was initially "simply bush," entirely lacking in infrastructure. He noted that there had been no significant construction in Cabinda for the past 50 years. Despite widespread skepticism that such a project would be "impossible to build in Africa," Mr Bostandjiev said that the shared vision, drive, and tenacity of the parties involved allowed them to forge ahead. Other challenges cited by Mr Weyll included the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, global economic disruptions, and the strict timing constraints presented by Gemcorp’s commitments to the Angolan government. "People cannot believe it, but it is here," he said.
Another remarkable aspect of the development is that all the funding has been sourced from African institutions. According to Mr Bostandjiev, securing finance was one of the most significant problems the project faced, as traditional Western banks and financial counterparts proved to be a disappointment. "Due to the time constraints, we had to take the initial financial risks ourselves and started de-risking the project as we were building," he explained. This occurred despite much of the high-tech equipment being imported from the United States. "We are grateful to the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Afreximbank, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea), the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB Group), the IDC (Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa), and the local Angolan bank, BFA (Banco de Fomento Angola)," Mr Bostandjiev said. He added that he hopes the project serves as a "blueprint" for other investors to follow, noting that the country remains in need of significant energy infrastructure investment.
Beyond the refinery itself, the project encompasses 12km of pipelines and pumping stations onshore, with a further 12km offshore, according to Mr Weyll. The construction phase provided approximately 3,300 jobs, with 1,000 permanent employment opportunities now secured as the project approaches its second phase. Mr Weyll confirmed that Gemcorp has already committed to the phase 2 expansion, investing a further US$8 million to conclude the Front End Engineering Design (Feed) this year.
Currently, phase 1 processes 30,000 barrels per day (bpd). Phase 2 is expected to increase that capacity to 60,000 bpd, with the partners targeting a final investment decision by the end of 2026.
