Angola's State Oil Company Seeks $4.8 Billion Loan from China

 Angolan Mining Oil & Gas published on 26 February 2026 an article titled "Sonangol Seeks $4.8 Billion Loan from China to Fund Lobito Refinery Expansion" by Makungu Coco.  

Sonangol, Angola's state oil company, is pursuing a $4.8 billion loan from Chinese financial institutions to accelerate construction of its new refinery at the Atlantic port of Lobito.  This would be Sonangol's first major loan from China in seven years.

China and Angola: A Cautionary Railway Tale

Business Live posted on 6 July 2017 an account titled "Angola's Ghost Railway" by journalist John Grobler.

The rehabilitated 1,348 kilometer Benguela railway between Lobito port on the Atlantic and Angola's border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was to have served as the artery for exporting minerals from the DRC to the Atlantic. The railway, rehabilitated by the Chinese Railway Engineering Corporation and financed by sending Angolan oil to China, ends abruptly on the Katanga side of the Angola-DRC border, a casualty of Angola's crippled economy. The project has also been hobbled by inappropriate Chinese locomotives, faulty bridges, and poorly engineered rail sidings.

The author concludes that the rail project "seems destined to remain a very expensive, made-in-China white elephant."

Auditors Probe SINOPEC Oil Investment in Angola

Caixin Online published on 4 August 2015 an article titled "Auditors Probe Sinopec, Savvy Broker in Angola" by Huang Kaixi, Wang Xiaobing, and Yu Ning.  The story looks at the business dealings of Hong Kong businessman Sam Pa and his relations with the state-run China Petroleum and Chemical Group (SINOPEC). 

For further background on Sam Pa and the Queensway Group, see the posting on this blog on 5 May 2015.