Angola reforms set to survive Sonangol sackings

The new boss of Angola’s state oil firm is seen as another safe pair of hands

Last week's sacking of Sonangol chairman Carlos Saturnino and most of the company's board was ostensibly due to President Jao Lourenço's dissatisfaction with the way the company handled a fuel import crisis. But other factors may be been at play too. The country has been suffering fuel shortages, as it failed to import enough refined products to meet demand. Although Angola is Africa's second largest oil exporter, it can only meet less than a fifth of its own fuel needs from domestic refineries and must import the rest Lourenço blamed a lack of communication between Sonangol and the relevant government departments for the fuel shortage. Meanwhile, Sonangol, which oversees fuel imports, ha