Image: Verangola
H.E. Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, Angolan Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas, has announced the creation of a joint technical committee between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), pertaining to a joint oil exploration zone.
According to the Minister’s Cabinet, the initiative originated during the Minister’s meeting with his Congolese counterpart, regarding the exploration area of common interest, the protocols and contracts signed between the two States, and the sale of petroleum products.
“We have been working in this direction, and recently, the President of the DRC was in Angola and our two ministries were then guided by our respective presidents to continue negotiations,” Minister Azevedo said.
“We concluded, among other aspects, the need to set up a joint technical committee. This is in relation to the common operating area, and we guided our two public companies Sonangol and Sonahydro of the DRC to reestablish conversations in the framework for the marketing of derivative products, oil and gas,” he added.
Fuel smuggling was another key topic of the meeting, which has developed in the common border area shared by Angola and the DRC in recent years and has been denounced by the Angolan authorities.
“This meeting serves as an extension so that we can bring our two States together. We will address issues related to the assessment, which is to say what has already been done, what is being done and what will be done,” said Minister of Hydrocarbons of the DRC H.E. Aime Ngoy Mukena.
The Congolese minister also stressed the importance of the joint technical committee, hoping that it will outline a roadmap to the process of oil exploration in the common space.
“It is this area of common interest that leads us to come together so that our two States can resolve this issue, once and for all, and so that we can work for the future of generations to come,” he added.
