Presidential reforms shake up Sonangol

摘要

Angola's new president, Joao Lourenco, has moved quickly to appoint a new oil minister, scrap the petroleum ministry as a stand-alone agency and back senior management changes at state-owned Sonangol. Lourenco was sworn into office on 26 September, ending the near four-decade rule of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, whose daughter, Isabel, serves as Sonangol's chairman. The new president has made a number of important changes in his first weeks in power, indicating the potential for reform in sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil and natural gas exporter. He has tried to impose his control over the oil sector by creating a unified oil and mining portfolio, led by former mines minister Diamantino Pedro Azevedo. The merger was required on efficiency grounds, Azevedo says.