As Angola prepares to celebrate 50 years since its oil era began, the upcoming Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) 2025 conference set for 3rd – 4th September 2025, offers more than a traditional showcase, it presents a turning point. With a multi-track agenda that spans strategic, technical, and investment themes, the event signals a deliberate shift: leveraging oil and gas wealth to power a cleaner, more diverse and inclusive future for Africa’s third-largest economy.
Angola remains deeply tethered to hydrocarbons. Oil and gas account for approximately 25–30 percent of GDP, provide around 60 percent of government revenues, and represent more than 90 percent of export earnings. In recent years, oil production hovered around 1.2 million barrels per day, recently surpassing Nigeria to become Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest producer. However, with global oil prices and demand expected to falter in coming years, Angola’s leadership appears to be acting early, not by abandoning petroleum, but by charting a pivot toward economy-wide resilience.
AOG 2025’s Strategic Track underscores this direction, spotlighting ambitious plans: a projected US$60 billion upstream investment push over the next five years, alongside a licensing round covering 10 new offshore blocks. Delegates will discuss how these initiatives can both sustain production and support rural job growth, infrastructure expansion, and revenue stability.
However, Angola’s vision isn’t confined to the oil patch. The Strategic Track addresses downstream ambitions, refinery capacity is set to double to 445,000 barrels per day to reduce fuel imports and reinforce regional energy security. New refinery projects like the Cabinda facility—commissioned in early 2025—point to a future less beholden to international fuel volatility.
Reform and foreign investment underpin the narrative. Sessions such as “Increased Production Through Investment-Friendly Reforms” and “Financing Angola’s Oil & Gas Development” aim to unpack how policy enhancements are making the Angolan oil sector more globally competitive, even as CapEx shifts toward cleaner, more efficient technologies.
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On the technical side, AOG’s workshop series dives into natural gas monetization, low-carbon fuel development, and the frontier deployment of AI and machine learning to optimize extraction and limit environmental harm. Reflecting policy shift at home, Angola’s Ministry of Mineral Resources has pressed operators to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reinvest oil profits into renewables, and pursue net-zero goals in line with President Lourenço’s climate commitments.
Angola already hosts an emerging green energy sector. Over the past two years, solar parks such as Caraculo (25 MW), Baía Farta and Biopio (totaling nearly 300 MW), and Luena (27 MW) have come online. These projects form part of a national goal to double power generation from 5 GW in 2021 to nearly 10 GW by 2025, with renewables contributing around 800 MW.
All is still not smooth; The International Monetary Fund warns Angola’s GDP growth—3.4% this year—is expected to slow to roughly 2.4% in 2025 due to falling oil output, weak revenues, and strain from debt that tops 60–70% of GDP. As Angola positions natural gas as a cleaner bridge fuel, policymakers aim to balance fiscal stability with economic diversification.
Central to this ambition is the AOG 2025’s deal room – a platform designed to amplify local innovation. Angolan entrepreneurs and tech startups will pitch to global operators in a “Dragon’s Den”-style forum, signaling a new openness to domestic participation and climate-aligned investment.
The conference arrives at a watershed moment: Angola is not simply preparing for the next 50 years; it’s aiming to redefine what those years look like. By embracing clean energy, industrial expansion, and technological efficiency alongside oil, Angola may be writing a new chapter in Africa’s energy transformation narrative—a chapter rooted in both continuity and change.
