Angolan President Sacks Dos Santos from Sonangol
Angola's new President Joao Lourenco has cleared out the board of state oil and gas producer Sonangol and sacked its chairwoman Isabel dos Santos.
The announcement late November 15 dismisses her, even though her post was protected under a law passed in the final months of the previous state president, her father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Sonangol's statement said simply that Lourenco was "using the prerogatives conferred on him by the constitution" to dismiss the board, along with its former chairwoman who had been in post less than 18 months.
The country's newly-appointed secretary of state for petroleum, Carlos Saturnino, is now appointed Sonangol chairman.
Saturnino, a former Sonangol upstream chief, nominally reports to a combined petroleum and mining minister Diamantino Pedro Azevedo. But his appointment as Sonangol chairman signals that he has strong backing from the president, and that the latter means to make his stamp on the country's most powerful corporation as it looks to reshape its strategy. President Lourenco has promised to tackle corruption.
Also named as executive directors on Sonangol's board are Sebastiao Pai Querido Gaspar Martins, Luís Ferreira do Nascimento Jose Maria, Carlos Eduardo Ferraz de Carvalho Pinto, Rosário Fernando Isaac, Baltazar Agostinho Gonçalves Miguel, and Alice Marisa Leao Sopas Pinto da Cruz. Reappointed from the previous board, still as non-executive directors, are José Gime and Andre Lelo.
Ivan Almeida, who was a senior E&P executive at ExxonMobil, was appointed six weeks ago to be Sonangol's new upstream chief -- the job held by Saturnino prior to 2016 - but is not on the new Sonangol board.
Those dismissed from the Sonangol board in addition to dos Santos (pictured centre above, with the former Sonangol board) are:
Eunice Paula Figueiredo de Carvalho,
Edson de Brito Rodrigues dos Santos,
Manuel Lino Carvalho Lemos,
João Pedro de Freitas Saraiva dos Santos, and
Sarju Raikundalia who had been Sonangol finance chief.
Mark Smedley