The 24-storey steel and glass headquarters of Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol, stands tall and proud amid crumbling colonial ruins in central Luanda. The dominance of the building and the brightness of its illuminated logo serve as an indelible marker of the importance of a company that is at once an oil concessionaire, regulator and operator, as well a real estate dealer, global investor, and an aviation and telecoms provider.
The headquarters also serves as a firm reminder of the importance of oil to Angola. Crude accounts for more than 90% of Angola’s exports and 50% of its gross domestic product (GDP), and it is because of growing oil output and rising revenues that the country has enjoyed some of the world’s most rapid growth rates since the end of its civil war in 2002.
