Benguela – The oil company Azule Energy has granted a total of USD 6 million to British NGO The Halo Trust since 2017 to support the demining process in Angola’s Benguela province, ANGOP learnt Tuesday.
The statement was made by the Azule Energy CEO, Adriano Mongini, who is on a working visit to Benguela to assess the ongoing demining process.
Adriano Mongini said that despite the support that has been provided by his company, the Angolan government continues to be the one giving support to the demining activities in the country.
Mongini said he was proud of the work done so far by The Halo Trust, from whom he received assurances that until the end of this year they can eradicate the existing mines in Benguela province.
Adriano Mongini added that there are still ten fields to be cleared, whose conclusion is very encouraging.
He assured that as CEO of the Azule Energy company, he intends to continue to maintain this cooperation relation with the referred NGO and the Angolan government in the demining field.
The coordinator of operations of the Halo Trust in Angola, Wladimir Fernandes, on his turn, said since the beginning of the demining process in Benguela province, in 1997, hundreds of mines and other lethal devices have been removed and destroyed.
He said that there were still ten fields that have yet to be cleared in the municipalities of Benguela, Ganda, Caimbambo, Bocoio and Balombo.
Fernandes said that although there was no danger of mines due to the work that has been done, the municipalities of Benguela, Caimbambo, Cubal and Ganda were the most worrying as they were crossed by a railway line where there were many mines due to the armed conflict.
He said that since the beginning of the project, The Halo Trust launched a challenge to recruit 100 women to work in the demining process, whose teams, a total of 12, have secured the entire process at the level of the province.
Azule Energy is the new joint venture that brings together the BP and Eni businesses in Angola, officially launched on August 1, 2022. The oil company is currently the biggest oil and gas producer in Angola, with 2 billion barrels of liquid resources, with production of oil and gas expected to rise to around 250,000 barrels per day over the next four years.
The Halo Trust is a non-profit organisation specialised in clearing the debris of war, such as landmines and unexploded ordnance from post-conflict war zones.
