Rome - Angola and Italy signed Wednesday in Rome a cooperation agreement in the field of oil, involving Italy´s ENI firm and Angola´s oil company Sonangol.
The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, and the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, witnessed the ceremony, preceded by a meeting between the two entities.
The Memorandum of Understanding aims to create more cooperation areas between the two companies through agribusiness studies, value chain and other decarbonisation sectors.
According to the terms of the memorandum, both ENI and Sonangol will identify and evaluate together the opportunities for the energetic transition, including agro-industrial chains for the production of fuels with lower carbon emissions.
A notice from ENI states that both companies will evaluate opportunities in the agribusiness sector with studies to promote synergies between national agricultural production chains and bioenergy.
The studies focus on improved seeds and services for biotechnology, mechanisation, fertilizers, and logistics.
Other areas of collaboration could involve minerals for the energy transition, such as those used in battery production and renewable energy and the innovation ecosystem.
The document will continue the progress achieved as a result protocol signed by ENI, Sonangol and the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency in October 2021
It is a memorandum that is part of Sonangol´s vision which aims at decarbonization through investments in projects of energy from cleaner sources and with the ENI strategy to assume the leadership role in the decarbonization process.
The Italian oil company strategy also aims to promote a greater use of renewable energy sources under the provisions of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
João Lourenço at the Italian Parliament
As part of his first two-day state visit to Italy, President João Lourenço was in Parliament, where he met with the leader of the Senate, Ignacio La Russa.
The Angolan statesman also met with the Italian Parliament Speaker, Lorenzo Fontana, in the Chamber of Deputies.
Tribute to the unknown soldier
During his visit to Italy, the Head of State on Wednesday, in Rome city, paid tribute to the Unknown Soldier by laying a wreath in the monument known as “Altar of the Homeland”, built in recognition to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy, sovereign who died in 1878.