Angola's Parliament debates oil revenues

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- According to Angolan Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, his nation is now capable of producing 2.1 million barrels per day.

Angola's rising production led the country to join OPEC in December 2006, and Angola is now China's biggest supplier of oil.

On 23 July Luanda's Apostolado journal reported that Angola's Assembleia Nacional's ruling Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola-Partido do Trabalho and opposition parties are divided on how the country's oil Sovereign Fund should be managed and allocated.

The MPLA-PT favors retaining the current system for managing the country's rising revenue stream from increasing global energy prices, under which President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who is also MPLA-PT president, directs the Sovereign Fund.

Assembleia Nacional Economic and Financial Commission Chairman Diogenes de Oliveira stated that his commission's report will be ready shortly and that "these funds will be used to protect the National Plan and the General (State) Budget."

Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola MP Raul Dada disagrees. Dada estimates that the Sovereign Fund's revenues will soon rise to an average of $30 million per day and that "these are the secret (money) stashes that are used to acquire companies overseas and to set up commercial groups that monopolize the media in the country."