Podcast: Inside Sonangol's transformation, Angola's biggest energy player
MobilityPlaza sat down with Mauro Graça, who leads Sonangol's distribution and commercialization business, to talk network modernization, customer loyalty, and how Angola's national oil company transforms its retail network.
Angola’s national oil and fuel retail company Sonangol finds is immerser in a process of extreme modernization. The man behind that vision is Mauro Graça, CEO of Sonangol Distribuição e Comercialização. In this episode, he discusses the scale of the transformation underway at Sonangol's downstream unit, which manages storage, distribution, bunkering, aviation fuel, and a retail network holding roughly two-thirds of Angola's fuel market. The company is renewing its stations and back-office systems alike, pushing for more inventory visibility, tighter operational control, and greater automation so that management can track any station's stock in real time. The end goal, Graça said, is a network that is safer, more efficient, and more reliable, built around a stronger customer experience rather than fuel sales alone.
That shift is reshaping what a Sonangol station looks like. Graça described stations evolving into multi-service hubs where a driver can refuel, grab a coffee at the convenience store, stop at a pharmacy, or wash the car. All in one digitalized, connected location. He linked that strategy directly to Angola's young, digitally connected population, which he sees as the company's biggest opportunity to build loyalty around the Sonangol brand rather than around fuel price alone. Food and beverage plays into that too, though Graça noted demand varies sharply by region, from stations where customers linger and socialize to ones built around quick breakfast and commuter stops.
Mauro Graça
Graça is CEO of Sonangol Distribuição e Comercialização. With over ten years of experience in the energy sector, he leads strategic efforts to drive growth and innovation across the unit's oil and gas distribution business, drawing on deep expertise in petroleum and energy to shape solutions aligned with industry trends and the company's wider goals. Sonangol itself was founded in 1976 and operates across the full energy value chain, from offshore and onshore exploration and production to refining, logistics, and retail; nearing its 50th anniversary, the group remains the dominant force in Angola's downstream market, with Graça's unit overseeing the country's largest fuel retail network alongside aviation, marine bunkering, and B2B fuel supply.
"We give the clients the capability to go refill their cars and go to the convenience store and buy a coffee, at the same time being able to go to a pharmacy or wash their cars; all of them integrated, all of them digitalized, connected to our systems."
"The question is not whether we will continue with fossil energies or move entirely to clean energies. I think no one in the world is making that choice. The idea is how to balance between both."
