GIRASSOL, the world’s largest offshore oil platform with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels of crude per day, has been inaugurated at an Angolan site, the state oil company Sonangol announced on Thursday. The Girassol deposit, operated by TotalFinaElf, was discovered in 1996 some 200 kilometres northwest of Luanda, but installation did not begin until two years later. Production began in December last year in the $2.8-billion project. Angola currently produces more than 700 000 barrels per day. Oil is the southwest African country’s principal export, bringing in 80% of its revenues and accounting for 42% of its gross domestic product (GDP). – Sapa