Angola prepares for licensing round, first time in 8 years

Speaking separately at an Angolan investment seminar Friday, Azevedo called on Japanese companies to participate its planned licensing round. Japan’s Inpex, Mitsubishi, Japan Petroleum Exploration, and Taiyo Oil are currently involved in Angola’s E&P sector.

On current crude production, state-owned Sonangol expects output to be around 1.65 million barrels per day in 2019 after production slumped to an over 10-year low of 1.42 million barrels per day last year.

Its crude output, however, had a much-needed boost in the second half of last year due to the startup of the 230,000 barrels per day Kaombo project, with phase two of this development expected to add 115,000 barrels per day sometime this year.

Concerning the OPEC+ cut, he said that “we accepted the decision taken by OPEC, and we are acting accordingly.” He also added that the recent deal has been effective so far in bringing the market back into balance, commenting that “that is why we took the decision, and we expect that our decision will contribute to stabilizing the oil market.”

CAPITALISING ON THE RE NEWED interest in its oil industry, Angola is in the final stages of preparing its first licensing round in about eight years with hopes of replacing the depleting reservoirs.

Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, the country’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum told Platts in an interview that “the new strategy for the [licensing] of onshore and offshore blocks will be approved soon, and it will not just be a strategy for [this] year but for the period 2019-25.”

“It will be including onshore and offshore blocks for Congo, Kwanza, Namibe,” Azevedo said of the strategy.

While, the exact timing of the licensing round is still unknown, Azevedo said it “depends on approval by the government but what we are saying is that this is the strategy for the [licensing] of blocks from 2019 until 2025.”

Angola’s imminent licensing round comes at a time when its crude production has been declining due to technical and operational problems at some of its fields, exacerbated by a lack of fresh upstream investment and incentives.

Yet, enthusiasm for new projects has increased, partly due to fiscal changes and the launch of production at the Kaombo field last year boosting sentiment.