Oct 15 (Reuters) – Angola intends to implement faster exploration concessions from next year as part of a new long-term hydrocarbon strategy that aims to attract investment and stimulate oil and gas production, a senior government official said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Cape Town.
Here are some details:
- The 25-year plan seeks to build on regulatory reforms that have seen oil companies, including TotalEnergies and Eni, recently commit billions of dollars to projects in Sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer after Nigeria
- Angola intends to drop its multi-year oil and gas auction rounds and will open up more than 100 blocks, mainly onshore, as soon as the plan is passed later this year, said Alcides Andrade, a board member at the National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), late on Wednesday
- He said ANPG wanted to reduce the time taken to award concessions, aiming for a three-month process versus the current six months
- On exploration, it will not be a “one-size-fits-all” approach on terms and conditions, but rather a risk-profile-based model that distinguishes between marginal or mature fields and onshore versus deep-water blocks, for example
- Drilling more exploration wells will hopefully lead to higher crude production over the long term, Andrade said, as Angola aims to grow its current oil output of around 1 million barrels per day
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