Angola: ANPG to bid for 50 new blocks for oil prospecting

Angola’s National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG) plans, by 2025 to auction off 50 new oil exploration blocks in Angola as part of a strategy to re-launch and increase national oil production, the chairman of the agency said on Thursday in Angola.

Paulino Jerónimo noted that the idea is not to auction off all the blocks at the same time, given the negotiations directly underway with some companies, similarly to blocks 46 and 48, which will see a test well drilled within two to six months.

“Only after the drilling can we say if it is successful or not, and if it is the exploration process will begin,” he said.

He also noted the need to reduce unplanned stoppages in oil production, as in 2019 the country recorded production losses of around 35 million barrels of oil due to unplanned stoppages and poorly functioning equipment.

The stoppages led to losses of around 90,000 barrels of oil per day and the plan is to reduce this amount by 50%.

There are currently more than 10 oil blocks under exploration in Angola.

In 2019 the ANPG put up 10 blocks in the Namibe and Benguela basins up for public tender, with estimated reserves of around 7 billion barrels of oil.

The auction programme for new concessions comes at a time when Angolan oil production is in decline with an average of 1.4 billion barrels produced every day, which makes Angola the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, behind Nigeria, which produces 1.7 million barrels per day.