ENI group discovers more oil in Angola

Italian group ENI has discovered oil in the Kalimba sector of Block 15/06, in Angola’s deep waters about 150 kilometres off the coast, which is expected to contain between 230 million and 300 million barrels of light oil, the group said in a statement released this week.

The group’s drilling reached a depth of 1,901 metres, adding that the collected samples point to “high quality” oil with excellent “petrophysical” properties, and the well can produce more than 5,000 barrels per day.

“This finding opens up new opportunities for oil exploration in the southern part of Block 15/06, which has until now been considered mainly gas-prone, thus creating new possibilities to add potential value to the bloc,” said the ENI group.

The Italian oil company is the operator of block 15/06, with a stake of about 36.8 percent, the same as Sonangol, and the remaining 26.3 percent is held by SSI Fifteen Limited.

Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Oil, Diamantino Azevedo, said last week in Vienna, Austria, that steps will be taken next August to increase production in oil fields that are in natural decline and new fields will come on stream.

The minister was speaking at the end of the fourth meeting of the mechanism of cooperation between the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the countries that are producers but are not members of the cartel, which brings together 25 countries and a representative of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO).

At the meeting a quota of 1.637 million barrels per day was set for Angola, with production in the last semester totalling around 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.

The latest OPEC report on oil production for June 2018 said that Angola’s oil output increased in May against the previous month by 14,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1,525 million bpd, according to secondary sources, and fell by 12,000 bpd to 1.486 million bpd, according to direct communication.

Meanwhile, Angolan state oil company Sonangol and Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil) have signed a memorandum of understanding for the Norwegian state company to continue to invest in exploration and contribute to increased oil production in Angola, in a ceremony held on Tuesday in Luanda.

“Equinor already has some oil concessions in Angola for exploration work, such as block 5/06, and block 18/15 among others. We have other opportunities, both in the Congo basin and in the Kwanza basin, the trend is to enter the Benguela basin,” Sonangol chairman Carlos Saturnino said at the signing ceremony, quoted by Angolan news agency Angop.

The document sets out the guidelines through which Sonangol and Equinor should strengthen cooperation and lays the foundations for potential future investments to be made by Equinor following its decision to continue investing in Angola and jointly consider an approach on the opportunities and technical challenges related to oil exploration and development. MDT/Macauhub