Angola plans more crude licensing rounds in bid to reverse output drop

Angola, Africa's second-largest crude oil producer, is concluding a licensing round of eight offshore blocks and plans to launch two more rounds in 2023 and 2025 in a bid to turn around recent declines in production, officials from the country's energy regulator, Agencia Nacional de Petroleo, Gas e Biocombustiveis, or ANPG, said Nov. 11.

The current licensing round for eight blocks in the lower Congo and Kwanza basins is entering its second stage as the government plans one-on-one meetings with interested companies, to be followed by invitation letters which are expected to be issued in early January, Hermenegildo Buila, director of negotiations at ANPG, told the Africa Oil Week in Dubai Nov. 11.

A licensing round for onshore properties is planned for 2023 followed by another offshore round in 2025, he said.

The OPEC member which holds the producer group's presidency this year has been going through a slump in its oil production over the past five years because of technical and operational problems at some fields. Output peaked at 1.9 million b/d in 2008 and this year will be closer to about 1.1 million b/d, according to a presentation during Buila's comments.

Output would gradually rebound for the next two years to 2023 and then fall again to 2027 before climbing again to reach more than 1.2 million b/d in 2031 if new opportunities were included, according to the presentation.

Production was 1.13 million b/d in August, after a steady recovery from a 17-year low of 1.07 million b/d in June, ANPG said in September.

New production from nine onshore blocks covering the Congo basin, where infrastructure is ready to collect the output, and Kwanza is expected within three to four years, with each block averaging output of 3,000 b/d to 10,000 b/d, Buila said.