Category: Angola

Norway’s Statoil is halting exploration in Angola after poor drilling results, retreating from an offshore area it had high hopes for and capping a poor year for exploration. OSLO, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Norway’s Statoil said on Friday it was halting exploration in Angola after poor drilling results, retreating from an offshore area it had high hopes for and capping a poor year for exploration. Statoil said it was cancelling a three-year contract with Stena Drilling, handing back a drilling ship two years early and taking a $350 million charge in the fourth quarter related to the contract, the drilling and the value of the Angolan blocks. Statoil had high hopes for Angola’s offshore pre-salt blocks 38 and 39 because the geology is similar to Brazil’s, where major oil discoveries have been made in similar rocks. "Statoil’s first well results from the area have been disappointing and although the […]

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Angola, Africa ’s biggest oil producer after Nigeria, plans to increase output to 2 million barrels a day by 2017, according to Finance Minister Armando Manuel. That would be two years behind an earlier target. Angola will budget next year for oil prices from $88 to $92 a barrel, said Manuel, who is urging the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to take steps to avoid more declines. Brent is down 16 percent this year in London, the most since a 51 percent drop in 2008. Manuel’s comments in an interview in Washington D.C. yesterday indicate a delay in meeting a target expressed repeatedly by Petroleum Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos. He has said the goal of 2 million barrels a day will be reached in 2015, helped by projects including Eni SpA’s West Hub in Block 15/06, which is scheduled to begin this year. “Although we face a […]

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Eni SPA has made an oil discovery on Block 15/06 in the Ochigufu exploration prospect offshore Angola. It is the 10th commercial oil discovery for the block, and is estimated to hold 300 million bbl of oil in place. The Ochigufu 1 NFW well was directionally drilled by the Ocean Rig Poseidon drilling unit in 1,337 m of water, reaching a total depth of 4,470 m. Eni says it found 47 m of proved net oil pay of 34° gravity in the Lower Miocene and Oligocene sandstones. Data acquired in Ochigufu 1 indicate a production capacity of more than 5,000 b/d of oil. Studies are under way to evaluate an early tie-in to the 100,000-b/d Ngoma floating production, storage, and offloading vessel that lies in the nearby West Hub oil development project, which would enable Ochigufu 1 to be “brought into production in record time,” the company says. Separately, […]

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HOUSTON, Aug. 20 08/20/2014 Angola will produce 2.1-2.2 million b/d of crude oil by 2016, predicts Moody’s Investors Service. In a credit analysis of the Angolan government, Moody’s cited deepwater projects due on stream soon in the Lower Congo basin and the government’s plans to offer deep and ultradeepwater blocks to international operators next year in the southern Kwanza basin and unexplored Namibe basin. The Kwanza basin, Moody’s points out, has presalt geology similar to that of Brazil’s Campos and Santos basins ( OGJ Online, Dec. 11, 2011 ). Important to the imminent production gain is Total SA’s Kaombo project in 1,400-1,900 m of water in the Lower Congo basin. Total and its partners decided to proceed with the $16-billion development in April ( OGJ Online, Apr. 14, 2014 ). That decision, Moody’s said, boosts Angola’s production prospects. “First, it signals investors’ positive assessment of Angola’s long-term offshore prospects, […]

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Angola, Africa ’s second-biggest oil producer, probably won’t reach an output target of 2 million barrels a day next year because new projects will be too late to boost declining flows, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said. Sonangol EP, the state oil company, said in a statement May 5 that the target remains in place after government-run newspaper Jornal de Angola reported that the goal was deferred to 2017. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries member pumped 1.54 million barrels a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “I don’t think 2 million barrels a day by next year is realistic,” David Thomson , a Wood Mackenzie analyst in Edinburgh, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “I am confident it will happen, but toward the end of the decade.” Total SA’s CLOV fields in Block 17 and Eni SpA’s Western Hub in Block 15/06 are expected to start […]

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Early results from a program off the coast of Angola show there may be as much as 700 million barrels of oil in the region, Cobalt International Energy said. Cobalt, through a partnership with national and international energy companies, released results from its Orca-1 pre-salt deepwater exploration well off the coast of Angola. The company said it tested the well at a rate of 3,700 barrels of oil and 16.3 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The company, which has headquarters in Houston, said the results show this may be the largest oil discovery every found in the Kwanza basin off the coast of Angola. "Cobalt’s post drill estimates indicate a resource range of between 400 and 700 million barrels of oil," . Cobalt Chief Executive Officer Joseph Bryant said the field may be the "most significant oil discovery" ever made in […]

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Economic growth in Angola will slow in 2017 as oil output declines, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The economy is forecast to expand by 5.3 percent this year, and by 5.5 percent and 5.9 percent in the following two years before the rate slows to 3.3 percent in 2017, IMF figures show. Crude oil production in Africa’s second-largest producer is set to decline to 1.77 million barrels a day in 2017 from 1.9 million barrels a day in 2016. “This reflects the expectation that oil production from currently known reserves will peak and then start to fall,” Nicholas Staines, the IMF representative in Angola, said last week. “The timing of this turnaround could well be pushed back as new reserves are discovered.” Angola produced 1.69 million barrels of oil a day last month. The country is attempting to diversify its economy away from oil, which accounts for […]

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The Greek owner of an oil tanker that vanished off the coast of Angola said pirates hijacked the vessel and stole much of its cargo. Athens-based Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., said late Sunday in a statement that it had re-established contact with the 75,000-tonne MT Kerala. The Liberian-flagged ship vanished Jan. 18, raising concerns in the industry that piracy in West Africa is spreading south from the Gulf of Guinea toward Nigeria, the continent’s biggest oil producer. The vessel was on charter to Angolan state oil firm Sonangol. "Pirates hijacked the vessel offshore Angola and stole a large quantity of cargo by ship-to-ship transfer. The pirates have now disembarked," the statement said, adding that the ship’s 27-member crew was safe. Angola’s navy has said the hijacking was staged. The tanker "cut off its communication system while at the entrance of the Luanda bay and followed a tugboat to Nigeria," […]

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