Exclusive: Angola opens up fuel imports with first major tender
Angolan state oil firm Sonangol has issued its first public tender to buy refined products to widen its import base, market sources who have seen the tender said, in a Continue Reading
Big Oil Backs Away From a Former Industry Darling
The boom in oil money helped crown Angola’s seaside capital, Luanda, as the world’s most expensive city. Angola was once a magnet for the world’s biggest oil companies, drawing billions Continue Reading
Africa’s richest woman removed as head of Angola state oil group
Angola’s president João Lourenço has dismissed Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, as head of the country’s state oil company, in a bold move to wrest power from the family Continue Reading
Portugal Dominated Angola for Centuries. Now the Roles Are Reversed.
How the roles have reversed: The colonizer, some Portuguese contend, has been colonized. On the Portuguese coast of Cascais, where the nation’s royal court used to summer, a new 14-story Continue Reading
Angola adds to supply-side strains for oil
Italian energy company Eni said Wednesday it started production at an oil facility off the coast of Angola in record-setting fashion. The company said operations started at its East Hub Continue Reading
Angola’s March Oil Exports To Drop To 1.51 Million Bpd
Angola’s state-held oil firm Sonangol plans to load 1.51 million barrels per day in March under its finalized exports schedule, down from plans to export 1.62 million bpd in February, Continue Reading
Angolan Fund Says China Exim Will Lend $600 Million for New Port
The Export-Import Bank of China is lending Angola as much as $600 million for the construction of a deep-sea port in the northern enclave of Cabinda, according to Jose Filomeno Continue Reading
Sonangol considering return to Iraq
Three years after security problems forced them out, Iraq is courting the Angolan state firm back to the Qayarah and Najmah fields. Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luiebi (right) meets in Continue Reading
Economy strained for OPEC-member Angola
The steady decline in crude oil prices from 2014 peaks above $100 per barrel has left lasting impacts on the economy of OPEC-member Angola, the International Monetary Fund said. Angola Continue Reading
Analyst: Angolan Gas Discovery Has At Least Decade Before it Comes Online
The recently announced gas discovery in the offshore Kwanza basin has a number of hurdles to overcome, say oil and gas analysts. The recently announced gas discovery in Angola’s offshore Continue Reading
Africa: Angola Leads Oil Production in Africa
With its 1.7 million barrels of crude oil a day, well above Nigeria’s 1.5 million, Angola stood in September this year, for seven running months, at the head of the Continue Reading
The Toilet Paper Crisis: Angola’s Oil Firm Can’t Supply The Basics
Sonangol, the state oil company of Africa’s current number-one oil producer seems to be in shambles, with the management unable – or unwilling – to pay for washroom supplies, according Continue Reading
Angola Was China’s Largest Foreign Crude Supplier In September
China oil Angola overtook Russia as China’s biggest oil supplier last month, exporting 1.02 million barrels per day to the Asian country, up by 45.8 percent on the year, Reuters Continue Reading
More oil pending from Angola
Italian energy company Eni said it was one step closer to its goal of pulling more oil from Angola with the pending launch of an offshore production facility. Eni said Continue Reading
More Angolan Soldiers Reportedly Killed in Oil-Rich Cabinda Area
At least ten Angolan soldiers were killed during the last clash with the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave, according to Continue Reading
Angolan/OPEC Relations: Toxic or Worse?
On Tuesday, news broke of Angola’s decision to back out of a deal with Cobalt International Energy to purchase an oil discovery for $1.8 billion. Sonangol, Angola’s state energy firm, Continue Reading
An oil boom made it the most expensive city in the world. Now it’s in crisis.
A girl stands beside a laundry line in a poor neighborhood overlooking Cabinda, a heavily guarded territory that accounts for half of Angola’s oil output. (Nichole Sobecki/For The Washington Post) Continue Reading
Angola sees gloomier economic prospects on oil price slump
Angola is at a critical juncture as its government sees a bleak year ahead as the continued oil price slump has made it halve its 2016 growth forecast. The oil Continue Reading
Angola’s Inflation Rate Climbs to Highest Since at Least 2011
Angola’s inflation rate rose to the highest in at least five-and-half years in June. Inflation accelerated to 31.8 percent last month from 29.2 percent in May, the Luanda-based National Statistics Continue Reading
Angola Must Live a New Era Without Oil – Economist
Angola must create objective conditions to live a new era in which there would be political, economic and social stability without relying on the oil industry, a sector which currently Continue Reading
Angolan President Tells IMF His Country Wants to End Loan Talks
Angola economy, currency has suffered from drop in oil prices IMF completed a mission to Angola earlier this month Angola said it no longer wants to continue talks with the Continue Reading
Angola’s State-Run Sonangol Confirms More Oil And Gas In Major Discovery
Offshore Oil Rig Angola’s state-run oil giant Sonangol, recently taken over by the president’s daughter, has announced a gas discovery in the offshore Kwanza Basin that could hold 813 million Continue Reading
Africa’s richest woman to completely overhaul Angola’s state-run oil co.
Isabel dos Santos — the richest woman in Africa, the Angolan president’s daughter and now the CEO of the country’s state-run oil giant — on Monday said she plans to Continue Reading
Angola Oil Company Sonangol Denies Report About $50 Billion Hole
Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol said a report about a $50 billion shortfall in its accounts is “absolutely false.” Angolan newspaper Valor Economico reported on Monday that international consultants hired Continue Reading
Angola: Lawyers Plot to Block New Post of Angola Leader’s Daughter
Twelve Angolan lawyers have decided to block the appointment of the President’s daughter as a non-executive administrator of the state-owned oil firm Sonangol. President José Eduardo dos Santos, 73, who Continue Reading
After Massive Shake Up, President’s Daughter to Head Angola’s Oil Gian
Isabel dos Santos Long-time Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed his daughter to lead the oil-rich country’s state-run oil giant Sonangol after firing the entire board and replacing Continue Reading
Angola Leader Secures Economic Grip Naming Daughter as Oil Boss
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos tightened his family’s grip on sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest economy two years before he has indicated he’ll leave office by naming his billionaire daughter Isabel Continue Reading
Angola: Dos Santos Names Daughter as State Oil Firm President
President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed the Board of Directors of Sonangol, reports the country’s National State Radio (RNA) . Isabel dos Santos is now at the head of Continue Reading
Angola: Low Oil Prices Undo Angola
The crash in the price of oil has hit Angola hard. Hospitals across the country are low on resources, including medicines. There are food shortages in the North, drought in Continue Reading
Angolan Rebels to Resume Armed Insurrection in Oil-Rich Region
Rebels in Angola’s oil-rich Cabinda region said they’re resuming an armed campaign to gain independence for the enclave after the government failed to respond to its request for talks. The Continue Reading
Angola: How Long Can Angola Hold On With Low Oil Prices?
Oil was the driving force behind Angola’s economic growth. Now it’s the driving force behind its high inflation, depreciating currency and broader economic crisis. After petroleum prices started to fall Continue Reading
Chevron: Production started at shared African oil field
Chevron says start of oil production in field straddling the borders of the Congo and Angola could serve as a model in a region prone to territorial disputes. Image courtesy of Chevron. SAN RAMON, Calif., Nov. 3 (UPI) — Chevron said the development of oil reserves straddling the maritime border of the Republics of Congo and Angola could serve as a model for Africa. Chevron’s subsidiary in the region announced it started oil and gas production from the Lianzi field in a unified offshore economic zone straddling the borders of Congo and Angola. The project is the first in the region to start operations for Chevron and the first cross-border development in Africa. "As the first offshore energy development spanning national boundaries in the Central Africa region, Lianzi represents a unique cooperative approach to share offshore resources and may serve as a model for the development of similar cross-border […]
Angola: Why Luanda’s Residents Are Asking – Where Did All the Oil Riches Go?
A few years ago, Luanda, the capital of Angola, was on every ambitious investor’s lips . With large infrastructure and housing projects rapidly changing its appearance, the city seemed to be leaving behind the country’s 27-year civil war. But hopes for renewal are slowly dissipating as the price of the commodity on which Angola’s future was being constructed – oil – steadily declines. Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer. It is one of the countries that have been hardest hit by the fall in oil prices. The oil crash forced Angola to slash its 2015 budget by US$17 billion (a 25% reduction ). Construction companies are having difficulties paying their workers, and the Angolan central bank has devalued the currency , the kwanza. Construction threatens to screech to a halt. The fantasy built on oil is crumbling, showing that its benefits were barely felt outside privileged sites of elite […]
China returns to play larger role in Angolan November crude program
China has returned to be the main buyer for Angola’s November crude program, data from Platts shows, contrasting with the previous trading cycle, when more barrels headed to European refineries and the US. "Asia took more and Europe and the US took less in November," an Angolan crude trader said. "It’s a role reversal from the previous month." Angolan crude is heavily dependent on China, with 40%-60% of Angolan crude exports typically going there every month. Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese state-owned Sinopec, is by far the largest buyer of Angolan crude, often buying 35%-40% of the monthly export program. Article continues below… Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream and downstream markets, refineries, midstream transportation and financial reports Supply and demand trends, government actions, exploration and technology Daily futures summary Weekly API statistics, and much more However, during […]
Angolan Government Cuts Spending by 50% as Oil Revenue Plunges
An oil tanker waiting in a queue of traffic outside the Port of Luanda in Luanda, Angola. The government of Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest crude producer, cut spending by half this year following a plunge in oil prices, Vice President Manuel Vicente said. Public investment was reduced by 53 percent, Vicente told lawmakers in a state-of-the-nation address on Thursday in the capital, Luanda. He delivered the speech in the absence of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, 73, who was “indisposed,” according to parliamentary Speaker Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos. Oil accounts for about two-thirds of fiscal revenue in Angola, putting the nation at risk after crude prices more than halved since June last year. The central bank devalued the currency twice this year and raised the benchmark interest rate four times in response, while the government has sought funding from the World Bank and China to help cushion […]
Angola to Ship Most Crude in Four Years to Meet Asian Demand
Angola will export the most crude in almost four years in October as the OPEC member satisfies Asian demand and offsets diminished revenue from lower oil prices. Africa’s second-largest producer plans to ship 1.83 million barrels a day in October, the most since November 2011, according to a preliminary loading program obtained by Bloomberg. This compares with 1.77 million barrels a day in September. Angola slashed its budget by a quarter in response to the slump in crude prices, which have lost more than 50 percent in the past year. The African nation’s bid to recapture revenues is supported by demand in China, the world’s second-biggest oil-consumer, which imported near-record levels of crude in July. “Angola continues to profit mainly from Chinese demand, in addition to some demand from India and Indonesia,” said Ehsan Ul-Haq, an analyst at KBC Economics in London. The single biggest increase will be in […]
Angola’s Credit Outlook Cut to Negative by S&P on Oil Price Drop
Angola’s credit-rating outlook was cut to negative by Standard & Poor’s, which predicted the country’s fiscal deficit will widen in the face of lower oil prices. S&P affirmed Angola’s B+ rating, four steps below investment grade, the company said in a statement on Friday. “The negative outlook indicates that we could lower our long-term rating on Angola if the country’s external or fiscal positions continue to deteriorate over the next year,” S&P said. Angola, Africa’s largest crude producer after Nigeria, relies on the fuel to generate about 70 percent of taxes and 95 percent of export income. As the price of oil plunged more than 50 percent in the past 12 months, the government slashed this year’s budget by a quarter, cut fuel subsidies and froze hiring. Government spending accounted for more than a third of Angola’s $129 billion gross domestic product in 2014.
Report: Cuba may get oil help from Angola
Cuban energy company reaching out to Middle East counterparts for help with offshore oil development. Photo by GVictoria/Shutterstock HAVANA, July 21 (UPI) — Cuba expects to kick start its deepwater oil exploration activity with assistance from Angola’s state-run energy company Sonangol, a Cuban official said. Cuba is opening its doors more for Western powers after a long Cold War policy of isolation from the United States. The country in the past worked to cut the amount of oil it imports from Venezuela through development of its own offshore reserves. An unnamed official from Cuba’s Cubapetroleo, or Cupet, told energy reporting service Argus the preliminary deal with Sonangol outlines drilling schedules. "The matters to be determined include which of the blocks contracted by Sonangol will be drilled, the sourcing of a rig and the timing of the start of the work," the official said. The U.S. Geological Survey, which reviewed […]
Total reaches production milestone in Angola
French energy company Total announces production milestone at offshore reserve area in Angola. Photo by James Jones Jr./Shutterstock PARIS, May 27 (UPI) — With 2 billion barrels of cumulative production from an offshore block in Angola, French energy company Total said Wednesday it set the global gold standard. Total announced it reached the milestone at its offshore Block 17 reserve area, located about 90 miles off the coast of Angola in deep waters. "Block 17 is a global benchmark in the deep offshore and represents a unique industrial adventure, with 15 discoveries and a very high level of production," Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s president of exploration and production," said in a statement. With more than 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent in production at the start of 2015, the French energy company said it’s the lead operator in Angola. Apart from Block 17, the company holds a 30 percent stake in […]
Angola Must Raise Taxes, Cut Fuel Subsidy as Oil Falls, IMF Says
(Bloomberg) — Angola should raise taxes and eliminate fuel subsidies to help offset plummeting revenue as oil prices plunge, the International Monetary Fund said. “First, get taxes up,” Nicholas Staines, the IMF’s resident representative in Angola, said in a presentation in Luanda, the capital, on Thursday. “I absolutely love taxes. It’s how a state runs. Without taxes, no state.” Oil prices have slumped by more than half since June, cutting revenue in Angola, where crude accounts for almost all of exports and more than two thirds of government income. Authorities have slashed the oil price estimate in the 2015 budget to $40 a barrel from $81 a barrel and are due to publish a revised spending plan next month. Budget revenue will probably drop by $17 billion and oil exports fall by $27 billion based on a $45 a barrel oil price and 2014 average production of 1.66 million […]
Statoil Takes $350M Hit on Angola Exploration Halt
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 […]
Angola Delaying Increase in Oil Output to 2017 From 2015
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 […]
Eni makes major oil discovery offshore Angola
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, […]
Angolan oil flow seen above 2 million b/d
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, […]
Angola’s Goal to Rival Nigerian Oil Output Aided by Eni
Eni SpA (ENI) crews in Angola, Africa ’s second-largest crude oil producer, upgraded a production vessel for new pumping this year as the southwest African country targets output rivaling its bigger competitor, Nigeria. Eni plans to start production within five months as operator of Block 15-06’s West Hub fields, estimated to hold reserves of 200 million barrels, and boost flows to 80,000 barrels a day, documents on the Rome-based company’s website show. The block’s East Hub development is due to pump about 49,000 barrels a day after starting in 2016, the documents say. The block, 350 kilometers (217 miles) northwest of Luanda, the capital, is one of eight offshore projects Petroleum Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos is counting on to help raise production to 2 million barrels a day by next year from 1.66 million last month. That compares with Nigeria’s 2.15 million barrels daily. One of the […]
Angola May Miss 2015 Oil-Output Target
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 […]
Massive oil discovery claimed offshore Angola
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 […]
Angolan oil will peak in 2016, IMF says
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 […]
Owner of Missing Oil Tanker Disputes Angolan Claims of Fake Highjacking
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," […]