Angola, Eni Discuss Gas, Cabinda
Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and Sonangol CEO Carlos Saturnino signed November 27 a deal whereby operatorship of the Cabinda North exploration block is assigned to Eni, as well as 48% of the block's rights.
The signing took place in Luanda at the presence of Angolan president Joao Gonçalves Lourenço and Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni.
Cabinda North, in which Eni previously controlled 15%, is an onshore block located in a little explored oil basin in the north of the country, where Eni will be able to leverage experience gained in a neighboring area of the Republic of Congo. In case of significant discoveries, production will be facilitated by existing infrastructure.
In addition, both companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to define joint projects throughout the whole value chain of the energy sector. This provides for the assessment of associated and non-associated gas resources in Angola's offshore, to be traded on both domestic and international markets, and the optimization of exploration activities and identification of new opportunities for joint exploration. It also provides for the study of optimization measures in Angolan oil refining and trading, and the evaluation of renewable energy (particularly photovoltaic) opportunities.
UK-listed explorer Soco, whose website says it also has a small equity interest in Cabinda North onshore, said the erstwhile operator was Sonangol's own upstream division, Sonangol P&P.
Eni has been present in Angola since 1980 ; its equity production is around 155,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Angola, which currently has just one LNG export complex, has sizeable offshore gas reserves which, as the global LNG supply glut diminishes in the 2020s and if the government were to reorient its fiscal terms, could be developed through floating liquefaction (FLNG) projects, senior research analyst Adam Pollard at global consultancy Wood Mackenzie recently told NGW Magazine.
Saturnino last month set up a committee to identify key challenges facing the country's petroleum sector including representatives of Sonangol plus BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Statoil and Total.