Total Deepens Rapport with Sonangol

Angola's president Joao Lourenco, state Sonangol chairman Carlos Saturnino and Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne met December 4 for discussions that included a number of agreements between Total and Sonangol on offshore oil.

The two firms agreed contractual conditions for the development of Zinia phase 2, leading to a future final investment decision on this block 17 project which will add 40,000 b/d and be produced from the Pazflor floating production ship.

They also agreed jointly to explore Block 48, marking a commitment to restart deep offshore oil and gas exploration: phase one will last two years with an exploration well. 

Both firms also signed memos of understanding to look at jointly developing an oil product retail network in Angola, and to screen jointly opportunities for renewable energy supply there.

Total is the largest operator in the country, with net 2016 production at 243,000 barrels of oil equivalent/d coming from blocks 17, 14, 0 and Angola LNG  – and is in the final stages of developing the deep offshore Kaombo development on block 32 where it has a 30% interest. The FID to develop Kaomba was made in April 2014 and it will have total production capacity (gross) of 230,000 boe/d.

Angola’s Big Six foreign producers are looking at new ways to incentivize upstream investment, with consultancy Wood Mackenzie having recently told NGW that floating LNG should be a future focus for their attention, while Eni also paid a recent visit to Luanda for a meeting with Saturnino.

Lourenco last month sacked Sonangol chair Isabel Dos Santos,  the daughter of his predecessor, and replaced her with his newly appointed secretary of state for petroleum Carlos Saturnino