ANGOLA is home to significant upstream potential, as demonstrated by the sharp contrast between its proven and estimated reserves: 9 billion versus 57 billion barrels of oil and 11 trillion versus 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Its three major basins – Kwanza-Benguela, Namibe and Lower Congo – hold development opportunities across each stage of the exploration life-cycle, from frontier exploration to mature producing areas.
As oil and gas explorers seek prospects with lower risk and high potential for commercial production, subsea tie-back projects have emerged as key recipients of foreign direct investment, aimed at unlocking untapped resources and leveraging existing infrastructure.
Kwanza Basin
Holding close geological similarities to hydrocarbon-rich areas like Brazil’s Santos and Campos Basins, pre-salt areas in southern Africa represent frontier acreage with lower exploration risk and higher potential for production. In Angola, the exploration of pre-salt basins became increasingly active following early discoveries in Blocks 20, 21 and 23 in the Kwanza Basin (https://apo-opa.info/3IH2HCX)
Namibe Basin
The underexplored Namibe Basin (https://apo-opa.info/
Lower Congo Basin
In the prolific Lower Congo Basin, which holds some of Angola’s largest oil and gas condensate fields by reserves, leading operators are spearheading several large-scale tie-back projects.
located nearby existing production facilities. The Agogo Oil Field Development, which holds one billion barrels of estimated oil reserves is being developed by Azule Energy in Block 15/06, with a view to establishing the Agogo Integrated West Hub that will produce up to 175,000 bpd via the new Agogo FPSO and the existing Ngoma FPSO. Similarly, TotalEnergies is expanding production at its CLOV Field Development Area, which contains 505 million barrels of estimated oil reserves and serves as the fourth production hub in Block 17 offshore Angola. Following Phases 1 and 2, which produced 160,000 bpd and 40,000 bpd, respectively, Phase 3 will unlock an additional 30,000 bpd and capitalize on untapped hydrocarbon reserves.
The 2023 edition of the Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) conference and exhibition (https://apo-opa.info/3OOHQkG) – organized by Energy Capital & Power (https://EnergyCapitalPower.