<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Its three major basins \u2013 Kwanza-Benguela, Namibe and Lower Congo \u2013 hold development opportunities across each stage of the exploration life-cycle, from frontier exploration to mature producing areas.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kwanza Basin<\/strong><\/p>\n Holding close geological similarities to hydrocarbon-rich areas like Brazil\u2019s 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\u00a0Kwanza Basin (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3IH2HCX<\/a>). The evaluation of these discoveries produced a comprehensive geological model for pre-salt prospecting, which has since expanded to include Block 0 offshore Cabinda. Unlike frontier markets, pre-salt discoveries in Angola can be developed at a lower cost by utilizing existing infrastructure, an important factor at a time when companies are prioritizing shorter development cycles. As part of its efforts to focus on subsea tie-backs, infill drilling and other near-hub projects, French major TotalEnergies is exploring the development of a new pre-salt production hub in newly acquired Blocks 21\/09 and 20\/11 in the Kwanza Basin. The company\u2019s Cameia-Golfinho project\u2013 which is expected to reach FID in June \u2013 will be the first deepwater project in thepre-salt Kwanza Basin and is estimated to hold 420 million barrels of oil equivalent.<\/p>\n Namibe Basin<\/strong><\/p>\n The underexplored\u00a0Namibe Basin\u00a0(https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3BWM3eF<\/a>) represents another attractive prospect in Angola for international explorers, as one of the largest remaining prospective frontier areas for oil and gas exploration globally. Located along the West African salt margin and spanning more than 65,000 km2<\/sup>, the southernmost basin has remained largely untapped, in sharp contrast to the neighboring Lower Congo and Kwanza Basins that are home to the majority of Angola\u2019s oil and gas activity. New exploration activities are being used to determine the resource potential of the deepwater Blocks 30, 44, and 45 \u2013 acquired by ExxonMobil in December 2020 \u2013 in water depths ranging between 1,500 and 3,000 meters. Notably, redevelopment efforts undertaken by ExxonMobil in Block 15 resulted in Angola\u2019s first oil find in two decades with the discovery of the Bavuca South-1 exploration well last November, representing the 18th discovery in the block. The U.S. major also recently announced plans to invest $200 million to drill offshore frontier exploration wells in the Namibe Basin by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n Lower Congo Basin<\/strong><\/p>\n In the prolific Lower Congo Basin, which holds some of Angola\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The 2023 edition of the Angola Oil & Gas (AOG) conference and exhibition (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3OOHQkG<\/a>) \u2013 organized by Energy Capital & Power (https:\/\/EnergyCapitalPower.com\/<\/a>)\u00a0 \u2013 will feature high-level panel discussions and meetings as well as exclusive networking forums showcasing investment and partnership opportunities within the country\u2019s oil and gas sector. Scheduled for 13 \u2013 14 September in Luanda, AOG 2023 will unite Angolan energy policymakers and stakeholders with global investors to discuss and optimize the country\u2019s energy future.<\/p>\n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital & Power.<\/i><\/p>\n Source<\/a> 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 \u2013 Kwanza-Benguela, Namibe and Lower Congo \u2013 hold development opportunities across each stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":148241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/energycapitalandpower.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/bc97bda5e3bfa79","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4262],"tags":[258,256,4263,13368,23003,257,9398,254,34212],"class_list":["post-148240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-angola","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-angola-news","tag-angolas","tag-exploring","tag-news","tag-potential","tag-south-africa-today","tag-upstream"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/energycapitalandpower.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/bc97bda5e3bfa79","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Southern Africa Angola<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"