Speaking to the press, the chairman of the board of directors of ANPG - National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels, Jerónimo Paulino, said that the main objective of the agreement is the development of discoveries made in blocks 20 and 21.
According to Paulino, these discoveries were made around 10 years ago by the American company Cobalt, which transferred its share to the National Society of Fuels of Angola (Sonangol), which, in turn, transferred part of its share to the French company TotalEnergies.
"The objective today was to reach an agreement on new fiscal and contractual terms in order to allow the development of these discoveries", he said.
The official indicated that there are marginal fields, but the decree on this matter "unfortunately did not work in this case", having been necessary "to improve the terms of the decree to allow that agreement to be reached".
"With this agreement, we think in about two to three months we will have the final investment decision and with that final investment decision to start developing the field to start producing in late 2026, early 2027", he said.
The two blocks, with a production potential of between 70,000 and 100 barrels a day, maximum production, "will help to mitigate the decline in production", said the president of the ANPG.
"And we think that if everything goes well, if all the documentation is approved by the executive, we think that we will have, for the first time, commercial production in the Kwanza maritime basin", stressed Jerónimo Paulino, stressing that the participation corresponds to 20 percent to Sonangol, 80 percent to TotalEnergies, which will soon transfer a stake to another entity.
According to the president of the ANPG, the final investment decision, of around 5 billion dollars, is scheduled for July this year, "a time when all subcontractors are negotiated, the companies that will provide the service and approval the final investment decision".
"That's why we actually started building oil installations for production," he added.
The official stressed that negotiations are continuing for some agreements on other marginal fields, namely the Chissonga field, in block 16, the three Paz Flor fields in block 31, some in block 32 and the development of block 0 continues.
In block 0, production has already started on the first and second marginal fields, Nsinga and Lifua, and construction of the platform for the development of Ndola Sul is currently starting.
"All this is what will allow us to stabilize production, but even more important is that we continue to explore, demand, because only new discoveries will allow us to replace the reserves produced now", he underlined.
On his turn, the managing director of TotalEnergies Angola, Martin Deffontaines, considered the signing of this agreement very important, which "lays the ground for the next steps for the start of the project".
Martin Deffontaines stressed that it is a new challenge for TotalEnergies and its partners, admitting that there is still much to be done in terms of administrative work, namely all the contractual and legal aspects for launching the project.
