Angola Key Projects and Business Highlights
After a first wave of exploration and production of conventional oil and gas offshore fields, the major companies such as BP, Chevron, Cobalt International Energy Company Inc. (Cobalt),Eni, ExxonMobil, Galp Energia, Maersk, Petrobras, PetroChina (CNPC), Statoil and Total come back to Angola with major projects to replicate the lessons learnt from the Brazilian pre-salt discoveries.
Angola is the second largest producer of crude oil in Africa with an average of 1.7 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2012.
With the current projects starting their commercial operations, Angola is planning to increase its production to 1.8 million b/d in 2013 and 2 million b/d in 2014.
In addition Angola is benefiting from additional projects that could help to restore the peak of production reached in 2008.
The west coast of Africa is in many aspects the mirror of the Brazilian coast where the first pre-salt fields were discovered and developed.
In that respect Angola is well positioned along the West coast of Africa to offer a geology of its coast similar to Brazil such as in the Kwansa Basin.
As in the projects described below, these oil and gas fields ly in deep water ranging between 1,300 meters and 2,000 meters of water depth.
Chevron to proceed with Mafumeira expansion
Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Ltd (Cabinda), the Angola subsidiary of the California-based international oil company Chevron Corporation (Chevron) and its partners Sonangol,Total and Eni made the final investment decision (FID) regarding the Mafumeira Sul project.
Located offshore Angola, the Mafumeira Sul project (Mafumeira South) is the expansion of the Mafumeira Norte project (Mafumeira North) already in operations.
Maersk and Sonangol select bidders on Chissonga
Maersk Oil and Gas A/S (Maersk) from Denmark, the national oil company Sonangol from Angola and Odebrecht from Brazil are proceeding to the selection of the contractors to be invited to bid on a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel and a tension leg wellhead platform (TLWP) to turn in production the Chissonga crude oil field offshore Angola.
Lying just beyond the Africa West Coast Continental Shelf by 1,500 meters of water depth, Chissonga belongs to the Block 16 in the lower Congo Basin, 138 kilometers from shore, in the north of Angola.
KBR designs topsides for Chevron Lianzi project
The Houston-based KBR has been selected by Subsea 7 to design the topsides of Chevron Lianzi project offshore the Republic of Angola and the Republic of Congo on the west coast of Africa.
The Lianzi oil and gas field is located 105 kilometers from shore in the deepwater of the unitized offshore maritime zone between Angola and Congo.
Because of its dual presence in Angola and Congo through this unitized offshore zone, Chevron and its partners in Lianzi applied to the Government of Congo to change status to become recognized as a producing company in the country.
Cobalt joins Angola big player with Cameia discovery
With the Cameia discovery, the junior Cobalt International Energy Company Inc. (Cobalt) is joining the major companies BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Galp Energia, Maersk, Petrobras, PetroChina (CNPC), Statoil and Total in the development of the pre-salt oil and gas reserves lying in the Angola deep offshore Kwanza basin.
Since Brazil unveiled its enormous oil and gas resources in pre-salt, all the companies made the parallel with the Angola deep water suspected to host similar reserves because of the symmetry of the geology across the South Atlantic ocean.
KBR to complete FEED on Chevron Lucapa FPSO
On first quarter 2012, the international oil company Chevron through its local subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Company (Cabinda) and its partners, the national oil company Sonangol, Eni from Italy, Total from France, and Galp from Portugal, hadawarded the front end engineering and design (FEED) contract to the Houston-based engineering company KBR for a new-build floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Lucapa project, offshore Angola.
Located in the Block 14, the Lucapa oil and gas field was discovered in 2006 in water depth ranging between 800 meters and 2,000 meters with 3,340 total depth.