Prospects for oil exploration and production are bright in Angola, according to ratings firm Moody’s as a number of deep offshore oil projects are set to come on stream.
This will see the Central African nation boosting oil output to 2 million barrels a day by 2015, which may help it eclipse Nigeria as Africa’s largest producer.
“Total’s (Aa1 negative) large ($16 billion) investment in the Kaombo oil project in ultra-deep waters off the coast of Angola (Ba3 positive) reaffirms Angola as a stable operating environment for international oil companies and stands to boost the Central African country’s oil production and is thus credit positive,” said Aurelien Mali, VP-Senior Analyst, Moody’s in a note released last week.
Nigeria produced an average of 1.9 million barrels a day of crude oil in 2013, according to Central Bank figures.
Once operational in 2017, the Kaombo oil project will be the largest of several hydrocarbon projects currently underway in the Lower Congo Basin. Kaombo has estimated reserves of 650 million barrels of oil and a projected daily output in the vicinity of 230,000 bpd.
A further 300,000 bpd is about to come on stream over the next 18 months from other projects in the basin.
One of them, CLOV – operated by Total in Block 17 – is expected to start extraction in May 2014 and will likely yield 160,000 bpd, according to Moody’s.
It will raise the output of Total – already the largest oil producer in Angola – above 700,000 bpd, constituting more than a third of national production.
The remaining 140,000 bpd will come from two projects in Block 15 operated by ENI and ESSO, where production is due to begin in 2015.
“Excluding Kaombo, these projects alone are likely to propel Angola’s total oil output to two million bpd by the end of 2015. Kaombo will ensure that production remains above 2 million bpd until 2020,” said Mali
In the Kwanza Basin, south of the Lower Congo Basin, the government has auctioned several licenses for rights to explore pre-salt blocks, and seven discoveries have already been made. Production potential will become clear by the end of this year, but is currently estimated at around two billion barrels from those discoveries.
PATRICK ATUANYA
