Eni Thriving In Angola’s Offshore Oil Exploration
It is the starting of a great year between Total exceeding in Nigeria, ExxonMobil in Guyana and now Eni in Angola.
Eni has launched successfully a new production well in the Bandumbu field, located about 218 mi (350 km) north-west of Luanda and 81 mi (130 km) west of Soyo, in the West Hub of Block 16/06 in Angola’s Offshore.
The startup of the Van-102 well follows the start-up of the second Subsea Multiphase Boosting System (MBS) took place through the N’Goma FPSO and archived a performance of about 13,000 bbl. Van-102 is a further step in the development of the Vendumbu field last November 29th, 2018. With this new startup it now brings a total of 170,000 boed, moving the production plateau higher than forecasted.
These startups are showing how ENI is now changing approach that have brought significant progress and success in their phased and clustered development strategy for Block 15/06. The payoff has allowed the startup of eight fields since November 2014.
Block 15/06 is a developed joint venture formed by Eni (36.84% operator) Sonangol P&P (36.84%) and SSI Fifteen Limited (26,32%). Eni has been present in Angola since 1980 and currently has an equity production of 150,000 boed.
In the meantime, Angola has developed a new strategy to attract new players to its oil and gas sector. New licensing will be up for grab in June 2019 based on a new 2018 legislation that will encourage new participation and investment from Angolan, African and international independents in the oil and gas sector.
The 2019 licensing round, which will include onshore and offshore blocks in the Congo, Namibe and Cunene basins, will boost exploration potential with the ultimate aim to increase production from the country’s current levels of 1.49 mmbbl of oil per day.
It should be a good year for Angola with the prospect of attracting new investments in their oil and gas sector.