Angolan state-owned giant Sonangol Tuesday signed final deals with oil companies for a new exploration frontier called "presalt," as record crude prices fuel an appetite for risky oil plays. The licensing round was the first to focus on Angola's presalt—a layer of salt accumulated millions of years ago under the sea—that mirrors giant finds offshore Brazil.
Cobalt International Energy Inc. of the U.S., Italy's Eni SpA, Norway's Statoil ASA, France's Total SA and the U.K.'s BP PLC said they had been awarded final contracts for minority stakes or operatorships in Angola's northern Kwanza offshore basin.
"Becoming an operator of two pre-salt licenses is an important milestone for Statoil," said Tim Dodson, Statoil's exploration vice president, in a press release. "The Angolan pre-salt is a frontier play with high potential, believed to be analogous to pre-salt Brazil."
In a statement, Eni said its production-sharing contract, for Block 35, includes the drilling of two wells and the acquisition of a three-dimensional survey. The first exploration period will last five years, it said. Eni's current daily production in Angola is about 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent.
In January Angola announced provisional deals for licenses, but they have taken 11 months to finalize.
The licensing in the new-frontier exploration underscores that international companies haven't lost the appetite for deep-water oil exploration despite last year's spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Although Angola's offshore has yielded prolific oil discoveries in recent years, Africa's second-largest oil producer suspended a previous bidding round in late 2008 amid crumbling oil prices. A rebound in crude futures and technologies easing exploration in riskier geologies have renewed interest in the area. |
