LONDON (Reuters) - Norwegian state-run company Statoil has plans to bid for Angolan oil licenses and is confident it will manage oilfields there in the future, a company official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Statoil's largest activities are in Norway but it has expanded through Africa and it already invests in Angolan projects in partnership with oil majors Exxon, Chevron and the Angola's state-owned oil company Sonangol.
Despite owning a share in a number of fields it is not yet managing the production of oil in Angola.
"We are not yet operating but this is one of our ambitions," Lukoki Sebastiao, Vice President of Statoil Angola told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in London.
"We will be competing when Angola has its next licensing round but we don't know yet when that will be. We are confident we can win something in the bidding process."
Angola's oil minister has spoken optimiticaly about its desire to hold an oil licensing round to make the most of the OPEC member's resources and maximise state revenues urgently needed to rebuild a country hit by decades of civil war.
Statoil is looking to develop its business in a country already producing around 1.80 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, rivalling Nigeria as Africa's largest oil exporter.
Norway's largest oil company currently has a share of production of around 200,000 bpd through its partnership projects in Angola, Sebastiao said in a presentation at the Africa Petroleum Forum conference held in London on Tuesday.
Angola's newest producing field Gimboa, a deepwater project around 85 kilometres off the coast, is operated by Sonangol with technical support given by Statoil, one of many collaborations Statoil believes sets them apart from its competitors.
"The relationship we have with Sonangol no one else has. This should help us with projects in the future," Sebastiao said.
No comments:
Post a Comment