Eni Strikes More Oil In Angola’s Deep Offshore

Italy’s oil and gas major Eni said on Tuesday that it had made a new discovery in Angola’s deep offshore estimated to contain up to 250 million barrels of light oil in place, with further upside.

The results of the data collection from the new discovery in Block 15/06 indicates a production capacity of over 10,000 barrels of oil per day, Eni said, adding that the discovery, Ndungu, is the fourth commercially viable discovery since the Block 15/06 Joint Venture re-launched the exploration campaign in the middle of 2018.

Ndungu is some 2 km (1.2 miles) away from the Mpungi field, so the latest discovery can be fast-tracked to production due to the proximity to the Sub Sea production system, according to Eni.  

The Ndungu discovery comes two months after Eni made a major oil discovery in Angola’s deepwater in a find that could help the African OPEC producer to reverse the recent decline in oil production. In March this year, Eni struck oil in Block 15/06 in the Agogo exploration prospect and estimates that the discovery contains 450-650 million barrels of light oil in place with further upside.   

The data acquired from the well indicates a production capacity of more than 20,000 bpd, Eni said back then.

Eni, a key player in Africa and in Angola, currently produces around 155,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Angola.

The African country, however, has been struggling in recent years to offset a decline in production as many fields mature.

After the oil price crash of 2014, Angola’s economy had suffered from the low oil prices and the country had also been struggling to attract international investments in its deepwater higher-breakeven oil resources.

Last year, Angola introduced several new measures to try to boost its oil production and its attractiveness for international investment. President Joao Lourenco signed in the summer of 2018 a decree to create an agency that would sell and manage oil blocks instead of Sonangol. Earlier in 2018, Angola halved the tax rates on the development of oil discoveries with fewer than 300 million barrels of reserves.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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