London – Oil analyst Adam Pollard told Lusa that oil companies “are looking at Angola again” because of oil prices and government-initiated reforms.
“In the last year Angola turned the page, the country is trying to attract more investment to avoid the decline in oil production expected in the coming years, and there are signs that companies are looking again at Angola and feeling more comfortable in investing in the country, “said Adam Pollard.
In an interview with Lusa about the prospects for the evolution of the oil sector in Angola, the analyst explained that “as in other African countries, production has been falling for some time, and is expected to fall further”, and hence the efforts to attract foreign investment that could reverse the situation.
“We have seen some projects sanctioned by French Total in block 17 in the last year, maybe BP and ENI do the same this year, so there are several signs” of interest to the largest oil companies in the country, “he said, noting that the exploration is predominantly in coast and great depth.
“Angola is by nature one of the most expensive places to develop oil, almost always in ultra-deep waters, so when prices fell in 2014 it was one of the most affected, but now there is more confidence not only in price stability of oil, but there was also a lot of work done by Sonangol and the Government to improve the business environment, “he said.
Asked what the most important steps were to restore investor confidence in the country, Adam Pollard issued presidential decrees to accelerate approvals, anti-bureaucracy measures associated with the oil industry, laws to encourage the exploitation of marginal fields and the new law that equates the exploitation of gas with that of oil.
About the 1.4 million barrels per day goal that Angola has set for this year, Pollard said it is “a reasonable target,” explaining that “many of the wells are in the stage of maturity, when production begins to fall, and there are new projects to increase production, but Angola needs to sanction several more projects to be sanctioned and start operating in the coming months. “
