Angola’s National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANPG) has announced its intention to grant those interested in participating in the bidding round for oil blocks in the Kwanza and Lower Congo basins free access to available relevant data.
In a statement, the regulator says that this would “increase the transparency of the process” by giving qualified participants the confidence to start the process and secure agreements at the end of the process.
“This will significantly reduce the risk of companies entering the process with many uncertainties,” it stresses.
Potential bidders should express their interest to ANPG by letter or email, requesting a session to consult the data.
The current licensing round is in line with a presidential decree issued in 2019 that provides for annual bidding rounds up until 2025. According to its statement, the agency aims to attract “medium-sized explorers to Angola’s basins that have proven prolific in recent years and provided returns for companies well above industry averages elsewhere.”
The current round is for six onshore licences in the Kwanza Basin and three onshore licences in the Lower Congo Basin.
The ANPG argues that “the available data will provide a solid base on which to build models to understand the oil and gas potential of the blocks on offer.”
The data on offer “include the most relevant and essential information about the areas of interest” and should thus help “potential explorers to prepare their proposals and their future strategy for exploration and development of these concessions,” it adds.
Packages of data include geological information, accessibility study, maps, legal information and seismic data.
