Angola will open a new oil and gas licensing round before the end of October 2025, according to Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum, and Gas Diamantino Pedro Azevedo. The round will focus on blocks in the Kwanza and Benguela basins.
Since the 2010/2011 acreage sale, these basins have hosted most bid offerings, yet exploration results have been poor. Eleven acreages in the pre-salt Kwanza basin went to eight international companies, but most drilling ended in dry wells. ‘Pre-salt’ refers to petroleum reservoirs located beneath thick salt layers formed during the Early Cretaceous period when the continents separated.
Despite past disappointments, Angolan authorities maintain that frequent licensing rounds are the path to new discoveries. They continue to return to the Kwanza basin, both pre-salt and post-salt, when awarding blocks.
The upcoming licenses represent the final stage of a strategy launched in 2019 to award 50 concessions and offset sharp declines in oil production. The plan complements Angola’s permanent offer regime, which allows negotiations on blocks left out of normal bidding periods, and its marginal field development program, which seeks to monetize smaller or underdeveloped assets.
Through these measures, including periodic bid rounds, permanent offers, and marginal field programs, Angola aims to sustain production above one million barrels per day beyond 2026. Azevedo emphasized that recent legislative reforms and a flexible licensing framework have drawn new entrants and encouraged reinvestment from existing operators. He added that the government is also advancing policies to strengthen domestic participation in the oil and gas sector.
source:africaoilgasreport.com
African Energy Council