Africa-Press – Angola. The secretary of State for Oil and Gas, José Barroso, reiterated on Wednesday, in Luanda, that the new oil block dubbed 14/23 (B14/23), which resulted from the detachment of the Menongue and Negage areas from Block 14, will continue to be operated by CABGOC (Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited), a Chevron subsidiary.
Speaking at the First Plenary of the 3rd Legislative Session of the 5th Legislature of the National Assembly, which approved the Authorization for the President of the Republic to legislate on the need to better demarcate this block, the official said that the development of the respective area will be done based on Angolan law, while the National Concessionaire and some Congolese technicians will supervise all activities.
Block 14 extends from the national territory to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a fact that motivated the National Assembly to approve this document.
According to the secretary of State, Block 14/23 “does not have large oil reserves”, but Chevron gives some confidence in its capitalization, taking into account the geological knowledge it has about the respective oil area, a fact that will facilitate its development.
The purpose of the approved diploma is to grant the President of the Republic, as Head of the Executive Branch, the Authorization to legislate on Changes to the Concession Area, as well as to establish the redefinition of the geographic limits of blocks 14 and 14/23.
For this purpose, the President of the Republic is authorized to detach the Negage and Menongue development areas from Block 14, with retroactive effect to Dec 21, 2023.
This measure aims to increase geological knowledge, mitigate the decline in production, replace reserves, with estimated costs of 298 million barrels of oil, subscription bonuses of USD15 million, fixed annual production bonuses of USD 500k, in a period of 15 years, counting from the year in which production began.
The same diploma also provides for the collection of revenue for the Angolan State in the order of USD5.7 billion, via taxes.
In 2023, CABGOC signed a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to operate the Block 14/23 concession area, located in the Zone of Common Interest (ZIC), established between the Republic of Angola and the maritime area of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Along with this, in June 2024, CABGOC signed two Risk Services Agreements to carry out seismic studies in the Block 49 and Block 50 concession areas, located in the ultra-deep waters of the prolific lower Congo basin.
Currently, Block 14, operated by CABGOC, has 200 employees, 90% of whom are national.
In addition to Block 14, Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited also explores oil in Block 0, on the coast of Cabinda province, also holding non-operational interests in an onshore joint venture, Angola LNG, a plant in Soyo whose annual production is around 5.2 million metric tons of gas.
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