Angola

Angola’s Sonangol appoints new directors under new government

October 05, 2017 | Angola, Government & Regulations, Management

London, UK | –  Angola’s Sonangol  has appointed three new board members to help restructure the state oil company, the same week President Joao Lourenco was sworn into office after 38 years of rule by Jose Eduardo dos Santos. The former president’s daughter Isabel dos Santos remains the head of Sonangol. She announced plans last year to split the company into three units: exploration and production, logistics and a division handling concessions to international oil firms. Its non-oil interests will be placed in a fund. …

Angola’s Sonangol cancels auction for eight oil blocks

May 19, 2017 | Angola, Commodities & Oilprice, Licensing & Concessions

London, UK | –  Angola’s state oil company Sonangol has cancelled an auction of oil exploration licences for eight blocks, blaming the drop in oil prices since the bidding opened. “The remarkable drop in the price of the oil barrel and the economic and financial situation of the country and the world, have negatively influenced the viability of the oil concessions,” Sonangol said in a statement. The round includes five blocks in the Kwanza basin and three on the Lower Congo. Sonangol said the new …

Nigeria regains Africa’s top oil producer spot

January 10, 2017 | Angola, Nigeria, OPEC

Vienna, Austria | — Angola and Nigeria are locked in a tight race for the title of Africa’s biggest oil producer, according to the latest OPEC Oil Market Report. But Nigeria may have reclaimed its position as Africa’s top oil producer which it lost to fellow African oil producer, Angola earlier in March 2016. According to the December 2016 Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), crude oil production from Nigeria rose slightly above that of Angola even before …

President Dos Santos daughter cleared to head Angola oil giant

December 30, 2016 | Angola, People on the move

London, UK | – Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s daughter, reportedly Africa’s richest woman, has been cleared to head the national oil company Sonangol, after a court rejected a legal challenge. Isabel dos Santos was put in charge of Sonangol in June in a move some analysts said was the first sign of succession plans for the country’s long-time ruler. The president, in power since 1979, later announced that he would stand down in 2017, though no successor has officially been named. His daughter’s …

Angola overtakes Nigeria as Africa’s largest crude oil producer

December 30, 2016 | Angola, Energy Trading & Markets, Nigeria, OPEC

Luanda, Angola | –  Angola overtook Nigeria to become Africa’s biggest crude oil producer in 2016, with an average output of 1.775 million barrels per day (bpd), while Nigeria’s production fell to 1.468 million bpd. Angola’s oil output accounts for 90 per cent of the nation’s exports, 50 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), and 80 per cent of its tax revenues. The 1.775 million bpd represents an increase in production of 8,800 bpd compared with the level in June. In November, Angola …

Helicopter crashes en route to Chevron Angola oil platform, at least four dead

September 27, 2016 | Angola, Health, Safety & Environment

Luanda, Angola | –  Four people died and two were missing after a helicopter crashed en route to a Chevron oil platform off the Angolan coast, the U.S. oil company said on Tuesday. The helicopter left Malongo port in Angola’s Cabinda province on Monday at 1523 local time to make the short journey to the Tombua-Landana offshore oil platform but never arrived. “The helicopter did not reach its intended destination. It was carrying five passengers and one pilot,” Chevron said in a statement, adding that …

Cobalt terminates $1.75 billion sale of Angola oil blocks

August 24, 2016 | Angola, Asset Acquisitions & Divestitures

London, UK | –  Cobalt International Energy Inc. said the proposed $1.75 billion sale of a 40% stake in two offshore oil blocks in Angola to the state oil company Sonangol was terminated as it did not get the necessary approvals from the country’s government. The deal was automatically terminated after the Angolan government did not give the approvals within one year, Cobalt said on Aug. 23. The oil and gas producer announced in August last year the sale of its 40% stake in the …

Angolan president makes billionaire daughter state oil firm chief

June 03, 2016 | Angola, People on the move

Lunada, Angola | – Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed his billionaire businesswoman daughter Isabel as head of state energy firm Sonangol in a shake-up that cements his dynastic grip on power in a major African oil exporter. Isabel, ranked as Africa’s richest woman by Forbes, would become chief executive after the firing of Sonangol’s board, a presidential decree carried on Angolan state media said. Angola, currently Africa’s top oil producer because of supply outages caused by militant attacks in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, …