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 ANGOLA
West Africa
Angola suffered over 25 years of civil war after
independence from Portugal in 1975. The war ended in 2002 after the
death of Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA.
The country now has increasing oil revenues from
deepwater developments but is still very dependent on aid. The state is
represented by Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola (SONANGOL),
established in 1976. Angola joined OPEC in early 2007.
The first commercial oil discovery was made in 1955 by
Petrofina (now part of Total) in the onshore Benfica field in the Kwanza
valley south of Luanda. However the country, including the enclave of
Cabinda, has a long coastline and a large offshore area of which three
quarters lies in deep waters where activity is now concentrated.
 Only minor amounts of oil are produced onshore around the
city of Soyo in Zaire province. Fields lying in shallow waters off the
coast of Cabinda have been producing from Cretaceous carbonates since
the 1960s (similar to those in the Campos basin in Brazil) but
production has increased greatly since 1985.
Most recent large deep water discoveries have been made
in the Congo fan. In the north deposits from the Congo River and the
smaller Kwanza River overlie rift basins which, like Gabon and Congo
(Brazzaville), contain extensive layers of Cretaceous salt and rich
source rocks that have led to excellent petroleum potential with
reservoirs similar to those producing in Brazil laid down prior to the
opening of the South Atlantic.
Further large discoveries are likely in the northern half
of the country in ultra-deep waters. To the south the rifted salt basins
peter out half way down the Angolan coast. Some parts of the Kwanza
basin, especially in the south, have had none or very little success.
Angola has associated gas reserves but large quantities
are flared, whilst nearly all the remainder is re-injected to aid in oil
recovery. Like Nigeria the government wishes to reduce flaring and
increase commercial usage. An LNG plant processing gas from all the
producing blocks south of Cabinda is planned at Soyo.
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