Angola will launch a new oil and gas licensing round before the end of October 2025, its Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum, and Gas has announced.
Diamantino Pedro Azevedo said the country is targeting blocks in the Kwanza and Benguela basins.
These basins have not proven much since they became the main locations for bid offering since the 2010/2011 open acreage sale, resulting in the award of 11 acreages in the pre-salt Kwanza basin, to eight (8) international companies whose exploration efforts ended mostly in dry holes. ‘Pre-salt’ means that the targeted petroleum-bearing reservoirs are located beneath a thick layer of salt deposited during the Early Cretaceous period, at the time of the separation of the continents.
Yet Angolan authorities believe fervently that the route to new significant discoveries, lie in frequent licencing rounds.
The government has returned time and again to award blocks in the Kwanza basin, pre-salt or post- salt.
The proposed new licenses, which will mark the final phase of a licensing strategy initiated in 2019 to award 50 concessions and mitigate the steep decline in oil productivity, are expected to complement Angola’s permanent offer regime (which involves placement of selected concessions on permanent offer, allowing for negotiation on blocks which had not received proposals during the normal bidding period) and marginal field development programme, both of which seek to monetise smaller or underdeveloped assets. Periodic bid rounds, permanent offer regime and marginal field programme are all intended to boost Angola’s oil production and maintain output above 1Million barrels of oil per day (BOPD) beyond 2026.
Azevedo noted that recent legislative reforms and a flexible licensing framework have helped attract new entrants and encouraged reinvestment from incumbents. The government is also advancing policies to promote the participation of domestic companies in the oil and gas sector.
