Angola's state-owned giant Sonangol Tuesday signed final deals with oil
companies for a new exploration frontier called "presalt," as record
crude prices fuel an appetite for risky oil plays.
The licensing round was the first to focus on Angola's
presalt--a layer of salt accumulated millions of years ago under the
sea--that mirrors giant finds offshore Brazil.
The announcement confirms information about the imminent
signature published late Monday by Dow Jones Newswires.
Cobalt International Energy Inc. of the U.S., Italy's
Eni SpA, Norway's Statoil ASA, France's Total SA and the
U.K.'s BP
PLC said they
had been awarded final contracts for minority stakes or
operatorships in Angola's northern Kwanza offshore basin.
"Becoming an operator of two pre-salt licenses is an important
milestone for Statoil," said Tim Dodson, Statoil's exploration vice
president, in a press release. "The Angolan pre-salt is a frontier play
with high potential, believed to be analogous to pre-salt Brazil."
In a statement, Eni said its production-sharing contract, for
Block 35, includes the drilling of two wells and the acquisition of a
three-dimensional survey. The first exploration period will last five
years, it said. Eni's current daily production in Angola is about
130,000 barrels of oil equivalent.
In January Angola announced provisional deals for licenses,
but they have taken 11 months to finalize.
The licensing in the new frontier exploration underscores that
international companies haven't lost the appetite for deepwater oil
exploration despite last year's spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Although Angola's offshore has yielded prolific oil
discoveries in recent years, Africa's second-largest oil producer
suspended a previous bidding round in late 2008 amid crumbling oil
prices. A rebound in crude futures and technologies easing exploration
in riskier geologies have renewed interest in the area.