This year’s African Energy Week: Invest in African Energies 2024 conference featured a Financing Angolan Energies session that explored how Angola can secure the investment it needs to expand its energy sector and leverage its vast oil and gas resources for local industry and global export.

With a new bid round in preparation, Angola is gearing up to attract investment to its greenfield projects, while simultaneously maximizing production from mature fields. The country’s energy sector is characterized by substantial proven reserves – approximately 9 billion barrels of oil and 11 trillion cubic feet of gas. As part of the country’s strategy to boost production, Angola has introduced new incentives for marginal field development and deployed a six-year licensing round strategy through 2025.

Azule Energy’s Business Development Director, Ricardo Boris, spoke on the company’s future investment plans in the market, with production at both the Agogo Integrated West Hub Development and the Quiluma and Maboqueiro (Q & M) gas fields set to start in 2026.

“We have a portfolio that is very well-grounded. We are heavily involved in medium-term projects that will drive growth over the next ten years in the country and we also have a huge portfolio of exploration licenses,” stated Boris.

The start of production at the Cabinda oil refinery next year will support Angola’s ambitions to become less reliant on costly fuel imports and to become a net exporter. The project will refine Angolan Cabinda crude at a rate of 30,000 barrels per day and is set to support between 5% and 10% of the country’s energy needs.

“Angola has a surplus of energy production. So, the country has ambitions to become a net exporter of energy to other countries in the region,” stated Luis Rahuan, Head of Energy at Gemcorp Angola, the Cabinda project’s largest shareholder. “We have plans to connect the Angolan grid to the Namibian grid and from Namibia to the South African grid.”

Spearheading Angola’s oil and gas revitalization with a six-year licensing round, the country’s national concessionaire the National Oil, Gas & Biofuels Agency (ANPG) has become a cornerstone in securing investments in the energy sector. With 55 blocks on offer, the licensing round is designed to offer regular and transparent opportunities for international oil companies and competitive Angolan operators to explore and develop the country’s hydrocarbon potential.

ANPG Executive Administrator, Alcides Andrade, said, “It’s an exciting time to be in Angola. If you look at the last couple years, six out of seven of the world’s supermajors have expanded their portfolios [in Angola]. We are also very agile in giving concessions. We are very flexible, and we are very pragmatic in finding the right solutions so investors can succeed in Angola.”

Meanwhile, charting significant growth within the Angolan oil industry, oil and gas company Grupo Simples delivers specialized products and services tailored to the local market. The company became qualified in Angola during the country’s oil tender in January 2024 where it secured operatorships for exploration and production rights in the onshore Kwanza Basin.

“In terms of onshore, we are present there because Angola is the place to be. This is because stability is the hallmark of our industry throughout. New reforms in the country are able to bring more stability to the industry and we have been able to navigate the industry with strong levels of predictability. Angola’s onshore shows great promise and we look forward to doing everything we can there to realize the country’s economic ambitions,” stated Co-President of Grupo Simples, Alberto Mendes.

In August this year, pan-African financial institution the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) signed terms for a $1.4 billion facility to raise funds for the establishment of a fertilizer plant and to position the country at the forefront of energy development in sub-Saharan Africa. The bank contributed a further $335 million in financing towards Angola’s Cabinda refinery in July last year, along with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and a consortium of other local and international financial institutions.

“We look for bankability in oil and gas financing. We look at projects that are either near or in production which have strong potential for bankability for us at the bank,” stated Afreximbank Senior Manager for Syndication and Agency, Babajide Bode-Harrison.