OREANDA-NEWS. April 25, 2014. Rosneft delegation undertook a working visit to the Republic of Angola. The delegation is led by the Company’s Vice-President Andrey Shishkin. During the visit the delegation held negotiations with minister of petroleum Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, administration of Ministry of Electricity and Water represented by Joao Baptista Borges, and President of the National Oil Company Sonangol Francisco de Lemos Jose Maria.

Issues discussed at the meetings included potential scenarios of Angolan upstream market entry, and cooperation geography: prospective oil-and-gas bearing basins of Angola and priority blocks.

Angola is the second (after Nigeria) largest producer of oil in Africa. Proved oil reserves are 1.7 billion tons, and liquid hydrocarbons prevail in the resource portfolio (up to 3.5 billion tons). The blocks are mostly distributed under Production Sharing Agreement, and Sonangol has stakes in most projects.

Nearly all developed fields of Angola are shelf (75% of production is from shelf projects), and concentrated in Bas-Congo basin, and the largest fields are located at great depths. In recent years, following the discovery of large fields, such as Kizomba, Khikomba, Zhirasol, Jasmine, Dakhlia, Great Plutonio etc., the most prospective area for search of hydrocarbon reservoirs is represented by deep water and ultra deep water territory of Congo and Cuanza basins (water depth from 600 to 2500 meters).

Cuanza basin ranks among one of three largest explored oil and gas bearing complexes. Yet there have been made no major discoveries in the Cuanza basin.