Within five days, Sonangol Pesquisa&Produção begins exploring for oil and gas in the Tubias well, in the Kwanza Terrestrial Basin block (KON-11), located in the municipality of Cabo Ledo, Luanda province.
At this moment, the rig still needs to complete five percent of the technical work, in order to move forward with oil and gas drilling activity in the Tubias well, of which 95% has already been completed.
The well is between 700 and 800 meters deep, with an estimated volume of six million barrels in its reservoir.
In this well, Sonangol is an active operator, with 30 percent of the exploration activity, and its partners are Brites (25 percent), Simples Oil (20 percent), Atlas Petroleum Exploration (20 percent) and Omega (5 percent).
Speaking to the press, at the end of the visit, which served to confirm the final phase of completion of the technical work in the Tubias well, which was also attended by the Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, the president of the Board of Directors of Sonangol, Sebastião Gaspar Martins, said that the National Fuel Society of Angola will be the first oil company to start drilling the first well, in the Kwanza Terrestrial Basin area, of the concessions that were recently tendered by the National Oil Agency. Oil, Gas and Biofuels (ANGP).
For Sebastião Martins, the objective of the probe is to drill the first onshore oil well that will be added to Sonangol’s current production estimated at 200 thousand barrels/day.
Without advancing the investment value, Sonangol’s PCA said that, in the first phase, drilling work will take place, and then oil exploration will move forward.
“We will first drill the well, and then define the investment amounts. As soon as the operation is completed, and if the results are positive, we will use this production to feed the Luanda Refinery”, he said.
According to Sebastião Martins, in addition to this well, the Angolan oil company is preparing another well, which is located in the same Basin.
“Our objective is to increase the drilling of more wells and have the entire field covered and producing oil”, he said.
He pointed out that oil drilling in the Kwanza Onshore Basin represents Sonangol’s contribution to relaunching the onshore production operation.
“We hope to streamline and mobilize a greater volume of work in other operations that can attract other companies, after we start our drilling”, she noted.
“We plan to bid for more than 50 blocks”
The Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino Azevedo, said that all the conditions have been created for oil drilling work in the Tubias well to start smoothly.
” Let’s hope that this work goes successfully and that enough oil is found, in quantity and quality, to allow development. If we are successful in this drilling, we will have a further contribution to increasing oil production levels in the country, valued at 1.1 million barrels/day”, he said, highlighting that the department he heads continues to work on the search for oil offshore and onshore. “We are doing everything to develop areas where we have already made discoveries”, he said.
The minister said that the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas has been receiving requests from companies that want to develop oil activities in the country.
“We have received requests, not only from operators, but also from financial partners. Therefore, we are going to promote another bidding for 12 blocks. We have a block bidding strategy until 2025. During this period, we plan to bid for more than 50 blocks” , he highlighted.
He indicated that, for the next five years, the Executive’s goal is to help Angola have stable production that can contribute to improving the social well-being of the population.
Cabo Ledo gains from exploration
The communal administrator of Cabo Ledo, Clementina Palma, said that with the start of drilling and oil and gas exploration activity, in the Tubias well, in the Kwanza Terrestrial Basin (KON-11), the commune will benefit from social actions that will contribute to improving the well-being of the local population.
“We are happy with the start of drilling work in the municipality of Cabo Ledo. This action will allow us to contribute to the economic and social development of the locality, the improvement of the construction of schools, health centers, support for agricultural inputs and other social actions to favor of the populations,” he said.
According to administrator Clementina Palma, the presence of oil companies will contribute to increasing employment among local young people.
“We hope that Sonangol, as an operator, and its partners will contribute to the growth and development of the commune. We also hope for more investments, like these, that will benefit the country’s economy”, she said.
