Angola Adopts Law on Marginal Finds
A bill authorising Angola's president to adopt new incentives and adjust the contract and fiscal terms for marginal discoveries has been passed into law by the country's parliament, Angola's state news agency said on March 31.
Angop reported that petroleum minister Jose Maria Botelhos de Vasconcelos presented the bill on March 30.
The law was adopted by 134 in favour, none against, with 33 abstentions, according to a statement on the parliament's website. It said that ruling party MPLA parliamentarian Maria Julia Ornelas said the aim of the bill was to stimulate investment in developing marginal discoveries, rather than keeping the country's petroleum wealth in the ground.
There was no specific reference to gas, either on or offshore, in either report. However the Angola LNG complex, now due to resume exports in 2Q2016 after a two-year interruption, was originally designed with a brief to supply 125mn ft3/d for local industrial use in the Soyo province of northwest Angola. An extensive subsea gas gathering system now exists offshore Angola to bring associated gas from big oilfields to the liquefaction complex, though to what extent smaller gas finds could access this system and tap a local market is unclear.
West African nations like Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana have had more success in developing gas for local consumption. In Nigeria some gas producers realised higher prices last year than in 2014 by developing small fields for the local market, rather than trying to sell it as feed gas to Nigeria LNG.
Mark Smedley