December 21, 2018 [Macau Hub] - Angolan state oil company Sonangol and BP have signed two agreements that will allow for the development of the Platinum project and extend oil exploration in block 18, at a ceremony held on Monday in Luanda.
The two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to begin negotiations on the financing and construction of the Barra do Dande refinery storage terminal, according to the Angop news agency.
The agreement to extend the production license in the Grande Plutónio project in Block 18 until 2032, subject to government approval, will allow Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção to have an 8.0% stake in that block, which currently has as shareholders the BP group (operator) and Sonangol Sinopec International Ltd, both with 50% each.
The Platinum project, discovered in 1999, is located at a water depth of approximately 1,300 metres and will be developed through an underwater connection to the Grande Plutónio floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO).
This project will be the first new development operated by the BP group in Angola, since the beginning of the PSVM project (Plutão, Saturno, Vénus and Marte) in the Block in 2013.
The agreements signed by the presidents of Sonangol, Carlos Saturnino and the BP group, Bob Dudley, open the way for the investment planned for the Platina development to take place in the second quarter of 2019, while initial production is scheduled for late 2021 or early 2022.
The future storage terminal at Barra do Dande, in the province of Bengo, will have an initial capacity of 641,500 cubic metres.
Present in Angola for more than 40 years, the BP group has invested more than US$30 billion in the country, with the oil extracted there accounting for 10% of the group’s global production.
Angolan sea block 18, where the Grande Plutonio project is located, covers an area of 5,000 square kilometers, at depths ranging from 1200 to 1600 meters, with five fields (Gálio, Crómio, Cobalto, Paládio and Plutónio), discovered between 1999 and 2001.
Grande Plutónio began production in October 2007 and, in addition to oil, supplies natural gas to the Angola LNG processing plant in Soyo.
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