Angola launches onshore round

Sonangol has announced its long-awaited onshore licensing round, offering acreage in the Kwanza and Lower Congo basins. A roadshow will be held in London on 21 February, postponed from 3 February. The round will offer ten blocks, seven in the Kwanza Basin and three in the Lower Congo. Another five blocks will be reserved for Sonangol. Seismic company PGS is brokering 2,500km of newly acquired 2D seismic over the Kwanza Basin area, south of Luanda. The onshore has seen little modern exploration, but PGS says 133 exploration/appraisal wells were drilled by Purfina, Petrangol and Total before the early 1970s, resulting in the discovery of 11 oilfields and two small gas accumulations with combined oil in place of about 400m barrels.