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Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) is looking to invest in oil exploration in Angola as part of a strategy to diversify its sources of supply, according to a 21 August report in the Istanbul-based Daily Sabah. TPAO plans to invest up to $1.8bn in total in overseas upstream projects in 2015, according to officials from the Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry. TPAO is looking to acquire an onshore licence in Angola, where ten onshore blocks are on offer in a licensing round organised by Sonangol.

Statoil’s first operated well offshore Angola has come up dry. The Dilolo-1 exploration well was drilled on a pre-salt target in Block 39 but did not encounter hydrocarbons. The well is being plugged and abandoned and the Stena Carron drillship will move to Block 38 to spud another pre-salt exploration well, Jacaré-1. In total, Statoil will participate in eight commitment wells on pre-salt targets across five blocks, and the company is also participating in two more wells in the Kwanza Basin. These are the Puma well in Block 25, operated by Total, and the Locosso well in Block 22, operated by Repsol.

A naming ceremony for the N’Goma floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel was held at Porto Amboim on 18 July as Eni prepares for first oil from the West Hub Development Project by year-end. The FPSO is ready for sailaway to Block 15/06, and will then start mooring and hook-up operations. The West Hub project is the first development that will come on stream from the blocks awarded in Angola’s 2006 licensing round. The development of the Sangos, Cinguvu and Mpungi fields involves the drilling of 21 subsea wells, of which 12 are producers, four alternate water and gas injectors

On 10 July, NamPower and Angola’s Empresa Nacional de Electricidade signed a memorandum of understanding in Menongue, in Angola’s Cuando Cubango Province. NamPower has agreed to supply electricity to towns and settlements in southern Angola, upgrading supply in Calai, Cuangar, Dirico and Micuso in Cuando Cubango, and extending supply to an additional 20 settlements in the province.

Sembcorp Marine subsidiary Sembawang Shipyard has secured a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel conversion contract worth about S$600m from Saipem France for the conversion of two FPSOs for Total’s Kaombo project on Block 32.Under the contract, the shipyard will convert two very large crude carrier (VLCC) sister ships into turret-moored FPSOs for the $16bn Kaombo project, which is due to start up in 2017.Works include refurbishment of the VLCCs, construction engineering, the fabrication of flare, helideck, upper turret and access structure, integration of the topsides modules (which will be fabricated at Saipem’s Indonesian yard) and lower turret components, and pre-commissioning of the FPSOs.

Statoil has sold down stakes in its operated blocks 38 and 39 in the Kwanza Basin as part of its portfolio management process. Statoil has sold 10% in the two blocks to Ecopetrol. In Block 39 the sale was accomplished through two separate, but simultaneous transactions. Statoil acquired 7.5% from Total under one agreement, then sold a total of 10% through a separate agreement, reducing its net equity by 2.5%.

Total started up the Clov development on 12 June, bringing production from Block 17 to 700,000 b/d. After Girassol, Dalia and Pazflor, Clov is the fourth floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit on Block 17 (AE 278/11).The 160,000 b/d development links production from four fields – Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta – with 34 wells and eight manifolds connected by 180km of subsea pipelines to an FPSO unit at water depths of 1,100 to 1,400 metres. The FPSO has a storage capacity of 1.8m barrels of oil.

Houston-based Vaalco Energy plans a well on the Kindele prospect on Block 5 in Q4. Vice-president exploration David Cameron told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Independents’ Forum in London on 3 June that the block was on trend with Cobalt Energy International’s pre-salt discoveries, but exploration had been in limbo for some time following the departure of the previous block partner, Norway’s Interoil, which ran out of money. Sonangol P&P was named in 2012 or 2013 as 40% working interest partner in the block, in which it held 30% alongside BP and StatoilHydro before the block was licensed to Vaalco and Interoil in 2006.

transition to middle-income status, writes Thalia Griffiths with François Misser New funds are flowing into Angola’s power sector as the country’s infrastructure planning reassures donors that the government is serious about development. Brazil has approved a lending package of up to $2bn for the Lauca dam being built by Odebrecht, and the African Development Bank (AfDB) board has approved a $1bn loan for the Angola Power Sector Reform Support Programme. The World Bank has also promised support. While aspects of Angola’s financial management continue to attract scrutiny from governance watchdogs, recent developments have won the trust of donors.

Statoil has agreed to sell its 5% participating interest in the Eni-operated Block 15/06 to the concessionaire Sonangol EP for $200m, as part of efforts to rationalise its portfolio. Eni is expected to start up the West Hub project on the block by year-end, with wells connected to a 100,000 b/d floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, aiming for peak production of 80,000 b/d in 2016, from the Sangos, Cinguvu, Mpungi and Vandumbu discoveries. This will be followed by the East Hub project, sanctioned last year, to develop the Cabaça South-East discovery with ten wells connected to an 80,000 b/d capacity FPSO.

Total and its joint venture partners have made the final investment decision to develop the ultra-deep offshore Kaombo project on Block 32. An optimisation exercise reduced the total project cost to $16bn from $20bn, Total said. “With the launch of Kaombo, the upcoming start-up of CLOV and three exploration wells planned in the Kwanza Basin this year, Angola remains a priority country for Total,” said Total upstream president Yves-Louis Darricarrère. “While continuing our commitment to develop the Angolan oil industry, Total has significantly optimised the project’s design and contracting strategy in recent months. Kaombo illustrates both the Group’s capital discipline and objective to reduce capex.”

Chevron says the Angola Liquefied Natural Gas (ALNG) plant is running at around 50 percent capacity and has shipped three LNG and two liquefied petroleum gas cargoes so far this year. Chevron said the variable composition of the plant’s associated gas supply had affected its initial performance. The company said in its annual report that it expected the plant to remain at about 50% capacity until permanent modifications could be completed in 2015, allowing ALNG to consistently produce at its full capacity of 180,000 boe/d.

Austria’s Andritz Hydro will supply, install, supervise and commission electromechanical equipment for the 2,067MW Lauca hydroelectric power plant. The company told African Energy the deal includes supply of six 340MW Francis turbines as well as generators and other equipment. The order was received from the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project, Brazil’s Odebrecht, on behalf of the state Gabinete de Aproveitamento do Médio Kwanza. Lauca will be located on the Kwanza River, around 47km downstream of the Capanda Dam, and is expected to generate enough power to supply 750,000 people.

After buying out most of BP’s downstream sub-Saharan African assets in 2010 and entering into a lucrative partnership with DT Group to market Angolan oil into China, Trafigura and its partners seem set to become the biggest suppliers of fuel and logistics in Angola and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as major buyers of their minerals.Trafigura describes DT Group as a joint venture between its Singapore subsidiary Trafigura Pte Ltd and Cochan Ltd. The group’s interests span trading, shipping infrastructure, asset management, logistics and mining, as well as crude oil and products trading, mainly from and into Angola.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland on 4 February said it had examined a criminal complaint filed by the London-based NGO Corruption Watch and Angola’s Associação Mãos Livres regarding a 1990s debt deal between Angola and Russia, and had decided that no further action would be taken. “The events surrounding the repayment to Russia of Angolan government debts, dating back to Soviet times, shall therefore not result in further criminal investigations in Switzerland,” the office said. A 166-page report, ‘Deception in High Places: The Corrupt Angola-Russia Debt Deal’, released by Corruption Watch in April 2013 detailed how, in 1996, Angola restructured $5bn of its Soviet-era debt