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African companies lead acquisitions of oil blocks sold by Sonangol
Four of the six companies that bought shares in eight oil concessions from Sonangol are African and represent a turning point in the history of the oil market dominated by European and American companies.
According to Sonangol, the upcoming list were the companies which submitted the proposals with the required standards which were aligned to those established by the state entity. “The partial sale of stakes in the aforementioned oil concessions, is part of Sonangol’s repositioning and sustainability strategy for its investment portfolio”, said the state oil company in a statement.
Namcor is Namibia’s state-owned oil company. In addition to research and production, the company also sells various petroleum products. The oil company began to show interest in the Angolan oil in 2021.
Based in London, Afentra was created to seize the various opportunities in the oil sector within the African market. The company is focused only on proven hydrocarbon basins where fields have been discovered or are currently producing. The company filed a non-binding expression of interest in two oil blocks in September 2021, following Sonangol’s announcement of an asset sale process in an effort to relinquish some of its stakes in eight blocks across its portfolio.
Also based in London, Sirius Petroleum is an Africa focused, oil and gas production, exploration and development company. It currently has it a diverse range of production and development assets, both offshore and onshore within the African continent.
Petrolog Angola is a privately owned company, created several decades ago as an oil services company, but over the years it has expanded its services to include Drilling, Surface Registration and Mud Engineering, Geophysical Prospecting, Exploration, Design Engineering and Project management. Petrolog is represented on four continents, with more than 12 offices in 12 countries.
Finally, the Angolan Somoil, created in 2000. Its corporate purpose includes Research, Development, Production, Marketing of Crude Oil, Distribution of Derivatives, Consulting Services and renewable Energies. The company has direct holdings in several active oil blocks in Angola.
In total, there are eight oil concessions in the country, partially sold by the Angolan state oil company, in a limited public tender and whose value of the deal was not revealed.
In a statement released last week, Sonangol states that Blocks 3/05, 4/05, 5/06, 15/06, 18, 23, 27 and 31 were open to a public tender for the partial sale of its participating interests.
According to Sonangol, the stake allocations for the Production blocks went as follow: (20%) was awarded to Afentra for Block 3/05; Namcor, Sequa and Petrolog were given (10%) for Block 15/06; Somoil and Sirius received (8.5%) for Block 31, and (10%) for Block 18.
For the blocks under exploration, the Angolan state oil company selected Namcor, Sequa and Petrolog for (40%) of block 23, and (40%) for Afentra.
For Block 27, Namcor, Sequa and Petrolog recived (35%) and Somoil and Sirius retained the remaining (25%).
