Angola projects more than $70bn oil and gas investment as majors sign deepwater deals

Angola's oil regulator projects more than $70bn of investment over the next five years across oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas and energy infrastructure as the country signs new deepwater agreements with international majors aimed at arresting a long decline in crude output.

The National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), the state concessionaire and upstream regulator, signed a series of exploration agreements at the Angola Oil & Gas 2026 conference in Luanda on September 9. They included executed risk-service contracts carrying defined work obligations, alongside entry agreements and preliminary Heads of Terms still subject to further approvals or final contracts.

ANPG chairman Paulino Jerónimo reiterated the investment projection, saying oil and gas remained strategic assets for Angola and describing the country's offshore acreage as a new frontier of opportunities.

“We will continue to improve our contractual models, especially when the geological, economic, or operational characteristics of the projects so require,” Jerónimo said. “Incentives should be designed to generate results: more research, more drilling, more discoveries (...) and more production.”

Binding deepwater contracts carry drilling commitments

The first package comprises risk-service contracts for deepwater Blocks 19, 34 and 35 involving Shell (LSE/NYSE: SHEL), Norway's state-controlled Equinor (OSE/NYSE: EQNR) and Sonangol E&P. The contracts carry minimum work obligations including seismic reprocessing and at least one exploration well, with exploration periods of up to five years and production terms of up to 30 years for approved commercial discoveries.

The contracts build on a November 2025 agreement involving Shell, Equinor and Sonangol covering deep and ultra-deepwater acreage in the Kwanza and Congo basins and mark a further step in Shell's return to Angola after about two decades.

ANPG also signed a risk-service contract for Congo Basin Block 33/24 with Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Shell and Sonangol. The consortium will reprocess 2,000 square kilometres of 3D seismic data and drill at least one exploration well as the work programme advances. The exploration period runs for five years, with production terms of up to 30 years for an approved commercial discovery.

TotalEnergies enters new acreage; QatarEnergy deal remains preliminary

TotalEnergies (Paris/NYSE: TTE) signed agreements to take a 40% operated interest in Lower Congo Basin exploration Blocks 17/25 and 32/21. ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) will also hold 40% in each block, with Sonangol E&P retaining 20%.

By contrast, ANPG's agreement with Shell, QatarEnergy and Sonangol covering Kwanza Basin Blocks 8 and 22 is not yet a final petroleum contract. Heads of Terms envisage Shell operating both blocks with 50%, QatarEnergy holding 30% and Sonangol 20%, subject to government approvals and final contractual arrangements.

Jerónimo said ANPG's objective was not simply to allocate blocks but to turn acreage into investment, discoveries and production. Angola's 2025-2050 upstream hydrocarbons strategy is awaiting final approval, while the government plans to accelerate its concession-allocation programme.

Angola seeks to offset mature-field decline

The investment drive comes as Angola tries to offset natural decline at mature offshore fields. The country produced an average 1.124mn barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, according to ANPG, well below its peak of close to 2mn bpd in 2008.

Mature developments including Girassol and Dalia are declining, increasing pressure for new discoveries and tie-back projects using existing offshore infrastructure.

TotalEnergies, Angola's biggest oil operator, has said it and its partners plan to invest about $10bn in the country over the next five years. The company also announced the Acacia-5 discovery in Block 17 during the conference, which it expects to add 6,000 bpd through a fast-track tie-back to the Pazflor production system.

ExxonMobil and its Block 15 partners separately announced the Vicango Este-01 discovery on September 9, where the well encountered about 25 metres of high-quality hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone.

Detailed schedules for seismic work and exploration drilling across much of the newly awarded acreage have not yet been disclosed.