Page 9 - AfrOil Week 36 2022
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AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil
The news agency noted that both Sonangol government was looking to sell off several more
and Endiama had lent their support to the gov- state-owned companies before the end of 2022,
ernment’s privatisation programme by selling including the Banco Caixa Geral Angola lender,
off their shares in Banco BAI, Angola’s largest the Cabo Angola cable TV provider, the ENSA
lender. Their combined stakes, which amounted insurance provider and the Petrogalp retail fuel
to 10% of the bank’s equity, were used to launch seller.
the first initial public offering (IPO) of stock in The Angolan government has not said how
an Angolan business in June of this year, it said. much it hopes to earn from the sale of a minor-
Vilar, for his part, told Bloomberg that ity stake in Sonangol. Sebastião Gaspar Martins,
Luanda had already raised $1.25bn through the president of the NOC, suggested last year
privatisation sales, with Angolan firms account- that the IPO might generate proceeds of around
ing for 70% of buyers. He also noted that the €5-7bn ($4.97-6.95bn).
PERFORMANCE
South African official: Offshore projects
are viable at crude price of $70 per barrel
SOUTH AFRICA SHONISANI Manyaga, the chief economist for trillion cubic feet (821bcm) of gas off the south
South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources coast. These reserves are large enough to cover
and Energy, said on September 6 that the coun- the country’s demand for oil, which currently
try’s offshore hydrocarbon projects would be stands at around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd),
economically viable provided that world oil twice over, PASA has said.
prices remained at $70 per barrel or higher. To date, South Africa has made about 1.1mn
The government’s calculations show this to square km of offshore acreage – equivalent to
be the key threshold for upstream development, nearly three quarters of its 1.5mn-plus square
Manyaga said at a dialogue hosted by Petroleum km marine exclusive economic zone (EEZ) –
Agency SA (PASA), the national oil and gas reg- available for oil and gas exploration and devel-
ulator, on the co-existence of the hydrocarbon opment. It has also issued licences for about half
and fishing sectors. “Our base case assumption of the available acreage.
was $70 per barrel of crude oil or equivalent,” he Nevertheless, the country’s offshore fields
was quoted as saying by Argus Media. have yet to yield any oil or gas. Phindile Masan-
PASA estimates that the country’s offshore gane, the CEO of PASA, said at the event on
zone may hold as much as 27bn barrels of oil and September 6 that South Africa had not made
59 trillion cubic feet (1.671 trillion cubic metres) adequate progress on this front. Only seven
of gas. This includes 16bn barrels of oil and 22 wells have been drilled offshore since 2014, far
trillion cubic feet (623bn cubic metres) of gas short of the 10-year goal of 30 that the govern-
off the west coast and 9bn barrels of oil and 29 ment set in 2014, she noted.
South Africa has licenced about half of its available offshore acreage (Image: AAPG)
Week 36 08•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
