Page 9 - AfrOil Week 38 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

“The supply prospects of the Italian market, but in late February.
also of the markets connected to Italy, are prom- Italy’s government and the Italian major Eni,
ising,” Hakkar declared. which is partially state-owned, have therefore
He also expressed confidence in the Alge- sought to secure more gas from other major
rian NOC’s ability to deliver all the gas it had suppliers – including Algeria, which was the
promised this year. “Sonatrach reassures its country’s second-largest source in 2021.
Italian customers of its ability to supply the con- Officials in Algiers have responded posi-
tracted volumes over the entire contract period,” tively to these Italian overtures and pledged in
Hakkar said. April 2022 to boost the volume of gas delivered
Russia has been Italy’s largest source of gas in via the TransMed pipeline. This link, which has
the past, but deliveries have declined (and have a throughput capacity of 30 bcm per year, has
become more erratic) since it invaded Ukraine been in operation for nearly 40 years. ™

Angolan oil production to rise 4.4% in

2022, Oxford Economics Africa projects

ANGOLA ANGOLA is on track to see crude oil produc- the January-August period and explained the
tion rise by more than 4% this year, the Oxford increase by noting that world crude prices were
Economics Africa (OEA) consultancy has said more than 40% higher than they had been dur-
in a newly published comment, cited by the Lusa ing the same interval of 2021, Lusa reported.
news agency on September 19. It also remarked, though, that Angola was
In the comment, OEA wrote that it expected not likely to sustain this steep year-on-year
Angola to extract some 1.18mn barrels per upswing through the remainder of 2022. Supply
day (bpd) of crude over the full year 2022, up chain disruptions and technical problems could
by 4.4% on last year’s figure. This would mark have a negative impact on oil revenues during
a continuation of the upswing noted in the first the September-December period, OEA said.
eight months of this year, when output averaged “In China, which accounted for 70% of
1.17mn bpd, up by 3.8% on the January-August Angolan oil exports in 2021, the confinements
period of 2021, it said. related to the omicron variety [of the coronavi-
The consultancy explained its optimism by rus (COVID-19)] adversely affected the recov-
pointing to the recent launch of new upstream ery of Angola’s exports and forced the national
assets. “Our short-term outlook for Angola is oil company, Sonangol, to sell oil cargoes with
optimistic thanks to the new projects: Phase 2 large discounts in May,” it explained.
of the Zinia project, by TotalEnergies [France]; Angola’s Finance Ministry reported earlier in
and the Cuida project by Italian Eni, whose September that the country had earned $1.25bn
production started in May and August 2021 worth of oil revenues in the month of August
respectively, in addition to the Cabaça North alone. Angola exported 1.085mn bpd of crude
and Ndungu projects,” it stated. at an average price of $112.31 per barrel during
OEA noted in its comment that Angola’s oil the same month, according to official data cited
revenues had risen by more than 72% y/y in by Jornal de Angola. ™

New upstream projects are bringing Angola’s oil output up (Photo: Sonangol)

Week 38 22•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9