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Petrosen is not the only member of RSSD to natural gas.
raise its stake in the project. Earlier this month, RSSD hopes to begin extracting oil from San-
Woodside Energy, the Australian operator of the gomar in 2023. Woodside said in June that it still
Sangomar block, derailed the planned sale of a expected to meet this deadline. ™
40% holding in RSSD to Russia’s Lukoil by Cairn
Energy (UK). Lukoil had offered to pay Cairn
$400mn for the stake, but Woodside said earlier
this month that it was exercising its prerogative
to pre-empt the deal.
Presumably Woodside and Petrosen will
divide Cairn’s stake, with 6.67% going to the
NOC and 33.33% going to the operator. This,
plus the 1.33% from FAR, would boost Pet-
rosen’s share to 18%. Meanwhile, Woodside’s
share would rise to 68.33%.
The Sangomar block includes three separate
fields – Rufisque, Sangomar Offshore and San-
gomar Deep Offshore – that give the RSSD joint
venture its name. Oil was discovered at the block
in 2014, and RSSD has determined that it con-
tains an estimated 645mn barrels of oil equiv-
alent (boe) in recoverable reserves, including
485mn barrels of crude oil and 160mn boe of The Sangomar block includes four fields (Image: Woodside Energy)

Qatar Petroleum signs deepwater

Angola deal to further expansion

ANGOLA STATE-OWNED Qatar Petroleum has bought a its global footprint since the small peninsular
30% stake in Angola’s ultra-deepwater Block 48, nation was the subject of an embargo by Saudi
continuing the expansion of its global footprint Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in 2017.
across the upstream and downstream sectors. The state oil and gas firm has acquired up- and
Announced on August 18, subject to Luan- downstream assets in Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, Guy-
da’s approval the deal is expected to lead to an ana, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique,
exploratory drilling programme in 2020/2021 Oman, South Africa and the US, targeting
alongside Angolan NOC Sonangol and Total of “frontier basins with significant hydrocarbon
France. QP described the 3,600-square km block resource potential”, according to Al-Kaabi.
as ‘drill ready’, with an average water depth of
2,500 metres.
The acreage is located in the ultra-deep
waters offshore Lower Congo Basin, around 400
km north-west of Luanda and 200 km west of
the onshore facilities at Soyo, where a refinery is
also being developed.
Qatari Minister of State for Energy Affairs
and president and CEO of QP HE Saad al-Kaabi
said that the deal was part of the company’s
“journey to build a world-class exploration port-
folio, by securing interests in promising explora-
tion blocks in diverse geographies.”
Total is the operator of Block 48 and owns
40%, with Sonangol holding 30%.
Angola has managed to regenerate interest in
the upstream sector by updating its E&P con-
tracts to provide IOCs with greater returns. This
has seen deals signed for offshore blocks with
super-majors Total and BP, as well as Eni of Italy
and Norway’s Equinor.
Meanwhile, QP has been steadily expanding Block 48 is operated by France’s Total (Image: Qatar Petroleum)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 26•August•2020