Page 7 - AfrOil Week 48 2019

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil
 “Any fighting in the vicinity of any of our facil- ities forces us to cease production in order to ensure the safety of our employees,” he was quoted as saying in a company statement. “When production ceases, all Libyans lose out.”
The NOC chief was speaking shortly after troops loyal to the Libyan National Army (LNA) regained control of El Feel. The field fell into the hands of a militia loyal to the Trip- oli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) on November 27, but LNA forces took it back the next day.
According to Sanalla, the fighting did not lead to any injuries or deaths among NOC staff. “Facilities sustained some minor damage, but workers were able to resume production once conditions were deemed safe,” he said.
El Feel has been under LNA control since
February of this year. The field is operated by Mellitah Oil & Gas, a joint venture split between NOC and Italy’s Eni. It is capable of producing about 90,000 barrels per day of oil and was yielding around 75,000 bpd when it was seized by GNA-affiliated troops.
Like Sharara – the country’s largest oilfield, with a production capacity of 300,000 bpd – El Feel sends oil to the Zawiya refinery and export terminal in western Libya. The refinery has a throughput capacity of 120,000 bpd.
LNA is an armed group loyal to Khalida Haftar, who controls most of eastern Libya. NOC has tried not to take sides in the clashes between LNA and GNA; instead, it has empha- sised its wish to continue acting as the only national oil operator recognised as such in Libya.. ™
POLICY
Angolan oil minister: ANPG should receive larger share of oil profits
ANGOLA
DIAMANTINO Azevedo, Angola’s minister of mineral resources and oil, has expressed sup- port for moves to raise the government’s share of profit from producing oilfields.
Speaking to members of the Angolan Par- liament last week during discussions of next year’s draft budget, Azevedo noted that the National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofu- els (ANPG) was currently entitled to only 5% of total profit. ANPG needs a larger share so that it can finance exploration work at new fields, he told members of the committee on economy and finance.
“This is a small amount because we need to invest more in hydrocarbon studies. It is neces- sary to study [Angola’s untapped fields], judging by the decline that we registered in production,” he said, according to the national news agency ANGOP.
Currently, he said, ANPG has no choice but to use its own funds to cover the costs of explora- tion and other activities. Angola has not offered any concessions to foreign investors since 2011, so the agency does not have partners in this area, he explained.
Without additional funding, he added, ANPG will not be able to collect adequate infor- mation on the country’s hydrocarbon fields. In this case, he said, Luanda might find itself at a disadvantage if it did try to auction off the sites.
Angola’s government has indicated that it favours raising ANPG’s share of profits from 5% to as much as 10%. Members of the Cabinet recently approved a measure that would allow the agency to take up to 10% of the total.
Luanda recently launched Angola’s first bid- ding round in seven years. ANPG closed the
bidding process for 10 frontier blocks in the Namibe and Benguela Basins last month but has yet to unveil the results of the auctions. It worked with the IHS Markit consultancy to hold road- show presentations on these assets in Luanda, Houston, London and Dubai in September.
The agency began acting as lease manager for the country’s oil and gas fields when it was established in early 2019. Luanda assigned this task to ANPG so that it could be handled inde- pendently of Sonangol, the national oil company (NOC). ™
Oil Minister Diamantino Azevedo (Photo: Economia & Mercado)
Week 48 04•December•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7