Global multi-energy company TotalEnergies and Japanese oil company Inpex have agreed to divest Angola Block 14 to Angolan company Somoil for an undisclosed sum.
Angola Block 14 owns a 20% stake in block 14 in Angola and a 10% interest in block 14K. Since 1999, the two offshore blocks have been in production.
TotalEnergies Holdings International has a 50.01% stake in Angola Block 14, while the remaining 49.99% interest is owned by Inpex, through a wholly owned subsidiary.
Angola Block 14 reported a net production of 9,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day last year.
TotalEnergies exploration and production Africa senior vice president Henri-Max Ndong-Nzue said: “By divesting this interest in mature fields, TotalEnergies is implementing its strategy to high-grade its oil portfolio, focusing on assets with low costs and low emissions.
“TotalEnergies remains the number one energy player in Angola, through its leading operating position in deep-offshore, its interest in Angola LNG and in a first solar power plant project, Quilemba Solar, located in the southwest of the country.”
Inpex indirectly holds a 9.99% participating interest in Offshore Angola Block 14 in the Republic of Angola and 4.99% participating interest in Lianzi field in the Offshore zone, which is distributed equally between the Republic of Angola and the Republic of the Congo.
Separately, Inpex has announced plans to begin exploratory drilling operations offshore Shimane and Yamaguchi prefectures in Japan.
The drilling activities are expected to help the company to locate oil and natural gas resources through its subsidiary Inpex San’in Offshore Development, which is responsible for exploration and development operations.
From early 2010, Inpex carried out geophysical exploration and evaluation activities in areas offshore Shimane and Fukuoka prefectures.
In 2016, the company conducted exploratory offshore drilling operations based on the results of the activities.
In a statement, Inpex said: “The results of these dr illing operations as well as subsequent geophysical exploration and evaluation activities have raised expectations for the location of oil and natural gas resources offshore Shimane and Yamaguchi prefectures, which has led to the planned implementation of the project.”
