Angola's State Oil Company Wants to Supply Zambia and Namibia

Reuters - Angola's government has denied a report by Human Rights Watch suggesting that $32 billion are missing from state funds thought to be linked to the state oil company Sonangol, state news agency Angop reported on Tuesday.

ByStephan Dube:BP (BP), a partner in the Angola LNG development, plans to invest $15 billion in Angola over the next decade. The LNG plant should be one of its biggest start-ups worldwide this year. Source: Angola LNG

LISBON (Reuters) - Angolan state oil company Sonangol has increased its stake in Millennium bcp, Portugal's largest listed bank by assets, to 15.08 percent, the bank said on Monday. Millennium said in a statement that the increase came after Sonangol, the bank's largest shareholder, bought 40 million more shares in the market on October 15. Sonangol and other Angolan investors have made large investments in Portugal during the European countries' debt crisis. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Angola will export around 1.74 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in December, up from 1.67 million bpd originally scheduled to load in both October and November, trade sources said on Tuesday. The sources cited provisional loading programmes from state oil company Sonangol as showing a total of 56 cargoes of varying sizes due to load in December, up from 52 cargoes in November. Angola is Africa's second largest producer, behind fellow OPEC member Nigeria. ...

Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s purchase of a stake in Israel’s largest natural gas deposit takes Asia-Pacific oil and gas acquisitions to a record US$99-billion this year, tying the U.S. for the first time. Australia’s second-largest petroleum producer yesterday said it will pay partners including Noble Energy Inc. an initial US$696-million and as much as US$2.3-billion for part of the Leviathan field. Deals by U.S. energy companies have fallen 35% to US$98.7-billion in 2012, while Asia-Pacific purchases increased 3.8%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The South Atlantic Margin may be on the verge of becoming a major new source of offshore oil (and perhaps natural gas) reserves and oil exports. The continuing success of Brazil, the recent discoveries in the Falklands and the rapid growth in exploration off shore Namibia suggests that offshore exploration for oil and gas is not only a very young industry but also a very promising one.

Originally posted at OilPrice.com, Last year was a record one for major new discoveries, and 2013 has so far demonstrated that the road to discovery still has plenty of mileage. The past two months alone have netted new finds in Egypt, a flurry of promising exploration results in East and West Africa, some important moves toward commercial viability in Kenya, more gas in the North Sea, an unexpected junior discovery in Brazil—and of course, more gains in Texas.

Despite territorial disputes with China over sovereignty in the South China Sea, Vietnam is pressing forward to develop offshore areas  it claims lie completely within is 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone waters. PetroVietnam General Director Thuc told reporters that PetroVietnam’s exploration for oil and natural gas in Hanoi terms “the East Sea” is totally within the area of Vietnam’s sovereignty and jurisdiction rights and within Vietnam’s continental shelf and EEZ under terms of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Vietnam News Agency reported.