Eni president Claudio Descalzi, on Wednesday met Angola's president Joao Goncalves Lourenco in Luanda to discuss the Italian energy giant's operations in the country, Eni said in a statement on Wednesday.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Eni and Angola's state oil company Sonangol also signed an amendment that added 400 square kilometres to Block 15/06’s west side, the statement said.
"This is in line with Eni's strategy to increase exploration activities in the country, chasing opportunities nearby the existing producing hubs," said the statement.
The extension of Block 15/06 positions Angola as one of the core countries in Eni's exploration growth strategy, the statement underlined.
Block 15/06, which is operated jointly by Eni, Sonangol and SSI Petroleum, is located approximately 350 km north-west of Luanda and 130 km west of Soyo in water depths ranging from 200 m to 1,800 m, Eni stated.
After the discovery of Kalimba 1 in Angola’s deep offshore in June, Eni set up an accelerated exploration programme and has already begun drilling activities with a schedule of 4 exploration wells, the statement added.
If successful this strategy will allow development of these new resources to be fast-tracked, "leveraging synergies with existing infrastructure and significantly reducing their time-to-market," said the statement.
Furthermore, new start-ups this year will increase production by up to 50 kboed, with production at plateau reaching a peak of 170 kboed early next year, the statement added.
Eni’s partnership with Sonangol also includes activities in the downstream sector, to improve the efficiency of Luanda Refinery and to support development of future plants, as well as gas exploitation and renewable energy projects, according to the statements.
Eni has been present in Angola since 1980. Equity production amounts to 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
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