(Ecofin Agency) - Congo and Angola will produce the first oil barrels on their common project on the offshore Lianzi deposit starting from October, according to Les dépêches de Brazzaville.

The Angolan minister of Oil Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos and his Congolese counterpart André Raphaël Loemba confirmed, on 31 July, this timeline, following the 24^th meeting of the interstate operational committee of the Lianzi well. “After searching for companies, Congo and Angola have decided to jointly operate the deposit called Lianzi. For this implementation, a lot of work has been needed since 2002”, explained André Raphaël Loemba.

The production volume at the start has not yet been revealed and will only be at the end of the next meeting. However, the 22^nd meeting of the interstate committee has announced a volume of 3,500 oil barrels per day which should be accelerated to 10,000 barrels per day.

The project holds proven reserves of 70 million barrels, according to figures dating back to 2012, and its revenue will be equitably shared by the two countries.

The American multinational Chevron, listed in New York, is the operator and announced, a few years back, having invested USD 2.5 billion.

The committee is made up of, apart from representative from the two states, the companies SNPC for Congo and Sonangol for Angola, and the companies Chevron and Total & EP for Congo and CABGOC and Total Block 14BV for Angola.