Angola’s state-owned oil firm Sonangol has today announced that it plans to award exploration rights to its onshore prospects by December this year.

Angola is to award a total of 10 contracts. Out of those, seven contracts will be for blocks in the Kwanza River basin and another three in the Congo River basin. The country is thought to have reserves of around 10.4bn bbls of crude oil, about half of which are situated in the Kwanza and Congo River basins. Sonangol had revealed last year that the 10 blocks may hold reserves of 700,000,000 BO each, on average.

Many international oil companies, including Chevron, Eni, Portugal’s Galp Energia and Colombia’s Ecopetrol, have voiced an interest in Angola’s onshore concessions. Commodities trader Glencore is another company that is keen on winning onshore exploration rights in the African country.

Angola is however the second biggest crude oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria, and the 16th biggest in the world. It pumps approximately 1.7mn bpd but has a small domestic refining capacity of 39,000 bpd only. Angola is a member of OPEC and a key majority of its oil production is exported to international markets, which amounted to about US$57bn last year. Oilreviewafrica reports.