Rosneft, one of the largest traded oil Russian companies, will get into the upstream of Angola’s petroleum sector. This firm undertook a working visit to the Republic of Angola and held strong negotiations with Angola’s government about the oil businesses.
As an overview, Rosneft was created in 1993 as a Unitary Enterprise. Now, it is an integrated oil firm 75.16% owned by the Russian government and 19.75% owned by the British Multinational oil-gas company BP. The rest of the shares are free float. The company conducts gas and oil exploration and production activities in many places like Siberia, Chechnya, Sakhalin Island. It supplies more than forty percent of the petroleum production in Russia. Angola, the second highest African producer of oil after Nigeria, represents an important proportion of the oil and gas reserves’ potential. The Angolan President, Dos Santos, maintains the economic growth of the country.
Last April 22, the Rosneft delegation led by the Company’s Vice-President, Andrey Shishkin, held discussions with the Minister of petroleum José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, João Baptista Borges who represents the administration of the Ministry of Electricity and Water, and the Head of the National Oil Company Sonangol Francisco de Lemos José Maria, concerning the possible involvement of a Kremlin-controlled company in exploration and development project in the East African gas powerhouse. Furthermore, this would not the first time the two countries would be in touch. Angola and Russia have recently strengthened their fellowship and partnership by way of VTB, a Russian bank, having helped Angola raise $1 billion in a private placement in 2012. The meeting was about wide range issues of geographical cooperation and upstream market exchanges between the parties. In fact, Angola represents a great market for Rosneft so that the company would profit from having its part in the petroleum reserve, which is estimated about 1.7 billion tons and liquid hydrocarbons estimated at about 3.5 billion tons. Seventy-five percent of the Angola’s oil fields are located in the large basins of Congo and Cuanza. The most prosperous field of hydrocarbon reservoirs, which Rosneft seems to be interested in, is concentrated at a great depth, in the ultra deep water territories. The firm states that no major gas reserves discoveries have been made in the Cuanza basin yet.
“This is one of the most explored gas and oil reserves complexes in Angola,” the Rosneft Company states. “These statements highlight that Angola has a huge and untapped energy potential that must be strongly exploited,” the company added. Apart from that, this country still offers many possibilities and opportunities for the economic development of Africa. But Rosneft did not give any details about what their gas projects in Angola may be.