Via Energy Daily, Angola’s national oil company – Sonangol E.P. – announced that 10 blocks will be offered for tender in a licensing round planned for late 2007, part of its efforts to capitalize on Africa’s No. 2 oil reserves.
As the article notes, Angola possesses an estimated 10 billion to 20 billion barrels of reserves and, since the end of the civil war in 2002, oil output has increased significantly. Petroleum now accounts for about half of the country’s gross domestic product and 90 percent of Angola’s exports. Increased production has prompted double-digit growth in Angola for the last three years up to 2006 when the country posted a 14-percent increase in its economy.