Angolan Authorities are making statements touting the country’s achievement of crude oil output of 1.2Million Barrels of Oil Per Day.
“National production reached a peak of one million and two hundred thousand barrels per day on June 12, 2024”, reported Paulino Jerónimo, President of the Board of Directors of ANPG, the country’s upstream petroleum regulatory agency. “This variation represents an increase of around one hundred thousand barrels of oil per day, compared to the average of the last six months. It is these events that make us happy as players in the sector, because they give a clear signal of the combination of policies and all investments to mitigate the decline.”
Neither Mr. Jeronimo’s statement, made during the signing of two risk contract agreements with Chevron, nor the ANPG’s official press release on June 18, 2024, six days after the ‘milestone’, said anything about whether the output was sustained beyond June 12, 2024.
The ANPG release, however listed companies whose activities have led to the number. “Block 0, operated by Chevron, contributed considerably to this increase in production; Block 17, operated by TOTAlEnergies; and Block 15, operated by ExxonMobil”.
Angola hit a peak of 2MMBOPD in 2008, but output has steadily declined since then, such that Angolan officials repeatedly noted, in 2023, that they hoped their country could reach 1.2Million in the next two to three years and stay there, until a raft of large, new fields can be discovered and developed.
ANPG said that the June 12, 2024 milestone “seems to support the forecasts of the International Energy Agency, which – on the same day – advanced in its annual report that in 2024 oil production in Angola will be above 1,100,000 barrels of oil per day.”