The Angolan upstream petroleum regulator, National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), has announced the result of the Limited Public Tender for Block KON 13, located in the Kwanza Onshore Basin.

In the statement, the ANPG reports that Oando Energy is the designated operator of the block, with 45 per cent. According to africaoikgasreport, the tender was made public on May 24, 2024 and the bidding was held on September 3 of the same year.

The regulator says that 10% of Participating Interest is still available for award, for the NonOperator status, and that the award process for that minority stake will be carried out through a restricted competition, “to the companies that applied and did not win, for the Operator status”.

Oando, a Nigerian E&P independent, has been keen on gaining access into Angolan hydrocarbon property for over a decade.

In 2014, Wale Tinubu, CEO of Oando Plc, disclosed in a media chat that the company had “signed a joint venture” in both Angola and Mozambique.

But as the company has struggled financially over most of those last 10 years, it wasn’t clear that it still kept, in view, its pan African ambitions.

But Oando, which only in September 2024 took over operatorship of four oil mining leases (OMLs) in onshore central Niger Delta basin in Nigeria, from the ltalian ENI, now has a lot more on its plate with this Angolan entry.

ANPG explains that the bid process, conducted under the terms of Articles 4 and 5 of Presidential Decree No. 86/18, of April 2,