Staff Reporter – The Zimbabwe Daily
Luanda, Angola – Africa’s second largest oil producer has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen a global decrease in the demand for crude.
Projects which were in the pipeline have now been delayed and exploration plans are being shelved due to the current market situation.
According to Siva Prasad, senior upstream analyst at Rystad Energy, the COVID-19 induced capital spending cuts may have thrown a wrench into the country’s plan for a bright oil and gas future.
“Angola desperately needs to accelerate its new developments to reduce its declining production and must undertake more exploration to replace its depleted reserves.
Despite the government’s efforts to make operations in the country more operator friendly, investors may quit Angola unless the government acts swiftly,” said Prasad.
Only around 10 cargoes of Angolan crude remain to be sold for export in August, but lack of Chinese demand has seen some grades slip around 50 cents from a little over a week ago. Chinese buying of Angolan crude is amongst the lowest of any recent trading cycle.
