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Azule Energy invests $5 billion in Angola over the next five years

Guido Brusco, Eni's Chief operating officer, said on Wednesday that Azule Energy, a joint venture between Italian oil and natural gas explorer Eni, and BP, will invest an additional $5 billion in Angola within the next 4 to 5 years. This latest investment will equal the amount invested in oil and natural gas projects in Sub-Saharan Africa’s No. 2 oil producer since the joint venture was launched three years ago. Angola's regulatory system has been overhauled to attract new investment as it aims to maintain oil production at 1 million barrels per day.

Brusco, speaking at an oil and natural gas conference, said that 18 wells will be drilled in the next 4 to 5 years. Two-thirds of them are to be operated by Azule while the other third is to operate by someone else.

He added that Eni was progressing on its second floating LNG platform in Mozambique, after becoming the first LNG exporter out of Mozambique with its Coral South platform. The Mozambique government approved in April the development plan of Eni's Coral Norte floating LNG platform. This cleared the way for the final investment decision.

The second floating platform in the country will double the current LNG production offshore Rovuma. Once it is operational, it will produce 3.5 millions metric tons per year for a period of 30 years. Brusco stated that Coral North FLNG is "technically and financially strong" despite the fact that one partner has yet to approve the project.

"We don't foresee any problems and you will hear about it before the end of the year." The majority of the current production is headed for the European market. South Africa also hopes to begin TotalEnergies’ long-delayed project on land, which has been delayed. (Reporting and writing by Miguel Gomes, Wendell Roelf, Editing by Sfundo parakozov; Jan Harvey and Tomasz Janowski).

(source: Reuters)