February 8, 2025
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Angola and DRC sign agreement on common interest area management

The Governments of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed the Addendum to the Governance and Management Agreement of the Maritime Zone of Common Interest (ZIC), located south of Block 14 and north of Blocks 1, 15, and 31 of the oil concessions between the two countries.

The signing ceremony took place this Wednesday, October 2, in Luanda, during the 5th Angola Oil & Gas International Conference, opened by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.

The two Governments, represented by the Ministers of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino de Azevedo, and of Hydrocarbons of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Aimé Sakombi Molendo, signed the document that will be ratified by the Parliaments of both countries.

According to Minister Diamantino de Azevedo, the event, awaited for more than 20 years, is the realization of a dream for both countries. Angola now has the conditions in place to finally begin operations in the common oil exploration area.

“The operator has already been chosen, and I believe that from now on, it will be up to our momentum to finally realize this dream of the two countries,” he said.

The minister noted that “Angola already has experience with a project involving the Republic of Congo, the Lianzi project, and we will take all this experience to this new project as well.”

On the same occasion, the Minister of Finance, Vera Daves de Sousa, and the DRC’s Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, also signed a financial agreement to strengthen the bilateral economic partnership.

Speaking at the 5th Angola Oil & Gas International Conference, Minister of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Diamantino de Azevedo, highlighted that this edition takes place in a challenging international context, as the oil and gas industry shows signs of a positive trend, confirming its resilience and adaptation to adverse situations.

“Currently, energy security is the main topic on the global energy agenda, with various challenges related to accessing financing for oil activities, exploration, development, and investments planned for diversifying the energy matrix in developing countries.”

Diamantino Azevedo stressed the need for crude oil-producing and consuming countries to have a common agenda to ensure a fair and properly planned energy transition.

The head of the Mineral Resources, Oil, and Gas sector emphasized that since 2017, the Angolan government has been promoting reforms to improve legal, fiscal, and contractual instruments to create increasingly competitive and transparent conditions to facilitate projects in the Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream oil activities.

In this regard, the minister noted with satisfaction that traditional companies in our market and others have expressed interest in the exploration and development of oil and gas fields.

The official emphasized that the Government’s biggest challenge is mitigating the decline in oil production.

For this reason, according to the minister, the current focus of government action in this sector has been on maintaining the production of this commodity above one million barrels per day over the coming years.

The conference, which runs until tomorrow, October 3, under the theme “Boosting Exploration and Development to Increase Production in Angola,” is attended by members of the Angolan Executive and Parliament, ministers from Namibia, the Republic of Congo, the DRC, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Angola, representatives of international and regional organizations, and companies linked to the global oil sector were also present at the event.

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