Italy's Eni makes new oil discovery off Angola

Rome: Italian energy giant Eni announced a new oil discovery off the coast of Angola which contains 170-200 million barrels of light oil.

The Afoxe-1 NFW well, which has led to the new oil discovery, is located in the south-east area of Block 15/06, 20 km west of the recent Kalimba-1 discovery and some 120 km off the coast, 50 km south-west from the Olombendo, Eni said in a statement on Monday.

The well was drilled at a depth of 780 metres and reached a total depth of 1,723 metres.

The well has not been tested but an intensive data collection has been carried out that indicates a production capacity of over 5,000 barrels of oil per day, the statement said.

The new discoveries of Kalimba and Afoxé were now accounting together a potential of 400 - 500 million barrels of oil equivalent of high quality oil in place and represent a new cluster that can be exploited jointly, according to the statement.

Eni is planning to drill up to four new exploration wells in Block 15/06 next year.

"Eni is committed to developing this discovery leveraging its best-in-class time-to-market, whilst at the same time launching an intense exploration campaign that will fully support the company's mid-term organic growth in the country," company CEO Claudio Descalzi said.

Eni has been present in Angola since 1980 and its equity production is currently some 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Block 15/06 is developed by a Joint Venture formed by Eni (36.84 per cent, Operator), Angola's national oil company Sonangol (36.84 per cent) and SSI Fifteen Limited (26.32 per cent).