ERHC Energy Inc (ERHE)

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Sao Tome and Principe invites Angola to help draw up prospecting policy [ 2007-05-15 ]


Luanda, Angola, 15 May – Sao Tome and Principe has invited Angola to be a strategic partner in drawing up its oil prospecting and exploration policy, the Sao tome minister of Natural Resources and the Environment said in Luanda Monday.

Manuel de Deus Lima, who was received by Angola’s oil minister, Desidério Costa, told journalists that, “Angola, because has been an oil producer for many years, has vast experience,” and Sao Tome hopes to “count on an work with” this to move into “this process with some know how.”

The minister, according to Angolan news agency Angop, said that Angola’s experience was fundamental for Sao Tome to take greatest advantage of agreements to be established with international companies interested in Sao Tome’s oil.

According to Deus Lima, the training component is another area in which Sao Tome has asked Luanda for help, adding that nine Sao tome citizens were already being trained in Angola.

As well as the meeting with Desidério Costa, the Minister of Natural Resources met with the chairman of oil company Sonangol, Manuel Vicente, to draw up a new cooperation plan with Sao tome's Petrogas.

The relationship between the two countries goes back to their independence from Portugal in 1975, and Sonangol currently has investments in Sao Tome, mainly in fuel distribution.

Deus Lima, who has been in Luanda since Friday for a week-long visit and Tuesday was due to visit the Fpso Girassol, the survey and production ship that recently went into operation. (macauhub)