The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Chevron Makes Significant Oil Find in Angola

[TOT could benefit from this find to a lesser degree.]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124969016012315885.html

›AUGUST 8, 2009
By SPENCER SWARTZ

Chevron Corp. said Friday it has made a "significant" oil discovery in Angola's offshore waters, underscoring the West African nation's growing significance to Chevron and the country's rising stature as an energy producer as neighboring Nigeria copes with militant attacks.

A Chevron spokesman declined to estimate how much oil and natural gas the discovery might hold, but it comes as the San Ramon, Calif.-based company is set to start pumping crude in coming days from a separate, $3.8 billion project also in Angola's offshore waters.

The recent find, based on a single discovery well, still needs further drilling to be confirmed, Chevron said. Oil discoveries pegged as "significant" by major oil companies such as Chevron often imply crude and gas resources of at least 500 million barrels.

Chevron's latest find marks the latest in a flurry of discoveries off Angola in the past few years that have made it Africa's biggest oil producer, with output of around 1.85 million barrels a day in July [#msg-39981218].

That title used to belong to Nigeria, but a constant flow of militant attacks the past three years on oil infrastructure have knocked out about 20% of Nigeria's output capacity.

Nigeria hasn't made a significant oil discovery in months and hasn't held a major oil-licensing round in more than two years because of internal disagreements about how to proceed with a new round. Angola's output capacity is about 2.1 million barrels a day -- up 53% since 2006.

Chevron has strung together a series of exploration successes in the past couple of years. It recently raised its full-year production outlook to about 2.7 million of barrels of oil equivalent a day, a 5% increase from last year [#msg-40127598]. The company produces around 500,000 barrels a day in Angola, up sharply from earlier this decade.

Chevron has a 39% stake in the recent discovery. Angola's state-run Sonangol has a 41% interest, while France's Total SA and Italy's Eni SpA each hold 10%.‹