The BP-Eni joint venture Azule Energy, together with TotalEnergies, has pledged billions in investment for exploration, infrastructure, and enhanced recovery in Angola, as the country—Africa’s second-largest oil producer—shifts its focus to gas and LNG amid falling crude production.
- Azule Energy, Angola’s largest independent producer, said it will invest $5 billion in Angola over the next 5 years, drilling 18 wells of which two-thirds will be operated by Azule.
- TotalEnergies has confirmed a $3-billion investment into its Dalia Life Extension Project in deepwater Block 17, aiming to extend the life of mature offshore infrastructure and unlock incremental recovery.
Both announcements came in early September at an international conference in Lunda, Angola’s capital, where Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi met with the country’s President Angola João Gonçalves Lourenço.
Since its launch in 2022, Azule Energy has invested more than $5 billion in Angola, largely to support core offshore assets, “and during the next few years, we plan to invest an additional $5 billion,” Descalzi told reporters at a news conference.
Azule’s 18-well drilling program covers development and infill drilling where subsea and processing capacity is available and appraisal drilling where production can be tied into existing systems. Execution depends on rig scheduling, subsea equipment lead times, and the availability of marine services, according to Eni.
First Nonassociated Gas
Azule is also driving Angola’s first nonassociated gas project, the New Gas Consortium, which expects to bring its first gas onstream later this year or in early 2026 from the shallow-water Quiluma and Maboqueiro gas fields.
Azule Energy operates the New Gas project in partnership with Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol, Chevron subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Company, BP, and TotalEnergies.
Saipem won EPC contracts for the Quiluma platform through hookup and commissioning, and for the onshore gas processing plant near Soyo in the Zaire province which will supply feedstock to the nearby Angola LNG plant. Chevron’s Sanha Lean Gas Connection also supplies the plant since producing first gas in December 2024.
The Quiluma platform deck sailed away from the Ambriz Petromar yard in Angola in February 2025, pending installation on Angola’s offshore Block 2.
Italian engineering and construction firm Gruppo Antonini scooped EPC honors for the Maboqueiro platform, the largest and heaviest platform ever built by the group, and Gruppo Antonini’s first EPC award, according to the company’s website.
Natural Gas Fuels Angola’s Future
Angola’s national oil and gas agency, ANPG, forecasts an 18% or more increase in gas production to 3.66 Bcf/D by 2030 from 2.97 Bcf/D in 2025 driven by major projects like Chevron's Sanha Lean Gas Connection project and the Azule-led New Gas Consortium.
Further growth is expected from frontier exploration basins, including Namibe-Benguela, Etosha-Okavango, and Kassanje, with ExxonMobil and Vietnam’s Xuan Thien Group involved in exploration activities in 2025.
The government is also promoting synergistic development across hydrocarbon, mining, and agriculture sectors to drive broader economic growth, supported by regulatory reforms and licensing rounds planned for late 2025.
Angola added around 60,000 BOPD this year from TotalEnergies’ CLOV Phase 3 and Begonia offshore tiebacks which aim to stabilize production above 1 million B/D.
Angola’s oil production, however, dropped below 1 million B/D for the first time since the country left OPEC and the cartel’s quota system in 2024, a decrease resulting from natural field decline and a lack of upstream investment.
