Afentra plc has been awarded by interest in the KON-15 onshore license in the western part of Angola's onshore Kwanza basin.
Under the terms of the award, formally approved by government decree on Feb. 24, 2025, Afentra holds a 45% non-operating interest in the block, operated by Angola’s state-owned Sonangol EP. The formal signing of the contract is expected at a later date, the company said.
The formal award comes following its January 2024 confirmation as non-operating preferred bidder for both the KON-15 and KON-19 blocks. Since then, Afentra was awarded the adjacent KON-19 license, operated by ACREP, which was formally signed in July 2024 (OGJ Online, July 26, 2024).
Both KON 19 & KON 15 have good signs of a working petroleum system and contain wells that were drilled on salt structures with light oil recovered to surface in one and oil shows in others from post and presalt reservoirs, according to the company website. The blocks have limited 2D seismic data.
The blocks are sited adjacent to legacy oil fields currently being appraised for potential redevelopment and existing infrastructure.
The onshore Kwanza basin, covering 25,000 sq km, is an underexploited, proven hydrocarbon basin with oil fields and discoveries dating back to 1955. The basin produced over 15,000 b/d of oil in the 1960s and 1970s from postsalt traps.
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
