Africa Oil & Gas: Chevron Group will continue to invest in the Angola LNG project

US group Chevron will continue to invest in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production project in Soyo, in Angola’s Cabinda province, executive vice president James (Jay) Johnson said on Tuesday in Luanda.

Launched in 2007 to take advantage of the natural gas resulting from oil exploration, the project brings together in Angola LNG, along with Chevron (36.4%), Angolan oil company Sonangol (22.8%), BP Exploration (13.6%), Italy’s ENI (13.6%) and France’s Total (13.6%).

At the end of an audience granted by the vice president of Angola, Manuel Vicente, Johnson said Chevron will continue to produce oil in Angola and said production would start soon at the Mafumeira Sul well in the southern are of block zero, in shallow waters, in Cabinda.

Johnson said, however, that new investments were conditional upon a review of the tax conditions under which the company operates in the country, which are currently being negotiated with Sonangol, as the national concessionaire, and the government of Angola.

“Angola has oil fields in quantity and quality, but the tax conditions are not very attractive,” said the executive vice president of the Chevron group, who called for the adoption of more competitive tax rates to encourage investment, according to Angolan news agency Angop.

Founded on 10 September, 1879, Chevron, based in the United States, is one of the major global companies in the energy sector, especially oil, operating in Angola for about 60 years, through its subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited.

In Angola the group has stakes in three concessions – Block 0 located in the sea area of the province of Cabinda, Block 14, in deep waters of the same province and the Fina Sonangol Texaco (FST) onshore area, in addition to being one of the shareholders of Angola LNG. (source: Macauhub)