Angolan oil company Sonangol will honour financial commitments made with the commissioning of two drilling ships from South Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd (DSME), the Angolan state-owned company said in a statement.

The statement said the understanding was reached last Thursday during a meeting held on the sidelines of the Maritime Technologies Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas between delegations of Sonangol and the South Korean company.

Sonangol’s chairman Carlos Saturnino agreed on the mechanisms to be used by the Angolan oil company to pay down the debt with the South Korean company, so that the ships could start operating in 2019.

In a statement issued in March 2017, Sonangol had said it was negotiating a new business model with its international partners that would enable two South Korean ships to be put into service shortly.

Information released at the same time by the South Korean press indicated that US group ExxonMobil could provide US$879 million, needed for the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyards to release the two ships commissioned by Sonangol for drilling. (macauhub)