Promoting new concession attribution processes that do not depend on the terms and modalities contained in the General Concession Attribution Strategy in force, approved by Presidential Decree 52/19, of 18 February, is the main objective of the Permanent Offer Regime.

Given the need to replace reserves and increase the exploitation of oil resources in Angola, ANPG proposed to the Executive the adoption of the regime of permanent offers of oil blocks and areas in order to promote the attractiveness of the sector.

In this context, ANPG proposed the implementation of a mechanism that enables the promotion and negotiation of:

a) Blocks already tendered and not awarded;

b) Free areas in concession blocks;

c) Concessions awarded to the National Concessionaire where it does not intend to associate itself with private, national or foreign investors .

With this regime, it will become possible to make possible various investments in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas through public tenders, limited public tenders and also through direct negotiation, under the terms allowed by Article 44 of Law no. 10/04, of 12 November (Law on Petroleum Activities).

It is, after all, a mechanism designed to promote oil concessions, without making them depend on the terms and contracting modalities defined in the Concession Allocation Strategy in force . This Strategy does not foresee, for example, the holding of tenders in the years 2022 and 2024, which restricts the capacity of the National Concessionaire to exercise its function of promoting oil concessions in these years, a fact that would contribute nothing to the national objective and of keeping the oil sector in full swing and contributing to the national economy and the development of Angola.

With the approval of the Permanent Offer Regime, it will be possible to have free areas in oil concessions, or even those concessions that are not part of the Strategy, as well as concessions that belong to the Concessionaire and those that, despite being part of the Strategy, did not have any proposals for award. In other words, it is a regime in which the referred concessions or areas will remain permanently available in the market, as if in a “showcase”, and susceptible to being continuously subject to promotion, negotiation and attribution.

In summary, ANPG emphasizes that with the entry into force of the Diploma that regulates the Permanent Offer Regime, the National Concessionaire will have a non-stop mechanism for the promotion and negotiation of free blocks and areas, which will work in parallel with the General Concession Allocation Strategy to make the Angolan oil sector more competitive worldwide.

It also underlines that previously there was no set of uniform rules and procedures in the Angolan law to manage similar opportunities. Now, with the entry into force of the OP Diploma, those blocks and areas are placed at the same level and in a “showcase” for non-stop negotiation by the Concessionaire.

Last but not least, blocks not awarded may be negotiated within the scope of the POs, and this new regime will apply to all blocks that are considered eligible on the date of entry into force. It’s because? Because investors do not all have the same interpretation of the potential of the blocks, which leads us to consider that what is not good for some may well be revealing for others. More than once, it has happened at a global level that a certain company prospects in a certain area, does not find anything that it is looking for, and the same area is taken over by another entity with significant discoveries of crude oil or natural gas. It is therefore necessary to provide the market with second and third opportunities.