The “Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis” (National Petroleum, Gas and Biofuel Agency), ANPG in short, is the Angolan petroleum regulator and “National Concessionaire”. It is also a sort of broker entity which collects the oil revenues that are allocated to the State and pays over such funds to the National Treasury account. As such, ANPG plays a pivotal role in the circulation of oil money and in ensuring the Angolan State receives its share of the oil revenue. How does this process actually work? The response is found in Presidential Decree 289/19, of October 9^th, 2019, which lays down the process whereby ANPG collects and transfers the oil revenues to the State, while keeping a slice to itself to cover its running costs. Below is a step-by-step outline of the process:

1. Under the existing Production Sharing Contracts with the investor oil companies, ANPG is entitled to a certain portion of the oil produced and to lift and export such oil. For each lifting, ANPG must determine whether such cargo is (A) committed to repay an oil-secured financing obtained by the State (“Committed Cargo”), or (B) is not associated with any financing (“Free Cargo”);
2. In case of a Free Cargo, the oil proceeds are deposited in a ANPG dedicated account and thereafter transferred to the National Treasury account. However, ANPG has the right to keep a portion of such proceeds (to be determined on an annual basis by the Angolan government), up to a maximum of 10%, to use for its running costs. This ANPG entitlement is currently (for 2022) set at 5%;
3. In case of a Committed Cargo, the process is a bit more complex. After each oil sale, ANPG must inform the Ministry of Finance of the sale amount and generate a credit note for such amount (insofar that the money was automatically used to repay a loan and not received by ANPG). This credit must be paid to ANPG (until the end of the following month) out of the surplus balance of the respective escrow account(s) which was/were created to secure/collateralize the oil loan(s);
4. If the said accounts do not have sufficient funds to pay ANPG, then the ANPG credit remains “open” until the accounts have surplus funds and/or a new Free Cargo is available so ANPG can be repaid;
5. At the end of each calendar year, a final-year reconciliation of the ANPG/MinFin “current account” balance must be produced to determine the amount of the ANPG credit (if any) which is rolled over to the following year.

One (very) important aspect of this mechanism is that the ANPG revenues are not based on actual oil sales but rather on an oil reference price which is established annually by the Angolan government. However, in case the market oil price is lower than the reference price, the lower price (market) will be used so that ANPG will not benefit from any “underestimation” of the oil price by the government. In the opposite scenario (market price higher than reference price), the reference price will prevail.

In brief, this is how the oil money circulates in the veins of ANPG and the State.

Have you ever wondered why the oil blocks in Angola are numbered and have names related to the Angolan oil basins? Are you curious why the oil fields within those blocks have names associated with, for example, flowers, musical instruments or fish species? This is not done randomly or on a whim. Quite the contrary, oil assets “nomenclature” in Angola is subject to very detailed rules and principles. These are contained in an Instruction (7/22, of August 17^th, 2022) issued by ANPG, the Angolan Petroleum Regulator. So, lets lift the veil on those rules.

Let’s start with the oil basins. There are 5 designated offshore oil basins along the Angolan coast with the following names (from north to south):

• Congo
• Lower Congo
• Kwanza
• Benguela
• Namibe

It goes without saying that Congo is Africa’s second largest river and Kwanza is the largest river that runs exclusively in Angola. Benguela and Namibe are the names of Angolan provinces. The vast majority of Angola’s oil production hails from the Congo and Lower Congo areas.

In addition, there are two inland basins designated as “Kassanje” (in the Malange and Uige provinces) and “Etosha/Okavango” (that straddles through the Cunene, Cuando Cubango and Moxico provinces). No oil is currently coming from these areas, although work in ongoing to assess their hydrocarbon potential.

Exploration and production areas are designated as “blocks”, and those that sit offshore are numbered from 0 to 50. Onshore blocks are numbered in relation to each basin and from 1 to a varying number. The exception is onshore Cabinda which is divided as Cabinda North, Centre and South.

Each block is assigned a “theme”. There are many themes and they can be very creative, including names of trees, fish species, birds, musical instruments, ethnic groups, traditional dishes, traditional dances, indigenous women names, locations, etc.. This is why we hear about the “Girassol” (sunflower) field in Block 17 or the “Kizomba” (Angolan dance) field in Block 15. These names are surely more fun than numbers or letters!

There are other more detailed rules regarding codes and IDs but they are not worth mentioning here.

We hope this information is useful or at least enjoyable to read!