Transfer Pricing Exemption for New Gas Consortium

By way of Presidential Decree 158/23, of 28 July 2023, certain project-specific transfer pricing rules have been approved for the New Gas Consortium. Under these rules, the New Gas Consortium is excluded from the general Transfer Pricing Regime (contained in Presidential Decree 147/13, of 1 October 2013) as regards the following transactions:

• Natural gas (including condensate and natural gas liquids) sales from the New Gas Consortium to Angola LNG Limited;
• Services provided by the Angola LNG project companies to the New Gas Consortium for the handling, storage, lifting and exportation of condensate.

These transactions are exempt from the Transfer Pricing Regime, and so their commercial terms cannot suffer any adjustments/corrections by the Angolan tax authorities under such Regime.

Other transactions or operations engaged by the New Gas Consortium which are not contemplated under (i) and (ii) above will be subject to the Transfer Pricing Regime.

However, the New Gas Consortium is under the obligation to prepare and submit to the tax authority the Transfer Pricing File and information required under the Transfer Pricing Regime, including as regards the exempt transactions described under (i) and (ii).

The New Gas Consortium is Angola’s first non-associated gas development project. In Phase 1 of the project the gas will come from the Block 2 Quiluma and Maboqueiro (Q&M) fields to supply the Angola LNG plant. First gas is expected in the second half of 2026, and plateau production is estimated to reach 300 mmscfd. Several new gas assets are planned to be developed in subsequent phases of the project in addition to the Q&M fields.

The project is operated by Azule Energy, the Eni/BP joint venture, with a 37.4% interest, and the consortium also includes Chevron (31%), Sonangol P&P (19.8%) and TotalEnergies (11.8%).

Rui Amendoeira – OneLegal Partner