Angola’s Ministry of Mineral Resources, Petroleum, and Gas has confirmed plans to open a new oil and gas licensing round before the end of October 2025. Minister Diamantino Pedro Azevedo said the bid round will target acreage in the Kwanza and Benguela basins regions with untapped pre-salt and post-salt potential.
Although earlier exploration campaigns in the Kwanza Basin during 2010–2011 yielded limited discoveries, authorities remain confident that consistent licensing remains the path to new reserves. The government has repeatedly returned to these basins, refining fiscal terms and technical criteria to attract investors.
This upcoming tender represents the final stage of Angola’s 2019 licensing roadmap, which aimed to allocate 50 blocks to sustain production and offset declines from mature fields. It complements the permanent offer regime, which allows continuous negotiations for unawarded blocks, and the marginal field development programme, focused on smaller or previously overlooked assets.
Together, these initiatives form part of Angola’s broader strategy to maintain output above one million barrels per day beyond 2026. Recent legal reforms and a more flexible bidding framework are already drawing interest from both established operators and new entrants.
Beyond boosting reserves, the government wants the new round to increase local participation, encouraging Angolan service companies and investors to play stronger roles in upstream operations.
With this next licensing phase, Angola signals that frequent, transparent bid rounds remain its chosen route to attracting capital, advancing frontier exploration, and sustaining national production for years to come.
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