TotalEnergies Makes New Discovery offshore Angola

TotalEnergies SE on Thursday announced a discovery in Block 17 off Angola’s Atlantic coast, which it expects to put into production this quarter.

Acacia-5 will be tied back to the Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, adding 6,000 barrels per day of production capacity.

France’s TotalEnergies operates Block 17 with a 38 percent stake. Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor ASA owns 22.16 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp holds 19 percent. Azule Energy, a 50-50 joint venture between Britain’s BP PLC and Italy’s state-backed Eni SpA, has 15.84 percent. The Central African country’s Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola EP (Sonangol) owns five percent.

“Acacia-5 is the second exploration success recorded in 2026 across TotalEnergies’ Angolan portfolio, following the recent Block 0 discovery in the prolific Lower Congo Basin, where TotalEnergies holds a 10 percent interest alongside Chevron, operator”, TotalEnergies said in a press release.

The Block 0 partners are also considering a tieback to Chevron’s existing infrastructure for the 105-4X discovery.

The discovery showed a hydrocarbon column of over 600 meters (about 10,000 feet) in the primary Pinda reservoir. The well yielded more than 90 meters of net pay with “excellent reservoir quality”, United States energy giant Chevron announced August 17.

Block 0 has already been put into production through the Mafumeira developments.

TotalEnergies also announced Thursday it had signed concession agreements with Angola’s National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) that will give the company 40 percent operating stakes in exploration blocks 17/25 and 32/21 in the Lower Congo Basin.

“These promising blocks benefit from extensive existing 3D seismic coverage and offer access to several prospective geological plays”, TotalEnergies said.

“They are located close to existing facilities in TotalEnergies-operated Blocks 17 and 32, where six FPSOs are currently producing, therefore allowing for future tie-backs and cost-efficient development of additional resources through existing facilities”.

TotalEnergies also confirmed it has entered into a preliminary agreement with ANPG and ExxonMobil to farm into exploration blocks 40, 41, 42 and 58 in the Benguela basin. TotalEnergies would own 35 percent.

“Exploration is a key pillar of our ambition in Angola, supported by the incentives introduced to encourage investment”, said TotalEnergies chair and chief executive Patrick Pouyanné. “Together with our partners, we aim to explore further and unlock new resources, sustaining a strong exploration effort to identify new opportunities across Angola’s offshore basins”.

Separately on Thursday QatarEnergy announced a new concession agreement with ANPG, Shell PLC and Sonangol for blocks 8 and 22.

“Under the agreement, and subject to the relevant governmental approvals and final contractual arrangements, QatarEnergy will hold a 30 percent working interest, while Shell (the operator) will hold 50 percent, and Sonangol will hold 20 percent in the two offshore blocks”, QatarEnergy said.

TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy made the announcements at the Angola Oil and Gas Conference.

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