MONTREAL (Oil Monster): Angola plans to overhaul its oil and gas licensing system beginning in 2027, opening more than 100 exploration blocks and cutting the time required to award concessions as the country works to attract investment and increase hydrocarbon production.
The proposed 25-year strategy would replace Angola's multi-year auction-round model with a faster, more flexible approach to awarding acreage, according to Alcides Andrade, a board member at the National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels, or ANPG.
ANPG wants to reduce the concession-award process to about three months from approximately six months today. The new strategy still requires approval and is expected to be considered later in 2026.
The most interesting part of the plan may be where the new acreage is located. ANPG data show that offshore concessions produced 99.85% of Angola's oil and gas output in August 2026, while onshore concessions accounted for just 0.15%.
Yet many of the more than 100 blocks expected under the new strategy are onshore. Angola is therefore not simply trying to speed up licensing. It is attempting to broaden exploration into areas that currently contribute almost nothing to national production.
Explore Angola crude grades and price data →The proposed reforms would substantially shorten the time needed to award exploration acreage.
ANPG currently takes around six months to complete a concession award, according to Andrade. The agency wants to reduce that period to approximately three months.
If achieved, the change would cut the concession process by roughly 50% and allow companies to move from acreage evaluation to exploration planning more quickly.
Angola's current licensing strategy has relied heavily on structured multi-year bidding programs.
The country's 2019–2025 concession strategy made blocks available through successive public bidding rounds, direct negotiation and limited tender processes.
Under the proposed long-term model, Angola intends to abandon fixed multi-year auction cycles and maintain a broader inventory of acreage available to investors.
The objective is to make the licensing process more responsive rather than forcing companies to wait for the next scheduled bid round.
Once approved, the new strategy is expected to make more than 100 oil and gas blocks available for exploration.
Most are expected to be onshore, a notable shift for a petroleum sector whose existing production is overwhelmingly offshore.
The exact list of blocks, contractual terms and release schedule has not yet been published.
ANPG also intends to move away from a standardized approach to exploration terms.
Andrade said commercial and contractual conditions would reflect the risk characteristics of individual opportunities.
A mature or marginal field, for example, may require different fiscal and investment terms from a frontier deepwater block or an undeveloped onshore basin.
The approach is designed to improve the economics of acreage that might not attract investment under uniform contract terms.
The regulatory overhaul is intended to address a structural challenge facing Angola's upstream sector.
Many of the country's major offshore fields are mature, meaning natural reservoir decline must continually be offset through new wells, tiebacks, discoveries and larger development projects.
Angola currently produces around 1 million barrels of crude oil per day and has repeatedly identified maintaining and eventually increasing that level as a national priority.
ALSO READ: Angola Targets Oil Production Around 1 Million Bpd
ANPG's August 2026 production data illustrate how concentrated Angola's current industry remains.
Offshore concessions accounted for 99.85% of total production, while onshore operations contributed just 0.15%.
Deepwater assets alone represented nearly 70% of national production, while ultra-deepwater fields contributed another roughly 15%.
The scale of offshore dependence makes the proposed opening of large amounts of onshore acreage strategically significant even if commercial production from new blocks remains years away.
The shift toward onshore exploration did not begin with the new 25-year strategy.
ANPG has previously offered blocks in the Lower Congo and Kwanza onshore basins through public bidding and direct negotiation.
In 2024, the agency made eight onshore blocks available through direct negotiation or limited public tender following the 2023 licensing process.
The proposed new system would expand that approach substantially.
The regulatory changes come as major international producers increase capital commitments in Angola.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in September that the company and its partners plan to invest approximately $10 billion in Angola over the next five years.
TotalEnergies is already Angola's largest oil operator, producing roughly 450,000 bpd at the time of that announcement.
The investment program includes major developments as well as continued exploration intended to sustain output from the country's mature offshore portfolio.
One of Angola's largest current projects is the TotalEnergies-operated Kaminho development in the Kwanza Basin.
The approximately $6 billion project will develop the Cameia and Golfinho discoveries in Block 20/11.
Production is targeted to begin in 2028 at around 70,000 bpd.
The development is particularly important because it is the first major project in the Kwanza Basin, opening another offshore production area beyond Angola's more mature basins.
Azule Energy, the joint venture between BP and Eni, has also committed significant capital to Angola.
In June, Azule and its partners approved the $5.1 billion Greater PAJ offshore development in the Lower Congo Basin.
The project will combine existing Block 31 production with discoveries in Block 31/21 through a new floating production, storage and offloading facility.
First oil is targeted for the first half of 2029.
ALSO READ: Azule Energy Approves $5.1B Angola Offshore Project
ANPG previously reported that approximately $53.4 billion was invested in Angola's petroleum sector from 2020 through 2024.
That included about $22.3 billion for development, $23.6 billion for operations and approximately $4.2 billion for exploration.
The figures demonstrate that Angola has continued attracting significant capital, but exploration represented a relatively small share of overall spending.
The new licensing model is intended to increase that exploration activity so future discoveries can replace reserves being depleted from producing fields.
ANPG has continued courting new international participants alongside established operators.
In April 2026, the agency signed a memorandum of understanding with Woodside Energy covering evaluation of offshore Blocks 25, 26 and 43.
The study includes geological, geophysical and well data and could eventually lead to investment opportunities.
The agreement illustrates the type of early-stage exploration activity Angola wants to accelerate under its future concession system.
The long-term strategy is not limited to crude oil.
Angola has also begun developing more standalone natural gas resources following years in which much of the country's gas production was associated with oil fields.
Azule Energy began gas production from the Quiluma field in 2026 as part of the New Gas Consortium.
The development is expected to ramp toward approximately 330 million standard cubic feet per day and supply Angola LNG.
ALSO READ: Angola Starts Gas Production From Quiluma Field
Angola's gas potential has also received greater attention following recent exploration success.
Azule Energy announced a major offshore discovery estimated at more than 1 trillion cubic feet of gas and around 100 million barrels of condensate.
Such discoveries support Angola's effort to develop a broader gas industry alongside its historically oil-dominated upstream sector.
ALSO READ: Major Gas Discovery Boosts Angola's Energy Prospects
Angola withdrew from OPEC in 2024 following disagreement over production quotas.
The move gave Luanda greater freedom over its output strategy, but it did not remove the geological challenge of declining mature fields.
Production fell from approximately 1.16 million bpd in 2024 to around 1.07 million bpd in 2025, according to IEA figures cited earlier this year.
Angolan officials have since emphasized investment and exploration rather than production restrictions as the path toward stabilizing and eventually increasing output.
Reducing concession awards to three months could accelerate access to exploration acreage, but it would not immediately increase crude production.
Companies must still conduct seismic analysis, secure permits, drill exploration wells, evaluate discoveries and make final investment decisions before commercial production can begin.
Deepwater developments in particular can take several years and require billions of dollars of capital.
The reforms are therefore best viewed as an attempt to increase the pipeline of future projects rather than a near-term production increase.
The immediate milestone is approval of Angola's new long-term hydrocarbon strategy later in 2026.
Once implemented, ANPG is expected to publish more detail on the available blocks, licensing procedures, contractual structures and timing of acreage awards.
The most important measure of success will be whether opening more than 100 blocks actually leads to additional exploration wells, commercial discoveries and final investment decisions.
For Angola, the ultimate objective is to convert faster licensing into enough new production to offset declines from mature offshore fields and push national output above its current level of roughly 1 million bpd.
How many oil and gas blocks does Angola plan to open?
ANPG says more than 100 blocks could be made available under the proposed long-term strategy, with many of them located onshore.
How quickly does Angola want to award oil concessions?
The agency aims to reduce the process from approximately six months to about three months.
When will the new Angola licensing system begin?
The proposed strategy is expected to be approved later in 2026, with implementation beginning in 2027.
How much oil does Angola currently produce?
Current production is around 1 million barrels per day.
Why does Angola need new exploration?
Many producing offshore fields are mature, so new discoveries and developments are needed to replace declining reserves and maintain national production.
Is Angola mainly an offshore oil producer?
Yes. ANPG data show offshore concessions accounted for 99.85% of national production in August 2026.
Will the new blocks immediately increase oil production?
No. Faster licensing can increase exploration activity, but successful blocks still require drilling, appraisal, investment approval and development before production begins.
Angola Crude Oil Grades, Specifications and Prices
Azule Energy Approves $5.1B Angola Offshore Project
Angola Targets Oil Production Around 1 Million Bpd
Angola Starts Gas Production From Quiluma Field
Major Gas Discovery Boosts Angola's Energy Prospects
Sources: Reuters; Angola National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels.
