The creation of Angola’s new upstream oil and gas licensing authority, the National Oil and Gas Agency (ANPG), has been made official at the beginning of January 2019 by presidential decree. The new governmental body is progressively taking over the role of upstream concessionaire from the state-held oil and gas company Sonangol, which will be free to focus exclusively on oil and gas exploration and production activities.
Regulatory responsibilities will now be held by the ANPG, namely: propose plans and programmes for the evaluation of oil and gas exploration potential and implement regional development programmes. Besides, it will lead bidding rounds, manage production agreements, represent the state on profit sharing issues and be responsible for all oil and gas concessions, tasks that were previously Sonangol attributions.
The creation of this oil regulator is intended to reduce the bureaucratic load surrounding oil concessions and help increase crude production, which saw a 5% drop in 2017.