Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos has secured a 40% stake in the Angoche block and the contract is expected to be signed between June and July this year, an ENH source said a few days ago.

ENH revealed that it had achieved a historic feat of 40% of participation in oil exploration in the Angoche block, surpassing the barrier of 10 and 15% that it has achieved in areas that explore other mineral resources, during the reception of the Planning and Budget Commission last Tuesday.

"We were able, in a timely manner, to realize that this area, which is in the Angoche zone, in the Offshore part, has a high potential and we were also able to predict the reserves that could be associated with this block," revealed ENH's director, Rudêncio Morais.

Based on this finding, explains ENH's director, a strategy was designed to interact with the regulator, the National Petroleum Institute, but also with the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy on the "strategic nature of the area and the need to negotiate better conditions for ENH's participation".

This is undoubtedly "a historic achievement in an area in which it has been conditioned to private partners and it is guaranteed that ENH will have 40% in the research phase alone. We are currently negotiating the contracts, with a forecast of June to July so that we can sign the final contracts," said Morais.

The commercial arm of the state believes that it is possible to increase its participation in mineral resource exploration areas, as long as the costs of the research are borne by the partners.

"The legislation must guarantee that the AOCs bear the costs of research at 100% and do not share with ENH, even in the event of a commercial discovery. This means that there is already a window for recovering costs through oil-costs that the limit is up to 60% in the current legislation," argued the ENH director.

He goes on to say: "If this cost is recoverable through the oil-cost, there may be no need to also recover it through ENH's participating interest. For example, in the area where ENH has 40%, it (ENH) will have to pay, from the start of commercial production, all the costs of the research phase," the source explained.