Chevron asks Angola for tax cut

Chevron’s future investments in Angola depend on current tax negotiations with Sonangol, Angolan state radio quoted a company official as saying on Wednesday.

“Angola has oilfields in quantity and quality, but the tax conditions are not very attractive,” Chevron vice-president Jay Johnson was quoted as saying. “We have been working both with Sonangol and with various departments of the government of Angola so that we can make it feasible and we can invest. Our investment will depend on what will result from these negotiations.”

Johnson reportedly also told the Angolan vice-president the company would continue to invest in the Angola LNG project and that production from Mafumeira Sul would soon begin.

Other oil majors have been delaying investments in the country. By the end of 2016, Total was expected to make a final investment decision on the development of the Zinia field, a satellite of Pazflor. The project was originally priced at USD 2.8 billion in 2014, but subcontractors’ rates have fallen, cutting the estimate in half. First oil was anticipated in 2018, but with no announcement as of February 2017, that start date now looks unachievable.