HOUSTON—Potential investors wanting a look at what acreage offshore Angola could offer in terms of hydrocarbon riches got a chance to hear from officials of the country’s newly formed National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) on Sept. 10.

ANPG, which took over the role of concessionaire from state-run Sonangol earlier this year, showcased 10 blocks in frontier areas that will be offered when the country officially launches its offshore bid round in October. The blocks—which include shallow water, deepwater and ultradeepwater—are mostly located in the Namibe Basin. One block is located in the Benguela Basin, south of the Kwanza Basin and north of the Namibe Basin.

“We believe we will be successful with this exploration campaign,” Natacha Massano, executive board member for ANPG, said after highlighting some of the country’s major discoveries through the decades during the Houston stop of the roadshow. But “Expanding geological knowledge is something that we want to achieve. We want to guarantee that Benguela continues to have petroleum prospectivity. It is also our objective to replace our reserves; it’s our objective to stimulate investment.”

Angola also aims to prove working petroleum systems exist in the Namibe and Benguela basins.

Geology offshore Angola is believed to be similar to geology offshore Brazil based on the continental drift theory, which put the two countries near each other as part of the supercontinent of Pangea before Africa and South America separated.

Already, ANPG officials have identified potential leads—both presalt and post-salt—in both the Namibe and Benguela basins based on geological and geochemical repots, well data, gravimetrics/magnetometrics and seismic data. Information was shared during event, which was hosted by IHS Markit.

Adriano Paulo Mateus Sebastião, exploration director for ANPG, spoke of hydrocarbon prospectivity and field works that have identified source rock evidence in outcrops, potential presalt source rock, asphaltene and oil seeps.

“There is oil in the basin,” Sebastião said. “The source rock is there; it’s generating.”

The Namibe Basin acreage includes blocks 11, 12, 13; deepwater blocks 27, 28 and 29; and ultradeepwater blocks 41 and 42. Block 10 is the sole Benguela Basin block.

Though there has been little activity in the basins, other areas offshore Angola may provide some hope. There have been discoveries in the nearby Kwansa and Congo basins.

Italy’s Eni, for example, found success in the Congo Basin. Earlier this year Eni hit oil at the Agogo exploration project in deep water offshore Angola. The company has said Agogo and smaller nearby discoveries, Ndungu near the West Hub and Agidigbo near the East Hub, are believed to hold about 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place combined. The major oil discovery marked the third commercial find in Block 15/06 by the Eni-led consortium that also comprises Angola’s state-owned Sonangol and SSI Fifteen Ltd. since the relaunched exploration in 2018. The two others were Kalimba and Afoxé.

The upcoming round will come after Angola enacted in recent years several regulatory changes, which aim to expand the country’s reserves and prospectivity while attracting investment and improving its economy.

These included decrees that gave operators permission to procure goods and services for up to $5 million without consent from the national concessionaire, established a new tax regime for natural gas that encourages exploration with flexible commercial terms, created a special regime that allows further exploration in concession areas during production and granted fiscal incentives in an effort to improve the economic viability of marginal discoveries, according to Olga Sabalo, legal director for ANPG.

Angola’s production peaked in 2008 at about 1.9 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d), Massan said, adding today the country produces about 1.4 MMbbl/d.

“We believe that the reforms that we applied into the sector will give us the conditions for that production to be sustained,” she added. “There are … marginal discoveries that were already made and today due to the 2018 reforms we believe that we have the legal and contractual conditions to convert those resources into reserves and then into production.”

Production-sharing contracts will be awarded as part of the upcoming bid round, which officially opens Oct. 2. At that time, ANPG will release terms of reference, including information on the signature bonus, minimum work program, contribution to social projects, profit oil split, cost recovery ceiling, uplift and Sonangol’s carried interest. The deadline to submit proposals, which must be in Portugese, is Nov. 12. Plans are to award concessions on Jan. 17, 2020.

Angola is Africa’s second-largest oil producer, following Nigeria.