Angola's oil development pipeline stalls

Two mega-projects involving eight fields are under construction, but both went ahead before Angola was allocated its restrictive Opec production quota, of 1.517m barrels a day (b/d), in January 2009. Total launched its Pazflor development, covering the Perpétua, Hortensia, Zinia and Acacia fields in Block 17, at the end of 2007, while BP started on its Plutão, Saturno, Vênus and Marte (PSVM) development in Block 31 in July 2008. Both are due on stream next year and should reach their plateau rates – 220,000 b/d for Pazflor, 150,000 b/d for PSVM – in 2012 or soon after. The additional flows, together with growth off Cabinda, will raise the country's capacity from 2.1m b/d at present to about