Angolan oil output to surge over next 5 years

By Christopher Johnson and Joe Brock

LONDON (Reuters) - Angola's oil industry is booming as money pours in after the end of three decades of civil war, and officials say output could increase by as much as two-thirds over the next five years.

Buoyed by a scramble for energy and raw materials by China and other emerging nations, oil companies are spending tens of billions of dollars drilling oil and gas wells deep below the Atlantic many miles off the African coast.

Production capacity has increased steadily over the last two years and oil analysts say Angola could now comfortably pump at least 2 million barrels per day (bpd) and is increasingly only held back by political constraints.

Angola is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), holding the presidency of the 12-member grouping this year, and has been limiting output with other OPEC states to help stabilise oil prices in the wake of the global economic crisis.

But dozens of new Angolan oilfields will come on stream between 2011 and 2015 and oil analysts expect output to increase steadily to between 2.5 and 3.0 million over this period.

"By 2015, Angola should be looking at oil production closer to 3 million bpd," said Thomas Pearmain, African energy analyst at IHS Global Insight. "Production will be pretty flat from now through until about 2011 and then we will see a number of very big projects come on over the following three to four years."

SECURITY

Angolan oil output exceeded 1.9 million bpd last month when it briefly overtook Nigeria as Africa's largest oil producer.