Angola's stature grows as the petroleum flows

Angola, which shared the stage with the world's most powerful oil-producing nations at its first OPEC meeting here last week, is an unlikely candidate to be the global oil industry's darling.

An underdeveloped, war-scarred country that has suffered for decades because of corrupt leadership, Angola is one of the poorest lands on the planet. But ask any energy executive these days and another picture emerges: a place of immense riches, solicitous of foreign investors, and among the three fastest-growing oil exporters in the world today.

Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and others have poured billions into Angola in the last decade to unlock oil resources in the nation's deep waters, and the payoffs are finally coming in.

In recent years, Angola has become the fastest-growing source of exports to the United States and, along with Nigeria and smaller West African countries, it is about to become an important component of American energy security.

Within three years, oil-producing nations in western Africa will account for one of every three new barrels pumped worldwide. By 2015, the United States is projected to import a quarter of its oil from Africa, up from 15 percent today.

Angola's promise stems from a string of big discoveries some 100 miles offshore, which have increased the country's oil production tenfold since the mid-1970s, to 1.5 million barrels a day in 2006. Next year, Angola is expected to reach 2 million barrels and by 2011, 2.6 million barrels, the equivalent of Kuwait's output.

China has identified this country as a promising source in its rush for energy resources, providing billions in loans and development aid in return for favorable treatment of its oil interests. Last year, Angola overtook Saudi Arabia as the largest oil supplier to the Chinese.

source:www.chron.com