Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis (ANPG), has awarded a contract to Edinburgh-based company, Belltree, to assist the Angolan oil industry regulator in assessing field performance.

The contract is for six months, and the analysis will determine the direction of future investments in Angola. The consultancy will collate data from every asset that ANPG has, and will process it for analysis using the bMark software. The software holds data on about 48,000 fields for comparison.

The company is also developing services and software to provide insights into Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), geothermal and offshore wind.

Speaking to Energy Voice, the Business Development Director at Belltree, Grant Stewart, said: “ANPG is focused on optimising production efficiency and recovery from mature assets. We are aiming to unearth hidden reserves and resources through our analysis. They will use the results of this to stimulate work and activity.”

“[Belltree will] develop a bespoke recovery factor benchmark for Angola”, which provides a way of determining how well a field is performing. It will also give the regulator “a ranked portfolio of assets that have upside potential.” The regulator can then use that analysis to determine how best to drive further investment.

“Late-life assets being considered for decommissioning are a liability for E&P companies, with no financial value. We hope that the UK government, and others, will start looking at new tax regimes to make these assets viable for CCS. That could be transformative.”

In 2017, Belltree also carried out similar work for UK’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA). At the end of the analysis, the report informed the OGA on recovery factor benchmarking. The company has also worked with Norwegian and Dutch authorities and several National Oil Companies.