Angola’s Sonangol Announces More Than 50 Companies Pre-qualified for License-round Bidding

LUANDA (December 20, 2005) — Sonangol, the Angolan state-owned oil company, has announced the list of companies who have successfully pre-qualified to participate in Angola 's current offshore licensing round. This includes 29 companies as potential operators and 22 as non-operators.

These companies will be invited to bid for blocks including 1, 5 and 6, which are located in shallow water on the shelf of the lower Congo and Kwanza basins; blocks 15, 17 and 18 (excluding development areas) in deep water of the lower Congo basin, and block 26, a deep water block in the Benguela sub-basin.

The announcement follows high levels of interest in oil exploration in Angola expressed at the company's successful roadshows held by IHS Energy in Houston and London. All pre-qualified companies are now invited to submit firm proposals for the concession blocks to Sonangol by 31 st March 2006.

Carlos Saturnino, Sonangol's Negotiations Director, commented on the announcement; “We are very pleased with the volume and quality of responses we have received from the interested Operators, and I would like to congratulate the successful companies invited to move on to the bidding round.”

The successful operators include; Addax Petroleum N.V., Amerada Hess Corp., BP Exploration (Angola) Ltd., Centurion Energy International Inc., CEPSA - Compañia Espanola de Petroleos S.A., Chevron, Devon Angola Corp., ENI Angola Exploration B.V., Equator Exploration Ltd., ESSO Exploration and Production Angola, Inpex Corp., Kerr-McGee Corp., Lundin Petroleum AB, Maersk Olie Og Gas A.S., Marathon International Petroleum Ltd., Norsk Hydro, ONGC Videsh Ltd., OXY of Angola, LLC, Partex Oil and Gas, Petrobras, Petronas Carigali Overseas SDN BHD, Premier Oil PLC , Repsol Exploration S.A., ROC Oil Company Ltd., Santos International Operations Pty. Ltd., Statoil, Total E&P Angola, Tullow Oil PLC , VAALCO Energy Inc.

Successful non-operating companies include; ACR – Angola Consulting Resources, Lda, AJOCO' 91 Exploration Co. Ltd., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Angola Japan Oil Co. Ltd. (AJOCO), Exile Resources Inc., Falcon Oil, Force Petroleum Group Ltd., Grupo Gema S.A., Initial Oil and Gas S.A., InterOil E&P ASA, Mitsubishi Corp., NIS , Noble Energy Inc., O.C.P. Lda, Orca Exploration Company Ltd., PetroSA, ProdOil, SARL, Soco PLC , Sonangol Sinopec International Ltd., Svenska Petroleum Exploration, Taiyo Oil Company Ltd. and Wodege – Sociedade Angolana de Petr óleos e Minas Lda.

Proposals must comply with requirements detailed on Sonangol's website (https://www.sonangol.co.ao/sonangolEP/concessionsBidSubmission_en.shtml ).

Additional documents including terms of reference, participation agreement, production sharing agreement and lease-block maps are also available on the Sonangol website.