Company News in Brief
Angola expects oil-backed China loans to drop to $7.5 bln to $8 bln by year-end
Angola's oil-backed loans owed to China will drop to around $7.5 billion to $8.0 billion by the end of the year, the director of the country's debt management office said, as the government moves to reduce its reliance on resource-backed financing.
"All debt collateralised by oil revenues is concentrated in agreements with China, which have been gradually reduced in recent years," Dorivaldo Teixeira, Director of Debt Management Unit in the finance ministry, told Reuters late on Wednesday.
Angola has been trying to reduce its exposure to resource-backed loans amid a more challenging external environment that has seen volatility in commodity prices, higher interest rates and changing risk perceptions.
Oil-backed loans to China stood at $10.146 billion at the end of last year, official data showed, and had already dropped to $8.943 billion at the end of last month.
Angola stopped contracting asset-backed loans with China in 2017, Teixeira said.
"The government has adopted a more cautious and transparent approach to contracting external financing," he said.
The southern African country has paused plans to sell debt on international capital markets for now, Teixeira added, citing the uncertain external backdrop.
- REUTERS
China's Sinopec signs contract to explore Algerian gas block
China's state oil and gas major Sinopec Group said it has signed a contract to explore a natural gas block in Algeria that potentially holds large shale gas resource.
The contract was signed earlier this week between Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corporation (SIPC) and state-run Algerian oil and gas company Sonatrach.
The North African country last month awarded Sinopec via an international tender to explore and develop block Guern El Guessa II, or GEG, which has an area of 36,000 square kilometers, located in the Gourara-Timimoun Basin in southwestern Algeria.
inopec is one of China's earliest shale gas developers, operating flagship Fuling field in China's southwest that is the country's single-largest shale gas project.
The GEG contract follows an earlier $850 million deal in February in which Sinopec and Sonatrach agreed to jointly explore and develop Hassi Berkane-North field.
-REUTERS
Angola's oil-backed loans owed to China will drop to around $7.5 billion to $8.0 billion by the end of the year, the director of the country's debt management office said, as the government moves to reduce its reliance on resource-backed financing.
"All debt collateralised by oil revenues is concentrated in agreements with China, which have been gradually reduced in recent years," Dorivaldo Teixeira, Director of Debt Management Unit in the finance ministry, told Reuters late on Wednesday.
Angola has been trying to reduce its exposure to resource-backed loans amid a more challenging external environment that has seen volatility in commodity prices, higher interest rates and changing risk perceptions.
Oil-backed loans to China stood at $10.146 billion at the end of last year, official data showed, and had already dropped to $8.943 billion at the end of last month.
Angola stopped contracting asset-backed loans with China in 2017, Teixeira said.
"The government has adopted a more cautious and transparent approach to contracting external financing," he said.
The southern African country has paused plans to sell debt on international capital markets for now, Teixeira added, citing the uncertain external backdrop.
- REUTERS
China's Sinopec signs contract to explore Algerian gas block
China's state oil and gas major Sinopec Group said it has signed a contract to explore a natural gas block in Algeria that potentially holds large shale gas resource.
The contract was signed earlier this week between Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corporation (SIPC) and state-run Algerian oil and gas company Sonatrach.
The North African country last month awarded Sinopec via an international tender to explore and develop block Guern El Guessa II, or GEG, which has an area of 36,000 square kilometers, located in the Gourara-Timimoun Basin in southwestern Algeria.
inopec is one of China's earliest shale gas developers, operating flagship Fuling field in China's southwest that is the country's single-largest shale gas project.
The GEG contract follows an earlier $850 million deal in February in which Sinopec and Sonatrach agreed to jointly explore and develop Hassi Berkane-North field.
-REUTERS
