Petroleum Law - Law 10/04 as amended by Law 5/19
Under the Petroleum Law and the Constitution of Angola, all natural resources are the property of the Angolan State, including all onshore and offshore petroleum reserves.
This law states that all petroleum operations – such as prospecting, exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas – can only be conducted under a specific licence issued by the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum; or by an oil concession awarded by the government.
The amendment made by Law 5/19 defined that the National Oil and Gas Agency (ANPG) is the holder of mining rights and responsible for concessions. Meanwhile, the National Angolan Fuel Society (Sonangol), which is the national oil company, has preferential acquisition and participation shares in oil and gas concessions and operations.
The Petroleum Law further outlines that operations shall be conducted prudently and take into account the safety of persons and facilities, as well as the protection of the environment and the conservation of nature (Art.7).
In carrying out their activities, the licensees, ANPG and its associates shall take the precautions necessary to protect the environment, safeguarding its health, water, soil and subsoil, air, preserve biodiversity, flora and fauna, ecosystems, landscape, atmosphere as well as cultural, archaeological and artistic heritage (Art. 24). Thus, environmental plans required by applicable laws, such as those specifying measures which should be taken in order to prevent harm to the environment, including environmental impact studies as well as management and environmental auditing plans, must be undertaken by these organisations.
All petroleum extracted and recovered shall be metered and recorded on a daily basis, using for such purpose methods and instruments certified under the legal standards in force, in strict compliance with the rules of good technical standards and the practice in the petroleum industry. Moreover, the supervising ministry shall be responsible for monitoring and inspecting all activities under the scope of petroleum operations undertaken by the licensees, the ANPG and their associates. This regulation also has provisions regarding reporting, information provision requirements and applicable penalties.
With regards to methane emissions, the law stated that all associated natural gas shall be used, expressly forbidding flaring. Exceptions are made for short periods of time when flaring is required, including testing procedures and other operational necessities (Art.73). In the case of marginal or small deposits, the supervising ministry may authorise flaring of associated gas to make exploitation viable. Furthermore, when gas flaring is authorised, the competent authority may determine that a relevant fee be charged in accordance with the quantity and quality of the gas flared and with its location.
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