OIL COMPANIES BACK TO THE TABLE

ANGOLA’S oil minister Jose Maria Botelho Vasconcelos said international oil firms developing huge fields offshore from the southern African country may have to negotiate new terms on future field developments. International oil firms have discovered more than seven billion barrels of oil in deep water off Angola’s Atlantic seaboard but the impoverished war-torn country’s share of output is expected to fall over the next few years because of the contract terms its originally signed. Sonangol this month ordered the world’s top oil company ExxonMobil to cancel a tender for $3.1bn of work on a huge offshore oil development because it had not agreed terms amid a squabble over tax terms. – Reuters