France's Total is eyeing a potential standalone development of its Chissonga complex in Angola, according to a senior executive at the country’s National Agency for Petroleum & Gas (ANPG).

ANPG director Natacha Massano told Upstream that the supermajor is carrying out development studies on a standalone solution, while adding that other options remain on the table.

Industry sources said Total has approached at least one provider of floating production, storage and offloading vessels to gauge the possibility of redeploying an existing FPSO.

However, it appears the operator has yet to decide on the best way forward for the Chissonga complex in Block 16, with a tie-back to existing infrastructure still on the table.

Massano said: “Total is now looking into the discoveries to try to find a way to develop them. They are looking into different options.

“At the moment, they are looking at a standalone project and evaluating the possibility of integrating the project together with any other projects that they may have, and Block 32 can be one of them.”

Another project watcher suggested that relocating an FPSO “hardly makes sense” because of Total’s “demanding” internal requirements around vessel specifications.

This source said the supermajor is “still up in the air” on how best to tap Chissonga as a standalone scheme.

Another source remarked that Chissonga “is probably off Total’s radar from the moment”, suggesting the operator is still undertaking conceptual work.

Upstream reported a year ago that Chissonga could be tapped via subsea wells tied back to either of the producing Kaombo FPSOs in Total-operated Block 32.

An alternative solution was to feed oil and gas from the Block 16 asset to one of Total’s four floaters in Block 17.

Total assumed operatorship of Block 16 — which hosts the Chissonga, Caporolo and Cubal discoveries — early last year after acquiring Denmark's Maersk Oil, which had ditched a development plan in late 2014 due to the oil price crash.

That defunct scheme was on a leased FPSO and tension-leg wellhead platform.

A group including Hyundai Heavy Industries and FloaTec had secured a letter of intent for the TLWP when the project was dropped, while the FPSO contest at that time was between Modec, SBM Offshore and Teekay Offshore.

It is unclear if Angola’s new marginal field legislation has been applied to Chissonga, although Massano discussed Block 16 in the context of an answer about how to maintain the country’s oil production at the current level of 1.5 million barrels per day by developing untapped discoveries.

“In almost every concession in Angola we have many marginal discoveries that (cannot be developed) so they have to have additional incentives” to turn resources into reserves.

As well as Block 16, Massano name-checked Chevron’s Block 0 as “probably one of the blocks that has a lot of those marginal fields”.

In addition, she highlighted BP’s Platina discovery in Block 18 and “a lot of marginal resources” in Block 31 which hosts the PAJ project and is also operated by the UK supermajor.

The first stage of ANPG’s strategy to maintain production, explained Massano, is to look at the potential of blocks that are already producing.

“We are encouraging our contractor groups to... work on that,” she said.

Other assets that could benefit from marginal field legislation, said Massano, include Sonangol-operated blocks 20 and 21.

These blocks — formerly controlled by Cobalt Energy — host discoveries including Cameia and Lontra.

“I am confident the discoveries are commercially viable and could benefit from marginal field legislation,” said Massano, adding: “Either way, they will be commercial.”

She said Sonangol is currently looking for new partners in the blocks, a farm-out process that ANPG is not party to.

“We have been consulted by some interested parties but are not involved in negotiations.

“We have to approve the companies that they (Sonangol) choose (and) we are following (the farm-out process) closely because these blocks have discoveries and it is very important they come on line as soon as possible.”

In the longer term, ANPG is relying on multiple licensing rounds to generate fresh discoveries.

Massano also sees a bigger future for gas in Angola after the government enacted legislation last year that allows oil companies to commercialise gas resources.

Previously, the gas belonged to the state and had no value for operators.

Massano said ANPG’s strategy is to ensure there is enough gas to feed the Angola liquefied natural gas plant, but the priority was to exploit resources for domestic use.

“We are looking into gas-to-power (and) new projects have been identified for domestic use.”

She said the government’s intention is to convert diesel-fired power plants to run on gas to “definitely benefit the economy”.

Massano also pointed out “there is a regional market for gas as well (and) is also something we are considering”.