By far the biggest discoveries were made by Cobalt Energy in the Kwanza basin pre-salt play, though Maersk Oil also had a significant discovery in Block 16.

Sonangol’s 2013 annual report stated that Cobalt’s Lontra-1 wildcat in Block 20 hit 1.2 billion barrels of oil resource, while in Block 21 its Bicuar-1A probe found 500 million barrels of crude.

These figures are much bigger than estimates released by Cobalt in a presentation in June that suggested Lontra’s resource base is between 250 million and 500 million barrels and Bicuar’s stands at 150 million to 300 million.

Sonangol