The Kaminho Project — A New Frontier
The Kaminho deepwater oil project represents the single most significant new upstream development in West Africa. With a total investment of approximately $6 billion, it is the first large-scale deepwater development in Angola's frontier Kwanza Basin — a pre-salt geological province that has long been considered analogous to Brazil's prolific Santos and Campos basins. The project targets the Cameia and Golfinho fields in Block 20/11, located approximately 100 km offshore Angola in 1,700 meters of water depth.
Operated by TotalEnergies (40%), with partners Petronas (40%) and Sonangol (20%), the Kaminho project reached Final Investment Decision (FID) in May 2024 following a meeting between TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné and Angolan President João Lourenço in Luanda. The FID announcement was described by the ANPG as "important to showcase the opening of new oil frontiers in Angola." Production start-up is expected in 2028, with a plateau of 70,000 barrels of oil per day.
FPSO Kaminho — Next-Generation Floating Production
The centerpiece of the development is the FPSO Kaminho — a floating production, storage and offloading vessel being converted from the VLCC Alsace, a 299,999 DWT tanker built in 2012 by Samsung Heavy Industries. The conversion contract was awarded by Saipem to China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) at its Nantong facility, where engineering work commenced in mid-2024 and the FPSO conversion began in early 2025. The vessel will be TotalEnergies' seventh FPSO operating in Angolan waters.
The FPSO Kaminho is designed as a next-generation, low-emission facility. Key technical features include: all-electric design (eliminating onboard gas turbines), zero routine flaring through complete reinjection of associated gas into reservoirs, an 80 MW power generation system supplied by Siemens Energy, and potential for post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology capable of preventing approximately 8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over the project's operational life. The project achieves a breakeven below $30 per barrel and a carbon intensity of 16 kg CO2e per barrel — significantly below the industry average for deepwater developments. For complete technical specifications, see our dedicated FPSO Kaminho page.
Subsea Architecture & Construction
The subsea production system connects the FPSO to the seafloor wells through a network of flowlines, risers, and umbilicals. SLB OneSubsea was awarded a contract for a 13-well Subsea Production System to be developed in two phases — Phase 1 targeting the Cameia field and Phase 2 targeting Golfinho. The system includes standardized vertical monobore subsea trees, wellheads, and controls systems.
Saipem holds three major contracts totaling $3.7 billion: FPSO engineering, procurement, construction, transportation, and commissioning (Contract 1); 12-year operations and maintenance with an 8-year extension option (Contract 2); and the SURF package covering approximately 30 km of 8-inch and 10-inch subsea flowlines, risers, and umbilicals (Contract 3). Subsea fabrication is underway at Saipem's Ambriz yard in Angola, where the first steel was cut in mid-2025 with fabrication of over 5,500 tonnes of metal structures, 12 vertical suction anchors (each 170 tonnes, 24 meters tall), and an 80-meter flowline protector. Impressively, 94% of the workforce at the Ambriz yard consists of qualified Angolan professionals.
Block 20/11 — From Cobalt to TotalEnergies
Block 20/11 has a complex exploration history. The pre-salt play in the Kwanza Basin was pioneered by US independent Cobalt International Energy, which between 2012 and 2016 drilled 8 exploration wells making 7 discoveries — an extraordinary 88% success rate. Key discoveries included Cameia (2012), Mavinga, Bicuar, Golfinho (2016), and Zalophus. Cobalt estimated 1.3 billion barrels of gross resources across Blocks 20 and 21. However, Cobalt filed for bankruptcy in 2015, and the assets changed hands multiple times.
In December 2018, TotalEnergies signed a sale and purchase agreement with Sonangol to acquire interests in Blocks 20/11 and 21/09, paying $400 million at closing with an additional $100 million at FID and contingency payments capped at $250 million. In 2023, Petronas acquired a 40% stake in Block 20 for $400 million, establishing the current consortium structure. The geological setting — Aptian carbonate reservoirs below the salt layer, forming "string of pearls" structures along basement ridges — is directly analogous to the pre-salt carbonates that produce billions of barrels in Brazil's Santos Basin.
Angola's Oil & Gas Ecosystem
The Kaminho project operates within Angola's reformed petroleum institutional framework. The ANPG (Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis) is the national concessionaire, responsible for managing exploration and production contracts. The MIREMPET (Ministério dos Recursos Minerais, Petróleo e Gás) sets sector policy under Minister Diamantino Azevedo, who described the Kaminho first steel cut as "a turning point for the Angolan oil industry." Sonangol, Angola's national oil company, participates as a 20% partner following its transformation from a regulatory body into a competitive operator.
The regulatory framework includes Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs), which govern the fiscal and operational terms of deepwater development. Angola's licensing regime has been modernized to attract international investment, with the ANPG conducting regular bidding rounds for open acreage. The Kaminho FID was explicitly tied to "close collaboration with the concessionaire ANPG" — reflecting the improved institutional environment that has emerged under President João Lourenço's reform agenda. For a comprehensive overview of Angola's petroleum sector, including all operators, infrastructure, and production data, see our dedicated Angola Oil & Gas section.
Investment, Local Content & Workforce
The Kaminho project is a case study in deepwater investment economics. The $6 billion total cost, combined with a breakeven below $30/bbl, positions it competitively against global deepwater developments. For Angola, the project is strategically critical — it demonstrates that new petroleum frontiers can be commercially developed, potentially unlocking further exploration investment across the Kwanza Basin. The project involves over 10 million man-hours in Angola, primarily in offshore operations and construction at local yards.
Local content performance is exceptional: 94% of the workforce at the Petromar/Ambriz fabrication yard consists of qualified Angolan professionals. The supply chain encompasses Saipem's Ambriz facility (subsea structures), Petromar (metal fabrication), and a network of Angolan service companies supporting logistics, fabrication, and offshore operations. The workforce development dimension extends to a TotalEnergies-Sonangol MOU for technology sharing, including support for Sonangol's new Sumbe R&D center focused on reservoir geology, process electrification, and photovoltaics. See our Industry Directory for key contacts across the Kaminho ecosystem.
Market Context & Strategic Outlook
Angola produces approximately 1.1 million barrels per day — Africa's second-largest output — but faces natural field decline of roughly 10% per year from mature deepwater assets. The Kaminho project's 70,000 bpd is critical to the national strategy of maintaining production above 1 million bpd through 2027 and potentially increasing to 2 million bpd longer-term. Angola's exit from OPEC in January 2024 freed the country to set its own production targets, making new developments like Kaminho strategically essential.
The FPSO Kaminho will be TotalEnergies' seventh FPSO in Angola, joining a fleet that includes vessels on Blocks 17 (CLOV, Girassol, Dalia, Pazflor), Block 32 (Kaombo), and Block 0. TotalEnergies has been present in Angola for over 70 years — starting onshore, progressing to Block 3, then pioneering deepwater with Girassol, and recently setting a world record drilling at more than 3,600 meters on Block 48. The energy transition features of Kaminho (all-electric, zero flaring, CCS-ready) align with both TotalEnergies' net-zero ambitions and Angola's commitments under the World Bank's Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative.
Looking ahead, the Kwanza Basin's potential extends well beyond Kaminho. Ongoing exploration — including TotalEnergies' Grenadier-1 well on Block 20/11, appraisal of the Lontra and Zalophus discoveries, and new data analysis using modern seismic imaging techniques — could define a multi-project development hub in the pre-salt. The strategic outlook for the Kaminho project and broader Kwanza Basin development is covered in depth across our Market & Strategy section.
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