The prospect was disclosed at the Angola Oil & Gas 2026 conference in Luanda, where Panoro Senior Advisor Tim O’Hanlon joined executives from companies developing Angola’s onshore Kwanza Basin. O’Hanlon said Panoro is actively assessing opportunities across the country’s onshore, offshore, frontier and brownfield segments.

“It won’t be long before we are in Angola,” O’Hanlon said. “The government and fiscal terms in the country are very favorable for companies like ours to enter at this point in time, in this new chapter in Angola’s oil and gas history where competition is clearly rising.”

Panoro’s interest comes as independent operators move the Kwanza Basin from licensing and subsurface evaluation toward drilling, redevelopment and production. Several companies are pursuing different routes into the basin, from rehabilitating legacy fields to testing new exploration targets.

Afentra is moving toward production on Block KON-4, where it holds a 35% operated interest and is targeting first output from the legacy Quenguela Norte field in 2027. The company is also using recent eFTG data to identify additional exploration opportunities across its 1,387-km² license.

“We want to bring that experience and work with our partners to reopen and reestablish the Kwanza Basin as a key asset in the Angolan oil industry,” CEO Paul McDade said. Afentra’s entry builds on McDade’s experience in Gabon and the Republic of Congo, with the company describing Kwanza as an underdeveloped but proven hydrocarbon basin.

The basin is also offering Angolan independents such as Alfort Petroleum a lower-cost route into exploration. The company has evolved from an oilfield services business into an exploration and production operator and operates KON-8 with a 50% interest. It is now preparing for an exploration well as it moves from subsurface evaluation toward drilling.

“For a service company interested in the transition to exploration and production, moving to onshore makes a lot of sense in terms of logistics and capital,” Alfort’s Managing Director Gianni Martins said. The company has also drawn on the experience of earlier generations of operators in Angola’s oil industry as it develops its upstream business.

Meanwhile, Corcel is preparing for a 2027 exploration well at KON-16, where its subsidiary Atlas Petroleum Exploration has increased its participating interest to 85%, giving Corcel a 71.5% net interest. The company has completed its 2D seismic campaign and geomechanical work and appointed NRG Well Management to support engineering and well design ahead of planned drilling in the second half of 2027.

“We have enough information to drill,” said CEO Scott Gilbert. The planned well will test a pre-salt prospect that Corcel estimates at around 300 million barrels of prospective upside, adding an exploration catalyst alongside Afentra’s redevelopment program.