Cape Town (Platts)--27Feb2013/1027 am EST/1527 GMT

Angola's state-owned Sonangol is targeting a 16% increase in oil production to hit 2 million b/d in 2015, and plans to auction 15 onshore oil blocks this year, state news agency Angop reported chairman Francisco Lemos Maria saying Wednesday.

Ten of the blocks are located in the Kwanza basin and five in the Congo basin in the country's north.

The company's chief also said Sonangol plans to invest $8 billion in exploration over the next decade.

Angola's production has been in decline over the last three years, largely due to technical problems and maintenance at some fields. The country, Africa's second biggest producer after Nigeria, averaged 1.73 million b/d in 2012.

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Meanwhile, the start of exports of liquefied natural gas from the $10 billion Angola LNG project has been delayed due to technical constraints, according to Angop.

Sonangol executive director Baptista Sumbe said a new start date for the project will be announced in five to six weeks once repairs have been completed.

A spokesman for Angola LNG on Tuesday said the company was in the process of "testing and restarting the plant in readiness for first LNG."

The Chevron-led export terminal is being developed in partnership with Angola's state-run Sonangol and has been delayed several times. The project was initially slated for a 2011 start date, but operations were pushed into 2012. Unspecified adjustments to on-site equipment led to further delays.

Sonangol's Lemos Maria said the company's Luanda refinery processed only 20% of the country's needs in 2012 and imported 4.4 million mt of oil products, an increase of 22% over 2011, according to Angop.

Angola's current refining capacity means the country is reliant on petroleum imports, particularly gasoline.

Sonangol has slowed plans to build a second refinery at Lobito as it struggles to meet the costs of the $8 billion project. Plans for the 200,000 b/d plant have been in the cards for some years, with startup now slated for after 2015.

--Jacinta Moran, jacinta_moran@platts.com
--Edited by Maurice Geller, maurice_geller@platts.com

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