Angola Runs First Full Flow Test on Non-Associated Gas at Katambi-2, Block 24

Angola has completed the first full flow test on a non-associated gas reservoir in the country, at the Katambi-2 appraisal well in Block 24 of the Benguela Basin, according to the Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás e Biocombustíveis (ANPG) and Sonangol Exploração & Produção. The test recorded stabilised output of 41 million cubic feet of gas per day, with potential to reach 117 million cubic feet per day.

The well also flowed 1,160 barrels of condensate per day. ANPG and Sonangol said preliminary results confirm high-quality reservoirs.

Drilling and testing operations were concluded successfully and safely, the two entities said. Diário dos Negócios reported the same completion on August 6, 2026, naming Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção as the operator of the block.

The distinction between associated and non-associated gas is what makes the result a different resource category for Angola. Associated gas comes up with crude and is produced on the oil project's terms; a non-associated reservoir can be developed and flow-tested as a gas asset in its own right. Katambi-2 is the first reservoir of that second type in the country to be put through a complete flow test.

Sonangol Pesquisa & Produção is holding to its investment schedule and plans to drill one further appraisal well. That additional well is expected before the Katambi development plan is finalised, according to Sonangol Exploração & Produção.

Appraisal drilling before a development plan is the step where a discovery either firms up into commercial volumes or does not. The 41 million cubic feet per day figure is what the well held steady at during the test; the 117 million cubic feet per day is a technical projection of the well's potential, per ANPG and Sonangol. The gap between the two numbers is the range a development decision would have to price.

The project is estimated to generate more than 300 direct jobs, plus thousands of indirect jobs, in the southern region of Angola. Diário dos Negócios reported that the indirect employment would come through the supply and services chain in southern Angola.

The Angolan state news agency RNA carried the announcement on August 6, 2026.

For a producer whose upstream cash flow has been built on crude, a flow-tested non-associated gas reservoir is a separate line of resource with its own development pathway. Block 24 sits in the Benguela Basin, and the reservoir quality claim is preliminary rather than final: ANPG and Sonangol described the results as preliminary confirmation, not a completed appraisal. The second appraisal well is the observable next step, and the development plan that follows it will set whether the 117 million cubic feet per day projection is treated as a design case or trimmed toward the tested rate.

Condensate adds a second product stream to the same reservoir. At 1,160 barrels per day in test, the liquids yield is small against Angola's crude output profile but it is priced off the liquids market rather than off gas, which changes the revenue mix of any gas development built on this reservoir.