Pluspetrol sees 1st Angola oil output in 2012

CAPE TOWN Nov 3 (Reuters) - Privately-owned Argentine oil company, Pluspetrol, expects first output from its Angolan oilfield in the Cabinda region late next year, a senior Pluspetrol official said on Thursday.

"By the end of 2012 we expect to be in production. We are going to export," Francisco Pulit, senior vice president corporate development told Reuters on the sidelines of an African oil and gas conference.

"We are looking at other prospects in the same area," he said, adding the company intended to embark on an aggressive drilling campaign over the next few years.

Pluspetrol is the operator in the Castanha oilfield, the first onshore discovery in Angola for almost four decades, and its partners include state oil company Sonangol, local partner Force Petroleum and Cuba's national petroleum company Cupet.

Most of Angola's oil reserves are offshore, with BP , Total and ENI among successful bidders awarded ultra-deep water blocks in a new bidding round in January.

Angola has ambitions to overtake Nigeria as Africa's top crude exporter. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; editing by James Jukwey)