UPDATE 2-Statoil wins first Angolan operatorships

* Named operator in 2 blocks, partner in 3 blocks

* Could be production backbone for the Norwegian firm -VP

* ENI, Total, BP also agree to exploration deals

By Walter Gibbs

OSLO, DEC 20 (Reuters) - Norwegian energy company Statoil said it had been named operator of two deepwater blocks in the Kwanza Basin off Angola in its first assignment to lead exploration and production off the West African nation.

"We consider this some of the very best unexplored acreage left on the planet," Erling Vaagnes, a senior vice president for exploration technology and expertise at Statoil, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Norwegian producer will have a financial commitment of about $1.4 billion, including signature bonuses and a minimum work commitment, it said.

The company was awarded operatorship for blocks 38 and 39 and minority partnerships in blocks 22, 25, and 40 in a basin whose thick subsea salt layer is thought to overlay large oil and gas deposits, Statoil said.

Italy's Eni and France's Total said on Tuesday they too had been awarded deals to lead exploration off Angola [ID:nL6E7NK2Z4}, while Angolan news agency Angop said BP also expected to sign deals.

In the two blocks where Statoil will lead activities, it said, it was assigned a 55 percent ownership interest, while in the other three it was given 20 percent.

"If this comes in as we hope, this could be a backbone for Statoil for decades to come in terms of production," said Vaagnes.

He said Statoil would drill thousands of metres below the seabed through a salt layer, which mirrors one off Brazil where major volumes of high-quality light oil have been discovered in recent years.

"Beneath the salt in the Kwanza basin (off Angola) has not been explored before, so this is analogous to before the first discoveries in Brazil some years back," said Vaagnes.

He called the two areas geological "twin counterparts" and noted that the Brazilian and Angolan coasts were relatively close 120 million years ago.

FRONTIER PLAY

Tim Dodson, Statoil's executive vice president for exploration, called Angola's Kwanza Basin, "a frontier play with high potential" in water depths the company estimated at 1,500 to 3,000 metres.

The announcement followed a competitive bidding round organised by Angolan state energy company Sonangol for access to the blocks.

Statoil's financial commitment includes "probably the biggest signing-on bonus they ever paid. The total commitment is $1.4 billion and the signature bonus is I think the majority of that", Carnegie analyst John Olaisen said, adding the acreage was promising.

Statoil will operate Block 38 in conjunction with Sonangol, which has a 30 percent interest, and China Sonangol, with 15 percent. In Block 39 its partners are Sonangol with 30 percent and Total with 15 percent.

Statoil already has shares in five blocks off Angola, accounting for a third of the company's output outside Norway. In 2010 the Angolan continental shelf yielded 173,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in equity production for Statoil.

"This is a milestone in that they (Statoil) have only been a partner in Angola before," said Magnus Smistad, an analyst at Fondsfinans.

He said Statoil's leading role will let it show off Norwegian offshore expertise and technology.

The Kwanza Basin covers 25,000 square kilometres around the Kwanza River estuary. Significant discoveries were made atop the salt layer between 1952 and 1974, resulting in production of some 82 million barrels from 12 oilfields. <ID:nL6E7NJ4WX]