ENI announced on Tuesday 6 April, that it had made a new discovery in Angola. The Italian Major’s latest oil discovery in its Block 15/06 concession offshore Angola underlines why Angola’s Prolific Basins and conducive regulatory framework continue to prove attractive despite stiff competition from new frontiers like Guyana and Suriname. It is also for this reason that the current bid round for three onshore blocks in the Lower Congo Basin, and six onshore blocks in the Kwanza Basin, run by the National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) is attracting a lot of interest from the industry. In the past twelve months, COVID-19 and resultant oil price instability have threatened investment globally in seismic acquisition, new drilling and other ‘non-essential’ activities. Yet what has remained constant during this period is the magnitude of Angolan oil and gas reserves, which not only represent some of the least explored basins globally, but also appear to grow in size with each new appraisal. According to an evaluation of its oil and gas prospects last November, Angola is estimated to hold up to 57 billion barrels of oil and 27 trillion cubic feet of gas – a substantial increase from previous estimates of 8.2 billion barrels and 13.5 trillion cubic feet – which would afford