Angola to license 11-15 new oil blocks every 2 years

By Shrikesh Laxmidas LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola plans to speed up oil exploration from 2014 by licensing up to 15 new blocks every two years, testing more wells in the promising pre-salt layer and developing its operations in Iraq, the country's oil minister told Reuters on Thursday. Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos added in an interview that Angola, which is Africa's No. 2 oil producer, will stick to a goal of reaching oil output of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2015 despite a downward revision for next year's production. He added that Angola, which will average output of 1.75 million bpd this year, sees oil prices as "satisfactory" and that the market is appropriately supplied by OPEC's 30 million bpd output.