CERAWEEK-Angola slashes oil project costs, but investments still scarce: Sonangol CEO

* Sonangol to cut project breakeven to $45/bbl - CEO

* No new projects expected to be approved in 2017

* Sonangol planning non-core divestment package for 2018

By Ron Bousso

HOUSTON, March 6 (Reuters) - Angola's state-run oil company plans to sharply reduce its costs of developing new deepwater fields but no new projects are expected to get a green light this year, its chief executive said on Monday.

The West African country's economy has struggled in recent years with a drop in oil prices and a sharp slowdown in activity due to the relatively high cost of Angola's offshore operations.

Isabel dos Santos (Dusseldorf: STS1.DU - news) , the daughter of Angola President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was appointed in June 2016 to head state-managed Sonangol in the midst of the worst downturn in the oil and gas sector in decades. She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) has since sought to revamp the company as pressure on the cash-strapped country mounts.

"We are working on the vision of the NOC of the future - a company that is much profitable, much more focused on generating return for the shareholder, a company that is a lot more accountable," dos Santos told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

Sonangol seeks to reduce the amount of capital needed to invest in new projects so they can work at an oil price of $45 a barrel, she said, which is well below the previous breakeven price of $80 per barrel.

"We are building a new capex structure to be based at around $45 a barrel," dos Santos said. "For new projects, we can achieve that. It is a bit more difficult for projects already under developments."

Offshore activity sharply declined in recent years and oil companies have struggled to make new projects competitive in current oil companies and the resurgence of U.S. shale oil.

Dos Santos does not expect new projects to be approved this year, but she noted that Sonangol is working with partners such as Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) , Chevron (Euronext: CHTEX.NX - news) and BP to make investments at a later date.

Operating costs in new projects in Angola have been reduced to $5.50 a barrel, dos Santos added, by revamping processes such as to share shipping and services logistics between nearby offshore blocks.

The logistics cost reductions resulted in a savings of $300 million over the past nine months, she said.

Faced with a big drop in revenue and a ballooning debt pile, Sonangol is looking at divesting non-core, non-oil and gas assets such as shipyards and production facilities for offshore supplies in order to boost its balance sheet and narrow the company's portfolio.

"We hope by 2018 to prepare an investor package where we would be looking at possibilities - either M&A or partnering in JVs or just divesting."

Dos Santos said that her position and Sonangol's board will remain in place no matter of the outcome of the country's presidential election later this year where Jose Eduardo dos Santos will not run.

"We're not part of the government ... We have a clear mandate that has been given to the company and we will fulfill the mandate," she said. (Reporting by Ron Bousso, editing by G Crosse)