In early December, Angola’s state oil company, Sonangol, advised the Nexoil-CityView-Energy Africa joint venture that funding of US$100 million had to be secured before the permit would be granted.

CityView has now received confirmation from the Mauritius-based First Global Funds PCC family of funds that this funding is available.

“Sonangol has been informed of this facility and as a result the joint venture satisfies the financial capabilities required for the granting of the concessional onshore Kwanza Basin acreage,” CityView said yesterday.

According to the company, the Kwanza Basin shares the same oil-rich structural history and sedimentation pattern, including salt tectonism and turbidite fan development, as other successful West African Basin oil projects, particularly the productive Lower Congo Basin immediately to the north.

“Potential for a major oil discovery lies in the active rift sequence sediments underlying the Aptian salt,” CityView said.

“A recent billion-barrel discovery has been made in equivalent active rift sediments onshore at MBoundi in the neighbouring South Congo Basin.”

Nexoil is a leading Angolan business house and is responsible for the processing of documentation from Sonangol.