Azule Energy, an Angola-focused oil and gas company, is looking to raise production by roughly 14% to 250,000 barrels per day by 2026, reported Reuters.

The company is a 50-50 joint venture between Eni and BP.

It was formed last year when the two oil and gas companies merged their Angolan operations.

Speaking to the news agency in an interview, Azule Energy CEO Adriano Mongini said the company plans to drill 16 exploration wells over the next four years.

Until 2027, its combined capital expenditure for exploration and production is due to be $7bn.

"By 2026, we expect to produce an average of 250,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The present production is around 220,000bopd and most of [the] increased... production will be through operated projects that are ongoing now," said Mongini.

The Agogo Integrated West Hub project, which comprises the Agogo and Ndungu fields, will play a crucial role in the higher output.

The Agogo and Ndungu fields are estimated to contain 500 million barrels of recoverable reserves.

First output from the group's New Gas Consortium (NGC) is anticipated around February 2026, five months earlier than initially planned, according to Mongini.

With bp, Chevron and TotalEnergies as other partners, NGC is Angola's first non-associated gas project.

The consortium is working on producing gas from two offshore platforms and a processing facility onshore.

NGC could boost Angola LNG's production from its current 700–800 million standard cubic feet per day capacity to more than one billion standard cubic feet per day, the executive said.

In September 2023, Azule Energy awarded a $300m (Kz248.82bn) contract to Sapura Energy for the Quiluma and Maboqueiro platform.