Cabinda started fighting for independence a decade before the former Portuguese colony was annexed by Angola in 1975. After the virtual military defeat of the pro-independence army FLEC in 2003, Cabinda is mainly peaceful under the control of some 30,000 Angolan troops. Cabinda, which already produces around 60 percent of Angola's oil revenue, however still dreams of independence and its own oil revenues.

Today, a new era in Cabinda's oil and gas production started with the first oil flowing from the large offshore Bomboco Field. The field, on the Block 0 concession offshore Malongo, is operated by Cabinda Gulf Oil Company (CABGOC), an Angolan subsidiary of the US oil giant ChevronTexaco. It will be one of ChevronTexaco's main producers off Africa's Atlantic coast in the years to come.

Bomboco is "expected to reach an average daily production of 30,000 barrels of oil within the next year" and is an integral component of CABGOC's Sanha Condensate project, according to a statement issued by the company today. The Sanha processing facilities first received condensate - a valuable, light oil - from surrounding fields last month and first gas injection is expected to occur later this month.

Condensate production from the Sanha field is scheduled to start early in the first quarter and first liquefied petroleum gas - a mixture of butane and propane - production from the Sanha floating production, storage and off-loading vessel is forecast for early in the second quarter, according to ChevronTexaco.

Combined Sanha and Bomboco peak production of an estimated 100,000 barrels per day of oil and liquefied petroleum gas is anticipated in 2007, the company says. The broader Sanha Condensate project is to "give a boost to ChevronTexaco's production in Africa," John Watson of the US oil company said today.

What truly sets Sanha apart is the creativity of its concept and its complexity, added Jim Blackwell of ChevronTexaco Southern Africa. "The project team, contractors and suppliers have delivered the Sanha and Bomboco development projects on time, on budget and with world-class safety performance," he commented on the complicated operation.

The Bomboco and Sanha fields offshore Cabinda are operated by oil companies based in the United States - despite the local name - and in Luanda, the capital of Angola. ChevronTexaco's Cabinda Gulf Oil Company owns 39.2 percent of the block and is operator. Angola's Sonangol owns 41 percent, Total 10 percent and Eni Angola Exploration 9.8 percent.

There are however still no concrete plans to return some of the oil revenues produced offshore Cabinda to the troubled province. Cabinda's FLEC separatist movement, currently virtually destroyed by the Angolan army, has demanded autonomy and larger local control of oil revenues before finally handing in their arms and accept being incorporated in Angola.

No negotiations are however currently held, as Luanda claims to have won a total military victory. Economic concessions to the Cabindan population are thus not expected in the near future. In the oil boom going on off the Cabindan coast, natural resources and revenues are shipped off directly to Luanda and America, without even passing by the enclave.

Indeed, the massive occupation of Cabinda by Angolan troops - made possible by the end of the civil war in mainland Angola in 2002 - has only increased misery for Cabindans, according to recent reports. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch two weeks ago reported on "extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other mistreatment, as well as sexual violence" committed regularly by the Angolan army in Cabinda.

Further, the army was denying civilians their freedom of movement, thus even deepening the poverty in Cabinda. Civilians had been unable to cultivate their crops or access their hunting grounds and rivers. As one displaced woman told Human Rights Watch: "The Angolan army does not allow women to go and cultivate our fields, so how can we mothers provide food for our children?"

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