Angolan state oil company Sonangol will pay US$500 million to US group Cobalt International Energy, solving a dispute between the two entities that has been in place since August 2016, according to statements issued on Tuesday.

Under the agreement now signed, Sonangol will pay US$150 million by 23 February and the remaining US$350 million by 1 July, 2018.

The US group announced in August 2015 that it had sold a 40% stake it held in blocks 20 and 21 to Sonangol for US$1.75 billion, minus US$19.7 million in taxes.

A year later the group announced that the deal was definitively ineffective, “as the authorisation of the Angolan government was not granted within a maximum term of one year,” and in May 2017 it announced that it had filed an arbitration action with the International Chamber of Commerce demanding payment of more than US$2 billion.

The two blocks’ shareholders were Cobalt International Energy, with 40%, Sonangol and BP Angola, with 30% each. (macauhub)