TotalEnergies Venus discovery offshore Namibia could be the world’s largest deep-water find, with the potential to surpass Buzios offshore Brazil, where recoverable reserves stand at 11.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
According to Upstream publication, three sources familiar with the latest analysis of data from the Venus-1 wildcat said the huge structures recoverable reserve, which are now thought to straddle block 2913B and 2912, could exceed 13 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Its recoverable gas, according to the publication, is estimated at 10 trillion to 20 trillion cubic feet.
“Assuming further drilling confirms these numbers, an appraisal campaign is set to begin later this year, this would imply Venus houses at least 13.4 billion boe of recoverables resources, almost 30% bigger than Buzios.”
Buzios is one of the largest oil-producing fields in Brazil discovered in 2010 situated approximately 200km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at water depths ranging from 1,600m to 2,100m and 90% owned by Brazil’s Petrobras.
Chinese state-run oil companies CNOOC and CNODC also bought a 5% stake each in Buzios along with the option to raise their stake later.
Shares of South Africa Hosken Consolidated Investments Limited (HCI) , which holds a 10% stake in an oil rich block off the coast of Namibia, extended gains on Thursday according to Business Day with the price surging as much as 44% — its second-biggest one-day gain since listing.
The share price reached an intraday high of R179.69, a new record, beating the one set in 2014. The price began to rise late on Tuesday.
TotalEnergies, alongside National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, QatarEnergy, and Impact Oil and Gas early this year announced the Venus-1X discovery, located approximately 290 kilometres off the coast of Namibia, in the deep-water offshore exploration Block 2913B, which covers approximately 8,215 km².
Cirrus Capital estimates Namibia has the potential to generate over N$500 billion in potential revenues in the coming decade through taxes and royalties charged to the oil sector.
