TotalEnergies is considering the possibility of bringing two rigs into Namibia to accelerate appraisal and exploration drilling of its oil find in the country later next year.
According to Upstream, the consideration is to make up for lost time and will fast track the appraisal and development of the oil discovery.
This comes as The Brief has exclusively revealed that the oil major has already submitted its application for an Environmental Clearance Certificate with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, and recently contracted SLR Environmental Consulting (Namibia) to begin work on the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, a requirement for its planned appraisal and exploration drilling.
However, TotalEnergies’ partner in the oil find, Impact Oil & Gas, is, according to reports, mulling selling its 20% stake in Block 2913B and has hired investment bank Jefferies to prepare a sale process for its stake—estimated to be worth between N$8.5 billion (US$500 million) and N$17 billion (US$1 billion).
Impact Oil & Gas investors include Toronto-listed Africa Oil and JSE-listed Hosken Consolidated Investments.
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 thought to straddle block 2913B and 2912, which covers approximately 8,215 km².
TotalEnergies holds a 40% working interest in Block 2913B alongside QatarEnergy with 30%, Impact Oil & Gas on 20% and Namibian state-owned oil company NAMCOR with 10%.
Research conducted by investment advisory firm Cirrus Capital revealed that the country has the potential to generate over N$500 billion in revenue in the coming decade through taxes and royalties from the oil sector, with the Ministry of Mines and Energy forecasting the government to collect 55% of all revenues to be generated from oil through taxes.
