TotalEnergies is set to begin critical production tests on an appraisal well at its Venus oil discovery offshore Namibia.
TotalEnergies’ Chief Executive, Patrick Pouyanne, according to Upstream, said the oil major needs to carry out the test to better assess the “full size” of Venus and “determine the right development scheme.”
This comes as TotalEnergies is reported to have initiated a multi-billion-dollar bidding process to secure a contract for a rig to conduct development drilling at its Venus oil discovery.
He mentioned that the French energy company will release the results to the market in late February 2024, once the latest flow test, the Mangetti-1X exploration well, and another exploration probe to the north of Venus have been completed.
The semi-submersible rig Deepsea Mira will perform the Venus-1A test, while the drillship Tungsten Explorer has recently begun drilling a probe at the Mangetti prospect.
An earlier production test on the Venus-1X discovery well met expectations, and there are high hopes that similar operations on the Venus-1A probe will yield equally successful results.
TotalEnergies’ CEO, Patrick Pouyanne, has expressed confidence that the company’s oil and gas discovery in Namibia will be developed and generate a return for the French oil major.