Norwegian deepwater driller, Odfjell Drilling, says Namibia’s oil and gas sector is witnessing a significant uptick in demand driven by recent exploration successes and heightened interest from industry players.
Odfjell Chief Executive Officer Kjetil Gjersdal said with an expanding roster of operators and growing inquiries for rigs, the region is poised for substantial growth.
“Namibia remains a very interesting region for us, and we are all aware of the recent discovery that has been announced down there. Of note, we’ve had new inquiries from potential clients and are also in firm discussions with clients who are looking for rigs in that region,” he said during a quarterly results announcement recently.
Thus, Namibian future demand is encouraged by recent exploration success and the number of operators in the area continues to increase.
This comes after the company’s external fleet was on contract throughout the fourth quarter of 2023, with the Deepsea Yantai drilling offshore Norway for Neptune Energy and Vår Energi while the Deepsea Mira and Deepsea Bollsta were drilling for Total Energies and Shell respectively offshore Namibia.
“The Hercules concluded its drilling campaign offshore Canada for ExxonMobil before joining the Deepsea Mira and Deepsea Bollsta offshore Namibia, drilling for Galp Energia. The Hercules arriving in Namibia brought the total number of floaters in the region to four, with three of them being Odfjell Drilling managed,” he said.
TotalEnergies has allocated almost 50% of its global exploration budget of N$5.5 billion (US$300 million) to Namibia this year, hoping to confirm a multibillion-barrel discovery on block 2913b within the Orange Basin.
Meanwhile, Shell Namibia Upstream B.V. has decided not to exercise the remaining option available under the contract for the offshore drilling rig, Deepsea Bollsta, for work in Namibia.
This decision follows Shell Namibia Upstream B.V.’s entry into a N$1.7 billion contract extension for the oil rig, spanning from December 2023 to June 2024, but choosing not to pursue the additional option of six months.
Shell and its partners, the National Petroleum Company of Namibia and Qatar Energy, announced a significant discovery of light oil in the Jonker-1X deep-water exploration well, located approximately 270 kilometres off the Namibian coast.
Increased oil exploration in Namibia follows investments of over N$30 billion by oil companies since independence, according to the Namibia Petroleum Operators Association.-miningandenergy.com.na
