Global petroleum firm TotalEnergies says it has made a significant oil discovery off the coast of Namibia.
The announcement comes less than a month after Shell’s Graff-1 well is said to have proved a working petroleum system for light oil in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia, 270 km from the town of Oranjemund, where drilling operations commenced in early December 2021 and were safely completed in early February 2022.
Shell is said to be spudding an appraisal well on the Graff oil discovery offshore Namibia, a find that could contain about 400 million barrels of oil.
TotalEnergies Senior Vice President Exploration Kevin McLachlan on Wednesday said the group’s Venus 1-X well encountered approximately 84 meters of net oil pay in a good quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir.
“This discovery offshore Namibia and the very promising initial results prove the potential of this play in the Orange Basin, on which TotalEnergies owns an important position both in Namibia and South Africa,” he said.
“A comprehensive coring and logging program has been completed. This will enable the preparation of appraisal operations designed to assess the commerciality of this discovery.”
The Venus-1X discovery is located approximately 290 kilometres off the coast of Namibia, in the deep-water offshore exploration Block 2913B, which covers approximately 8,215 km².
The well was drilled to a total depth of 6,296 metres, by the Maersk Voyager drillship, and encountered a high quality, light oil-bearing sandstone reservoir of Lower Cretaceous age.
TotalEnergies is the operator with a 40% working interest, alongside QatarEnergy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%) and NAMCOR (10%).
National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) Managing Director Immanuel Mulunga told The Brief that the new oil find would have a significant impact for the company and the country.
“This is a game changer for NAMCOR and a game changer for the country. To have not one but two oil discoveries in one month is very significant. We want to thank the government for steadfastly making sure NAMCOR as a national oil company, also gets equity. We are excited and the real work is only going to start now. We hope there will be no unnecessary and undue influence into NAMCOR’s activities moving forward,” Mulunga said.
“This goes to the great work that the Ministry of Mines and Energy has done over the years, not only to attract these multi-national to come and explore for oil in Namibia but also by creating an enabling environment.”
Mines Minister Tom Alweendo said although the commercial viability of the discovery is still to be determined, the oil find proves the attractiveness of Namibia as an investment destination.
“The oil discovery hot on the heels of the Shell discovery , is another proof that Namibia is indeed a great destination to invest in. While waiting for the determination of the commerciality of the resources, the discoveries have permeated us with an unprecedented exhilaration,” he said.
Namibia has sought to develop oil and gas fields for decades with no success.
