Oil and gas exploration company Eco Atlantic is currently in discussions with “at least” three companies expressing interest in acquiring significant stakes in its four prospective offshore licenses in Namibia’s Walvis Basin.
The company’s deep-water PELs 99 and 100, known as Guy and Tamar, have garnered considerable attention, according to Eco Atlantic’s CEO, Gil Holzman, with companies also showing interest in the entire Walvis portfolio.
“Now people are knocking on our doors. We don’t even need to open a farm-out process to engage with companies. They simply look at the map; look at the name of the operator; and call you.Eco is engaged in all kinds of discussions about its Namibian blocks At least three companies have already,” Holzman told Upstream.
“All the big boys are looking to find a way into the Orange basin and it’s getting crowded. We saw Chevron coming in. We saw Woodside coming in. We hear about Eni looking for acreage.And there are other companies I cannot mention that are looking for a piece of the action in Namibia or South Africa.”
Eco Atlantic currently holds 85% operating stakes in Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PELs) 97, 98, 99, and 100, making it the second-largest acreage holder in Namibia.
“We feel comfortable at the 20%, 25% level, so there’s a lot of working interest to share with companies that would like to come in,” he said.
The company is actively working on a structural study of the Walvis Basin, which is expected to be completed around October, utilizing its own data along with seismic and well data from state-owned Namcor and the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
“We’re currently very busy working on that,” Holzman said.
Eco’s Guy license covers blocks 2111B and 2211A in water depths of 1500-3000 meters, with acquired seismic data of 1000 kilometers of 2D and 870 square kilometers of 3D. On the other hand, the Tamar license encompasses blocks 2211B and 2311A in water depths between 2500 meters and more than 3000 meters, with a 100-kilometer 2D survey.
Aside from the deep-water licenses, Eco Atlantic also holds shallow-water acreage, including the Cooper in Block 2012A, featuring the Osprey prospect, and the Sharon in Block 2213.
Namibia has seen increased oil exploration activities, with oil companies having invested over N$30 billion since the country’s independence towards exploration, as reported by the Namibia Petroleum Operators Association.
The discovery of oil by Qatar Energy, Shell, and Total Energies in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia near Luderitz, has sparked optimism about the country’s future economic prospects.
