Namibia’s rise in oil prospecting

Namibia has emerged as a hub for oil exploration following a number of finds near its coast in recent years.

Although it hasn’t produced any oil or gas yet, big oil companies like TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and Shell (SHEL.L) have found estimated reserves of 2.6 billion barrels; production in the southern African nation is anticipated to begin around 2030.

In addition to the Orange Basin, additional promising locations include the Luderitz, Kavango, and Walvis basins.

The most recent developments are detailed here (in alphabetical order):

CHEVRON (CVX.N), a new tab opens.

Later this year, the large American oil company is anticipated to start exploring.
It agreed to take an 80% operating working interest in an offshore block in the Walvis Basin when it signed a development arrangement in April.

PEL (Petroleum Exploration License) 90, an offshore deepwater block in the Orange Basin, is also operated by Chevron Namibia Exploration Ltd.

ENI (ENI.MI) and BP (BP.L) open new tabs, respectively.

A farm-in deal for a 42.5% interest in an offshore Orange Basin license has been reached by exploration company Rhino Resources Namibia and Azule Energy, a joint venture between Italy’s Eni and BP for their Angolan assets, the firms announced in May.

Opening a new tab, GALP (GALP.LS)

After testing its Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X wells in early 2024, the Portuguese energy group projected in April that the Mopane field may contain at least 10 billion barrels of oil after a first round of exploration.

The discovery at Mopane, situated at PEL 83, seems to be among the biggest in the Orange Basin as a result of recent, fruitful exploration efforts by TotalEnergies and Shell.

Galp has started to sell off half of its ownership in Mopane.

The company owns 80% of the PEL 83 block, with the other 20% being divided between Custos Energy, a new listed Namibian unit of Sintana Energy (SEI.V) and Namcor, a state-owned company in Namibia.

SHELL (SHEL.L), a new tab opens

In February 2022, the oil firm and its partners reported making a “encouraging” discovery in an exploration well off the coast of Namibia.
Along with its joint venture partners Namcor and QatarEnergy, Shell is investigating offshore oil and gas in PEL 39 and has opened a new tab in the Orange Basin.

PEL 39 is a 12,000 square kilometer area with seven wells that have undergone drilling. An additional 2.5 billion barrels of oil could be stored in its Jonker-1X well and 2.38 billion in its Graff well.

TTEF.PA, TOTALENERGIES, opens a new tab

In January, the French gas and oil firm decided to purchase a 9.39% stake in Block 2912 and an additional 10.5% interest in Block 2913B. In Namibia, the corporation plans to use, open new tab, roughly thirty percent of its $1 billion exploration and appraisal budget in 2024.

It started operating in Namibia in 1964 and presently has two deep offshore exploration areas under its control. With a working interest of 40%, Total is the largest shareholder, followed by QatarEnergy with 30%, Impact Oil and Gas with 20%, and Namcor with 10%.

TotalEnergies plans to authorize its first oil development in Namibia by the end of 2025 at the Venus 1-X well, which is located in Block 2913B in the Orange Basin.

Between 2029 and 2030, Namibia intends to begin producing oil from Venus, which is thought to contain 5.1 billion barrels of oil.