Africa represents the next frontier for upstream drilling owing largely to the continent’s pipeline of high impact wells. In 2023, approximately 132 exploration wells were drilled while in 2024 and 2025, 120 wells and 123 wells are expected to be drilled, respectively.
According to a 2024 Outlook report published by the African Energy Chamber (AEC), major discoveries offshore Namibia along with gas discoveries offshore South Africa, drove more exploration interest from operators while after years of underinvestment in North Africa’s, global oil and gas giants including Halliburton, Chevron, and Eni are ramping up their presence in the region as demand in Europe continues to grow.
Southern African Drilling Entices Players
Following a slate of massive discoveries in Namibia’s Orange Basin in 2022 and 2023, the region continues to hold center stage for high impact well drilling on the continent, with oil and gas supermajor Shell announcing in July 2023 that drilling for the Lesedi-1X had reached completion and indicated the presence of hydrocarbons. In August 2023, Shell announced the commencement of drilling on its multibillion-barrel Jonker-1X discovery offshore Namibia, while in September, oil and gas services company Impact Oil & Gas issued an update on the multi-energy company, TotalEnergies-led, Venus-1X discovery well, showcasing strong results.
In South Africa in 2023, oil and gas company Africa Oil Corp. released a review of the prospective resources and probability of geological success of 24 exploration prospects within Block 3B/4B, offshore the southern African country, with TotalEnergies having secured a green light from the country’s Environmental Ministry to drill for oil and gas in the offshore Block 5/6/7.
Furthermore, having been anointed sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil producer in September 2022, some $200 million is being invested into exploring Blocks 30, 44, and 45 in the frontier Namibe Basin, offshore Angola. Oil and gas supermajor, ExxonMobil, announced in March that, in the case of a successful commercial discovery, the company will invest up to $15 billion towards the development of the field.
Offshore Drilling Advances in West Africa
During September 2023, Shell spudded an eagerly anticipated exploration well targeting a one-billion-barrels prospect in the Panna Cotta-1 exploration well in Block C10, offshore Mauritania. Meanwhile, in Guinea-Bissau, drilling activities at the Formosa prospect are expected to advance the MSGBC region’s oil and gas boom.
June 2023 saw the discovery of oil and gas in the Ntokon prospect in the Oil Mining License 102 permit, offshore Nigeria, by TotalEnergies, which resulted in the supermajor encountering 38m of light oil and 15m of gas. In search of Africa’s next giant find in West Africa, Chinese National Oil Company (NOC), the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, spud the Tigre-1 wildcat in Blocks BC 9 and BCD 10, offshore Gabon. Serving as the West African country’s first exploration campaign in over five years, the NOC announced plans in February to develop a two-well program.
Targeting 1.4 billion barrels of oil and more than 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, operations at the deepwater Niamou-1 well, offshore the Republic of the Congo, will be spearheaded by TotalEnergies.
East African Drilling Picks-up
In East Africa, Eni started drilling its Raia-1 well, situated in Block A5-A in the Angoche Basin, offshore Mozambique, in April. The campaign is poised to kickstart a new round of investments in the East African country’s hydrocarbon industry.
North Africa Attracts Upstream Investment
Reflecting a resurgence of exploration activities in Egypt, Shell is poised to embark on a major wildcat campaign in the North African country’s deepwater Herodotus Basin. Meanwhile, with exploration having commenced in October 2022 in the Nargis-1 exploration well, situated in the Nargis Offshore Area Concession in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, offshore Egypt, Eni and Chevron announced in January the discovery of approximately 60m of gas-bearing sandstones. A report released in December 2022 indicated the presence of as much as 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the concession. Additionally, in September, Morocco witnessed the spudding of its first offshore wildcat, the Cinnamon-1 well by Eni on the Tarfaya offshore shallow block of the country’s southern Atlantic coast.
These campaigns are expected to incentivize further investment in high impact wells across the continent, with the AEC report stating that the cumulative well country between 2023 and 2025 in Africa is measured at 375.
