French supermajor TotalEnergies has struck oil offshore Namibia, encountering approximately 84 meters of net oil pay with associated gas on the Venus prospect.
Located in Block 2913B in Namibia’s Orange Basin, the Venus 1-x well is considered significant and comes on the heels of Shell’s Graff-1 well discovery, also in the Orange Basin, made earlier this month.
“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,” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at TotalEnergies. “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.”
Namibia holds an estimated 11 billion barrels in oil reserves. With first production planned by 2026, the country is seeking to fast track development of its oil and gas fields and incentivize ongoing drilling campaigns.
Partners in Block 2913B include TotalEnergies (40%), Qatar Energy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%) and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (10%). TotalEnergies has been operating oil and gas exploration in Namibia since 2017, as well as is active in the retail sale and storage of products in the country.
