The National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) reports increasing interest from potential upstream oil and gas investors following recent light oil discoveries offshore the Orange Basin.
NAMCOR pledged to safeguard its interests in petroleum exploration on behalf of the government.
In a statement, NAMCOR noted that the country's oil and gas sector is significantly advancing with multiple high-impact wells, appraisal studies, and seismic campaigns in the Orange Basin, which stands out as a hotspot of global attention, reflecting its hydrocarbon potential.
Notable progress has been achieved in the appraisal of the Venus and Mopane Petroleum Exploration License fields, new exploration initiatives, and ongoing drilling and development studies of other PELs.
TotalEnergies is currently conducting extensive post-well studies of the cores, logging data, and fluid samples acquired from Venus' wells and will continue this throughout 2025.
Additionally, the initial stage of drilling at the Tamboti-1X exploration well commenced in October and is ongoing.
The technical evaluation and maturation of the block's prospectivity are ongoing for further exploration and appraisal activities.
As part of the exploration in the Mopane area, drilling for Well 4 began on December 2, 2024, while a drillship is expected to start work on Well 5 on January 2.
Galp and its partners will continue to analyze and integrate all newly acquired data while conducting a high-density and high-resolution proprietary 3D seismic campaign over the Mopane complex.
Meanwhile, Chevron reportedly completed drilling the exploration well Kapana-1X in early January.
Despite reaching total depth ahead of schedule and finding no commercially viable hydrocarbons, the operation provided valuable information on the basin for future exploration.
Rhino Resources continues to make progress with drilling activities on the Sagittarius-1X exploration well, the first in a multi-well program.
Drilling for this exploration well started on December 18, 2024, and is expected to take 45 days to complete.
BW Kudu remains committed to developing the gas-to-power project and plans to submit the field development plan to the Ministry of Mines and Energy by the second quarter while preparing for an appraisal drilling campaign.
Shell is progressing with extensive post-well studies of the cores and fluid samples acquired from the Jonker, Enigma, and Graff wells to enhance understanding of the reservoirs and explore other potential opportunities in the block.
These studies will continue throughout 2025.
In addition, NAMCOR is conducting in-house geological, geophysical, and engineering studies to enhance subsurface knowledge of hydrocarbon prospectivity, providing offshore and onshore information for potential investors.