Light oil has been discovered offshore of Namibia, that country’s national oil company has announced.
The National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) on Friday said it and its partners – Shell Namibia Upstream B.V and QatarEnergy – have discovered light oil at the Graff-1 deep-water exploration well located in the Orange Basin some 270km away from the diamond mining town of Oranjemund.
The town is on South Africa’s doorstep and located a mere 10 minutes’ drive away from the South African border.
The Graff-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 5 376m in water depths of approximately 2 000m.
The drilling operations commenced in early December 2021 and, according to the shareholders, were safely completed in early February 2022.
The consortium partners comprise Shell Namibia Upstream, as the operator with 45% interest; QatarEnergy, with 45% interest; and Namcor, with a 10% interest
Sherida Al-Kaabi, president and CEO of QatarEnergy, said: “We are encouraged by the Graff-1 well results, which enhance the potential of our exploration acreage in Namibia’s offshore … We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the government of Namibia on the next steps, following this discovery.”
Shell did not immediately respond to an email query on Friday afternoon.
Namcor said extensive laboratory analyses will be performed in coming months to gain a better understanding of the reservoir quality and potential flow rates achievable.
“Whilst we can learn a great deal from the results of Graff-1, we anticipate that further exploration activity, including a second exploration well, will be required to determine the size and recoverable potential of the identified hydrocarbons,” Namcor said.
To the West of Graff-1, in another block, TotalEnergies has drilled the Venus-1 well, and its first results are imminent.
