More oil discovered! TotalEnergies announces another oil strike adjacent to Shell’s Graff-1 well
Total may not be a significant downstream operator on the Namibian fuel scene but its profile has just received a major boost when the TotalEnergies Group announced, through its local partner, the discovery of a second light oil deposit in exploration block 2193B.
Hints of the discovery already surfaced in December 2021 but it was decided to keep back the announcement of the TotalEnergies discovery until Shell has made its announcement on 04 February 2022. Shell also discovered light oil and gas in exploration block 2193A adjacent to the block where TotalEnergies drilled its well. The two wells are less than 100 km apart, both penetrating the same Lower Cretaceous morphology in the Orange Basin.
The TotalEnergies well is designated Venus-1X. The 6300 metre well encountered at least 84 metres of oil-bearing sandstone in a good quality reservoir. The company also holds considerable exploration acreage in neighbouring South Africa’s offshore blocks.
“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 programme has been completed. This will enable the preparation of appraisal operations designed to assess the commerciality of this discovery,” he continued.
Block 2913B covers approximately 8215 km² in deep water. TotalEnergies is the operator with a 40% working interest, alongside QatarEnergy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%) and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia Namcor (10%).
In a separate statement, state-owned Namcor said the Venus-1X discovery is located approximately 290 kilometres offshore. The well was drilled to a total depth of 6,296 metres by the Maersk Voyager drillship.
Namcor Managing Director, Immanuel Mulunga said “Following the recent success of the Graff-1 well by Shell, this second light oil discovery by TotalEnergies has demonstrated the world-class potential of this new play in the deep-water of the Orange Basin, which could be a major game changer for Namibia’s economy and its people. We look forward to the upcoming appraisal programme to quantify the extent of this major discovery.”
The two most recent oilfinds are situated in adjacent exploration blocks in close proximity to the international maritime line that devides Namibian from South African territorial waters. Image by the
