By: Energy capital & power

Witnessing a string of oil discoveries in the Orange Basin since 2022, Namibia’s oil play has attracted interest from energy supermajors TotalEnergies and Shell and energy corporation Galp Energia. On the back of discoveries such as the Graff-1X, Venus-1X and Mopane-1X, over 11 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in the country so far.

“With the discoveries that have been made, work has been ongoing in-country to add value to those discoveries and determine the timelines for FID and production,” stated Petroleum Commissioner of the Ministry of Mines and Energy Maggy Shino at this year’s African Energy Week 2024 conference in Cape Town.

In October, Galp Energia spud the Mopane 1-A well, marking the first of four planned wells to evaluate the Mopane discovery while providing crucial insights into its scope and quality. The appraisal campaign is being conducted on Blocks 2813A and 2814B on PEL 83 and is anticipated to last three months.

Meanwhile, Namibia’s Minister of Finance Iipumbi Shiimi announced in April that Namibia anticipates FID to be made by operators on the Venus-1X and Graff-1X deepwater oil discoveries by the end of 2024. The Venus 1-X and Graff-1X discoveries were made in 2022 by TotalEnergies and Shell, respectively.