Impact Oil & Gas, a privately-owned exploration company, has announced the completion of a US$95-million (about N$1.7 billion) open offer, raising capital exclusively from its existing shareholders.
The capital will be used to further appraise TotalEnergies’ Venus-1 discovery located in Block 2913B in the Orange Basin, as well as fund additional exploration activity in neighboring Block 2912.
“We are pleased to see the US$95-million open offer’s successful completion, having been fully taken up by our existing shareholders, who continue to support our growth and to whom we are most grateful,” said Impact CEO, Siraj Ahmed.
“The funds raised will be applied towards our share of the multi-well drilling program now underway in Namibia, together with our partners TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and NAMCOR.”
Canadian oil and gas company Africa Oil Corp. (AOC) – which carries a 31.1% stake in Impact Oil & Gas – contributed $31.4 million to the offer. The investment has increased AOC’s exposure to Blocks 2913B and 2912, in which Impact Oil & Gas holds a 20% and 18.89% participating interest, respectively.
While appraisal and development continues on Block 2913B, a new exploration well on Block 2912, Nara 1-X, is also part of Impact’s planned exploration activities this year. The well hopes to confirm the extension of the Venus-1 discovery into the neighboring block, in which case further appraisal wells and 3D seismic surveying would follow to more thoroughly evaluate the reservoir.
Blocks 2912 and 2913B are located within the northern part of the Orange Basin, an area that has attracted significant interest and excitement within the exploration community. The Venus discovery sits in the Orange Basin, approximately 290 kilometres off the coast of Namibia, in the deep offshore.
Petroleum Exploration Licence 56, Block 2913B, is located offshore southern Namibia and covers approximately 8,215km² in water depths up to 3,000 metres. Impact entered the licence as Operator in 2014, acquiring 2D, then 3D seismic data which defined the Venus prospect. In 2017 Impact was subsequently joined by TotalEnergies, who bring significant deep-water drilling expertise to the Joint Venture, and in 2019 by QatarEnergy.
In February 2022, the Operator TotalEnergies, successfully drilled the Venus-1X well to a total depth of 6,296m, discovering significant quantities of light, sweet oil, with associated gas within an Albian basin floor fan deposit.
The Venus 1-X well encountered approximately 84 meters of net oil pay in a good quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir.
“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 at the time. “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.”
Block 2913B covers approximately 8,215 km² in deep offshore Namibia. TotalEnergies is the operator with a 40% working interest, alongside QatarEnergy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%) and NAMCOR (10%).