Namibia’s search for oil has yielded 16 oil drill campaigns since 2022, which were dominated by drillships and semi-subrigs operated by different explorers, data produced by Westwood Global Energy Group reveals.
Day rates for Namibian rig contracts have risen due to the continued market recovery, averaging US$365,000/day (about N$6.4 million) for mutually agreed deals (not including fixed price options). A recent fixture for a seventh-generation drillship already in the region was at US$410,000/day (about N$7.3 million).
In January 2002, Shell contracted a semi-sub rig from Diamond Offshore for a drill campaign, which was followed five years later in April 2007, when Tullow Oil hired a semi-sub rig from Pride International. The following campaign was in March 2008, when operator Sintezneftegaz hired a Petrolia drillship in search for oil.
Four years later, in March 2012, Chariot O&G was next to explore the Namibia orange basin, making use of a Maersk drilling semi-sub rig, which was followed by a similar campaign by HRT in March 2013, which hired a rig from Transocean. In April 2014, Repsol entered Namibia’s deepsea waters with a Rowan drillship. Campaigns then went quiet again for four years, in September 2018.
Between September 2018 and December 2022, five campaigns were initiated and took place. These included Tullow Oil, Chariot O&G, Shell, and two TotalEnergies campaigns predominantly using drill ships from rig managers, including Ocean Rig ASA, Valaris, Odfjell, and Maersk drilling.
More recent campaigns started in February 2023 when a Vantage drillship was contracted by Total Energies before Total Energies switched to Ofdjell drilling’s Deepsea Mira drilling in June 2023. In November, the same manager hired out the Hercules drillship to Galp, which made massive discoveries.
Later this year, in October, Ofdjell is set to hire its Deepsea Bollsta rig to Chevron, while Noble will hire its Noble Venturer drillship to Rhino Resource in December.
“Since August 2021, there have been 15 new contracts awarded or exercised contract options taken up, equating to approximately 1,700 days (or 4.4 years) of rig demand for operators to conduct work offshore Namibia. Supermajors, Shell and TotalEnergies, have been most active in contacting rigs, securing 80% of the firm rig time for Namibian operations since 3Q 2021. Galp Energia, with its successful campaign in PEL 83 using Odfjell Drilling-managed semi-Hercules (10,000′), accounted for 10% of the total.
“Meanwhile two upcoming exploration campaigns with new players—Chevron and Rhino Resources—make up the remaining 10% of contracted rig time to date. In 4Q this year, Chevron will undertake a one-well exploration campaign in PEL 90 using Odfjell-managed harsh-environment UDW semi Deepsea Bollsta (10,000′), a rig tried and tested by Shell for its Namibian campaign that ran from December 2022 through April 2024. Kapana and Maguni have been dubbed as potential drill targets. Meanwhile, Rhino will also start a minimum two-well campaign in the final quarter of this year, using UDW drillship Noble Venturer (12,000′), with Sagittarius or Volans as likely prospects,” emphasised Westwood Global Energy Group.
YIELDS
Exploration of Namibia’s Upper and Lower Cretaceous plays in the offshore Orange Basin has delivered nearly 5 Bbbl from nine wells since 2022, according to Westwood Global Energy Group.
The seven exploration wells that followed up the Graff and Venus play opening discoveries have resulted in four follow-on discoveries with an estimated recoverable oil resource of 2.8 Bbbl, said Teresa Wilkie, director of Westwood’s RigLogix service.
This includes Galp Energia’s Mopane discoveries earlier this year. If the estimated 2.4 Bbbl is confirmed, it would be the largest oil discovery in sub-Saharan Africa and the third largest globally over the last decade.
According to Wilkie, TotalEnergies and its partners could be the first to develop their breakthrough finds, with FID on the Venus project expected in 2025. This will involve drilling multiple subsea wells to tie back to an FPSO.
Shell has not revealed plans for further exploration or appraisal going forward. Galp, however, is looking to drill up to four wells around its Mopane complex, with the first to spud before the end of the year.
Galp is thought to be closing on a sublet on a drillship already in West African waters.
Next year, BW Energy intends to drill two wells on PL003, the company’s first since becoming a license operator. These will appraise the giant Kudu gas discovery and a shallower Upper or Lower Cretaceous oil exploration target.
Westwood expects a tender to be issued this month for a drillship or semisubmersible.
Woodside Energy still has to decide whether to take up an option to farm into PEL 87 containing the Saturn prospect after covering the cost of 3D seismic acquisition over the block in May 2023.
Meanwhile, it was reported last week that TotalEnergies is set to drill a surprise exploration well this year on its prolific Namibian acreage, targeting an intriguing prospect with different geology to its big Venus oil and gas discoveries.
Exploration and appraisal drilling activity in Namibia’s Orange basin is in the midst of a lull following a plethora of almost non-stop activity since early 2022, when the first two big finds were unveiled.
So this move by the French supermajor will be welcomed by the Namibian government for keeping the news flow going while it prepares for further drilling campaigns later this year.