Cape Town-based Rhino Resources has spudded its debut exploration well in Namibia’s prolific Orange basin, targeting a huge prospect that the country’s petroleum commissioner previously described as “amazing”.
The privately-owned player, headed by chief executive Travis Smithard, operates Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 85, just south of Galp Energia’s huge Mopane discovery in PEL 83, and directly east of the multiple finds Shell has made in PEL 39, including Graff.
The Sagittarius-1X probe is being drilled by the drillship Noble Venturer in a water depth of about 1400 metres and is expected to take some 45 days to drill.