Namibia has emerged as a key oil exploration hub with major discoveries expected to yield 2.6 billion barrels. TotalEnergies and Shell lead discoveries in Orange Basin. Chevron, ENI-BP JV, and Galp advance exploration efforts. Namibia eyes first oil by 2030 from promising fields like Venus, set to revolutionize Southern Africa's energy landscape..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..Join us for BizNews' first investment-focused conference on Thursday, 12 September, in Hermanus, featuring top experts like Frans Cronje, Piet Viljoen, and more. Get insights on electricity and exploiting SA's gas bounty from new and familiar faces. Register here..Reuters.Namibia has become an oil exploration hotspot after several discoveries in recent years along its coast. .___STEADY_PAYWALL___.It has not yet produced any oil or gas, but oil majors such as TotalEnergies TTEF.PA and Shell SHEL.L have made discoveries estimated at 2.6 billion barrels, with production in the southern African country expected from about 2030..There have been discoveries in the Orange Basin and there are other prospective areas, including Luderitz, Kavango and Walvis basins..Below are details on the latest developments (in alphabetical order):.CHEVRON CVX.N.The U.S. oil major is expected to begin exploration later this year..It signed a development deal in April that will see it take an 80% operating working interest in an offshore block in the Walvis Basin..Chevron Namibia Exploration Ltd is also the operator of PEL (Petroleum Exploration Licence) 90, an offshore deepwater block in the Orange Basin..ENI ENI.MI, BP BP.L.Azule Energy, a joint venture between Italy's Eni and BP for their Angolan assets, and exploration firm Rhino Resources Namibia have agreed a farm-in agreement for a 42.5% interest in an offshore Orange Basin licence, the companies said in May..GALP GALP.LS.In early 2024 the Portuguese energy group carried out tests at its Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X wells and estimated in April that the Mopane field could hold at least 10 billion barrels of oil following a first phase of exploration..The find at Mopane, which is located at PEL 83, appears to be one of the largest made in the Orange Basin following successful exploration campaigns by TotalEnergies and Shell in recent years..Galp has launched the sale of half of its Mopane stake..The company has an 80% stake in the PEL 83 block, while the remaining 20% is split between Namibian state firm Namcor and Sintana Energy's SEI.V Namibian unit Custos Energy..SHELL SHEL.L.The oil major and its partners made what it described as an "encouraging" discovery in an exploration well off the coast of Namibia in February 2022..Shell is exploring the offshore oil and gas in PEL 39 in the Orange Basin with JV partners QatarEnergy and Namcor..PEL 39 covers an area of 12,000 square kilometres and includes seven wells where drilling has taken place. Its Graff well could hold 2.38 billion barrels of oil and its Jonker-1X well another 2.5 billion..TOTALENERGIES TTEF.PA.The French oil and gas major in January agreed to acquire an additional 10.5% interest in Block 2913B and a 9.39% interest in Block 2912. The company is set to spend about 30% of its $1 billion exploration and appraisal budget in Namibia in 2024..It began its activity in Namibia in 1964 and currently operates two deep offshore exploration blocks. Total owns a 40% working interest, while QatarEnergy, Impact Oil and Gas and Namcor have stakes of 30%, 20% and 10%, respectively..Block 2913B, located in the Orange Basin, contains the Venus 1-X well, where by the end of 2025, TotalEnergies aims to approve its first oil development in Namibia..Namibia is planning for first oil production from Venus, estimated to hold about 5.1 billion barrels of oil, between 2029 and 2030..Read also: .🔒 Oil market turmoil: OPEC+ grapples with shifting dynamics – Liam Denning🔒 OPEC+ signals production increase, oil futures plummet to four-month lowShell's potential exit from SA exposes BEE's economic fallout: Woode-Smith.SOURCE: REUTERS
