In our first edition of The Extractor, we looked into Namibia’s oil field with explorations that started in 1920s.
Back then in May 2023, mines minister Tom Alweendo had said that Namibia’s hydrocarbon potential is between 300 – 500 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Alweendo also said in the Draft Upstream Petroleum Local Content Policy 2023 in early May, that since independence in 1990, 22 oil and gas wells had been drilled offshore in Namibia.
These comprise 15 exploratory wells and seven appraisal wells in the Kudu gas field area. In addition, ten exploratory wells have been drilled onshore.
The offshore 2D seismic survey covers about 147 000 line kilometres, and license operators have acquired more than 40 423 km² of 3D seismic data.
Namibia has four offshore basins – the Orange Basin, Walvis Basin, Namibe Basin and Luderitz Basin. They cover 825 418 km2 with a 0-4 000m water depth. This area stretches from South Africa to Angola.
Three onshore sedimentary basins – the Owambo Basin in the north, the Nama Basin in the south and the Kavango Basin. The Owambo and Nama basins cover 470 000 km2.
We now know that Namibia has 37 wells drilled to date and that there could be 11 billion barrels of oil.
Onshore exploration to date
Although most people seem to know about ReconAfrica’s exploits in the Kavango Basin, onshore exploration activities started in 1920.
But until ReconAfrica started prodding in the Kavango Basin, just 12 exploratory wells had been dug onshore in Namibia.
The first company to dig for oil in the Nama Basin was the South West Africa Petroleum Corporation. The company drilled the Berseba-1 exploratory well in 1928 but abandoned it after a gas blowout.
The second was the Standard Vacuum Oil company that entered the Kalahari Basin in 1961. The company drilled about 130 wells before abandoning the project in 1962.
Artnell Petroleum Company took over and drilled the Vreda-1 well between 1963 and 1964. This company, too, abandoned the project in 1965 without stumbling on any hydrocarbons.
Shell and BP got the onshore and offshore concessions in 1969, but by January 1970, the companies had abandoned Vreda-1 well.
When Shell and BP abandoned the Vreda-1 well, Association Aquitaine SWA and De Beers Oil Holdings were drilling the Tses-1 well about 45km northeast of the Berseba-1 well. These two companies also abandoned the project.
Texas Eastern Oil Exploration Company which operated as Etosha Petroleum Company, got the concession for exploring for oil in the Owambo Basin in 1959. The company drilled the Strat-Test-1 in 1964. When Etosha Petroleum Company gave up, Brilund Mines took over and invited Shell to the deal in 1967.
When Shell declined the offer, Brilund went ahead to drill Etosha-1-5A in 1970 when the Taiwanese exploration company, OPIC, bought the concession. OPIC drilled the Opo-1 well before abandoning the project in 1991.
An Irish oil and gas exploration company, Circle Oil, took charge of the Owambo Basin but left after failing to raise funds for exploration.
Hydrocarb Corporation has had the concession for blocks 1714B, 1715, 1814B, and 1815 in the Owambo Basin, covering 21,200 sq. km (5.3 million acres) since 2011.
The company quotes a 2013 report by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. of Houston, saying that based on structural mapping to date of seismic data located in only 15% of concession, there is an estimated 1.1 billion barrels of unrisked in-place oil resources and 295 million barrels of oil unrisked recoverable.
Offshore Exploration 1969 to date
Namibia’s oil search history dates to 1969 and 1972, when 17 blocks were awarded to Chevron, Regent and SOEKOR for the Orange Basin’s Kudu Oil and Gas project.
With the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime by the UN, all exploratory rights were transferred to Swakor (now Namcor). Between 1987-88, Swakor, with Halliburton, drilled Kudu 9A-2 and Kudu 9A-3. Only Kudu 9A-3 showed dry gas presence.
Between 1990-95, five petroleum licences were given to Norsk Hydro, Ranger, Sasol, Chevron, and Shell, which got another two licences in 1995 for the Kudu Oil and Gas project.
There were nine exploration wells between 1991-1998, but no company applied for licences between 1998 and 1999 due to the low oil prices. There was a boom from 2008 when several companies grew interested in Namibia.
Six exploratory wells were drilled then – Sintezneftegaz drilled Kunene-1 in 2008; Chariot Oil & Gas drilled Tapir South-1 and Kabeljou-1 in 2012; HRT Participações em Petróleo S.A drilled Wingat-1, Murombe-1 and Moosehead-1 in 2013; Repsol drilled Welwitschia-1 in 2014; Tullow Namibia drilled Cormorant-1 while Chariot had Prospect S in 2018.
Between 2021-22 Shell drilled Graff-1 and La Rona, while TotalEnergies had Venus 1X. The latest oil find was in March 2023 when Shell and its partners announced their second discovery with the Jonker-1X.
Billions of barrels
Ten years ago, before Shell and TotalEnergies announced their discoveries, there was already talk about Namibia holding billions of barrels of oil.
In 2011, the former mines minister Isak Katali announced that 11 billion barrels of oil had been found off Namibia’s coast and that production would start within four years – in 2015, to be precise.
Katali told parliament that Enigma Oil & Gas, owned by London-listed Chariot Oil & Gas, had identified 11 prospects along the southern coast.
According to Katali, one of the prospects, Nimrod, had more than four billion barrels.
The Nimrod was one of the prospects on block 2714 A, targeted by Brazilian oil exploring company Petrobras and its 50-50 partner Enigma in May 2009. The companies also prodded blocks 2312 A and B and 2412 A and B.
Katali said the companies had struck oil just 350m deep, and the reserves were expected to hold no gas.
The Brazilian company, HRT Participações em Petróleo S.A, announced that they had found potential reserves holding about 5.2 billion barrels of oil in the Walvis Basin.
HRT and the Portuguese company GALP Energia (14 per cent participating interest) operated 10 blocks under four petroleum licences. The companies targeted three prospects – Wingat-1 and Moosehead, and Murombe-1.
Katali said HRT would start drilling in 2014. Back then, Katali also spoke about the exploits of Arcadia Expro Namibia and the British company Tower Resources on the central coast of Namibia.
According to Katali, the reserves held up to two billion barrels, and drilling was expected to start around 2013 with a target of six to eight wells.
In 2012, all four wells – Petrobras’s Kabeljou and HRT’s Moosehead, both in the Orange Basin and HRT’s Murombe and Wingat in the Walvis Basin – did not spud commercial oil. HRT did not stay long afterwards.
The Spanish company Repsol came onto the scene in 2014, announcing they would start drilling in the Walvis Basin with the Welwitschia-1 prospect as a high target. Repsol partnered with Tower Resources and Arcadia. Welwitschia-1 spudded on 1 May 2014.
By June 2014, the companies expressed disappointment with Welwitschia well, saying they found no hydrocarbons after reaching 2,454 metres.
Oil major BP PLC joined the British company Serica Energy PLC to explore blocks 2512A, 2513A and 2513B in the Orange Basin in March 2012. Serica owned 85 per cent, Namcor 10 per cent, and Indigenous Energy 5 per cent in the venture.
The agreement was that BP would earn a 30 per cent interest after paying Serica’s costs. If BP chose to meet the full survey cost, Serica would remain with a 17.5 per cent interest while BP took over as the main operator. In December 2012, BP opted out of the deal.
Serica, too, walked away in December 2020, saying they would instead focus on the North Sea.
Slowdown & the build-up
Although the exploration companies were disappointed by dry wells, not everyone packed their drill machines and left. Others, including Total, bought into Impact Oil & Gas block 2913B in the Orange Basin. Shell acquired a 70 per cent stake in October 2017.
October 2017 also saw the coming of India’s state-owned oil and natural gas company, ONGC Videsh Ltd, which bought a 15 per cent stake of Tullow’s 65 per cent shares in Block 2012A (PEL 30) in the Orange Basin. PEL37, covers blocks 2112A, 2012B and 2113B. The other partners on PEL 30 are Pancontinental Namibia (Pty) Ltd (30 per cent) and Paragon Oil and Gas (five per cent).
In September 2017, the Canadian company Africa Energy Corp came through the acquisition of a 10 per cent stake from Pancontinental Oil & Gas in PEL 37. In December 2017, Pancontinental Oil & Gas inked another deal to acquire block 2713 in the Orange Basin.
In February 2018, Exxon Mobil signed an agreement to acquire 80 per cent of the Portuguese company GALP’s 80 per cent in PEL82 in the Walvis Basin. GALP partnered with Namcor (10 per cent) and Custos (10 per cent). Galp entered Namibia in 2012 and owns EPL 83 in the Orange Basin.
Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. also entered the oil exploration scramble in northeast Namibia, holding a 90% interest in a PEL073 in northeast Namibia. The exploration license covers the entire Kavango sedimentary basin, approximately 25,341.33 sq km (6.3 million acres).
If ReconAfrica gets oil and gas, the licence allows them to operate for 25 years.
Wildcat Drilling & little oil
Namibia’s hopes rose when Shell Namibia BV and its partners, QatarEnergy and Namcor, spudded Graff-1 on Block 2913A (PEL39) in the Orange Basin in December 2021.
The Graff-1 well is about 270km from Oranjemund. The drilling programme started between 2014 and 2019.
Shell Namibia BV has 45 per cent, QatarEnergy has 45 per cent, and Namcor holds 10 per cent in the venture.
In the same month, TotalEnergies (40 per cent) and its partners – QatarEnergy (30 per cent), Impact Oil and Gas (20 per cent) and Namcor (10 per cent) – spudded the Venus-1X well on Block 2913B on PEL 56 in the Orange Basin.
Shell also announced a second discovery with La Rona on Block 2913B in March 2022, and in February, the company said it had found light oil on Jonker-1X on the same block where Total is appraising the Venus well this quarter.
