For 94 years, since 1928, international oil companies have been trying to strike oil in Namibia, but without success.
Big international oil companies came to try their luck but left empty-handed until February 2022, when Shell and its partners QatarEnergy and Namcor announced a discovery on block 2913 under PEL 39. They called this discovery Graff-1X.
In the same month, 20 days later, TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, Impact Oil, and Namcor announced a second discovery on block 2913B under PEL 56. They called this well the Venus-1X.
Shell and partners also discovered the La Rona-1X well on block 2913 under PEL 39 in April 2022.
This year, however, broke Namibia’s dry wait for oil since 1928, when the South West Africa Petroleum Corporation drilled the Berseba-1 well in the onshore Nama Basin.
So far, Namibia has nine exploration and three appraisal oil wells in the Orange Basin off the coast of Namibia.
The exploratory wells are Graff-1X, Venus-1X, and La Rona-1X (from 2022), Lesedi-1X, Jonker-1X, Venus-1X, Nara-1X, Well-1X, Mangetti-1X, and Well-2X. The appraisal wells are Venus-1A, Nara-1A, and Jonker-1A.
An exploratory well is drilled to establish the presence of hydrocarbons, while an appraisal well establishes the volumes. All the oil wells in Namibia are yet to reach the development stage.
Some of the world’s biggest oil rigs were hired to drill exploratory wells in Namibia. These include the Deepsea Bollsta, the Maersk Voyager, the Deepsea Mira, and the Tungsten Explorer.
A long way from 1928
Twenty-twenty-three also marked a difference from 1928, when South West Africa Petroleum Corporation drilled the Berseba-1 well in the Nama basin and found nothing.
This year is also distant from 1963, when Artnell Exploration Company drilled the Vrede-1 and left empty-handed.
Even De Beers and Shell/BP found nothing when they explored the Berseba and Tses areas, resulting in the drilling of the Tses-1 well in the 1960s.
The Owambo-Etosha onshore basin gave the Texas Eastern (Etosha Petroleum Company) nothing after drilling the Strat-Test-1 well in 1962, followed by the Etosha West-1, Etosha 2-1, and Etosha 5-1 between 1965 and 1970.
Therefore, all the companies abandoned the activities between 1983 and 1989 until the Overseas Petroleum and Investment Corporation Namibia came to try between 1990 and 1991 before abandoning the licence to Occidental Petroleum in 1993. This company, too, left empty-handed.
Once again, all the companies left the Owambo basin between 1994 and 2002.
Two years later, another company, First African Oil, came to try but found nothing. Other companies—Preview Energy, Hydrocarb Energy, and Monitor Exploration—are still probing the Owambo Basin.
Wildcat drilling
The Orange Basin gave nothing during the first exploration phase from 1969 until 1972, when Swakor (now Namcor) licensed 17 blocks.
Active international oil companies at the time were Chevron, Regent, and Soekor. These companies stumbled upon the Kudu Gas reservoir, not oil, in December 1973.
There was renewed interest after 1990, when Norsk Hydro, Shell, Chevron, and Sasol received five licences. These companies got nothing, resulting in little interest when Shell received two licences in 1995.
From 1998 to 2018, Namibia saw Chariot Oil & Gas, the Brazilian company HRT, Sintezneftegaz, and Repsol come.
Some of the exploratory wells drilled then are Wingat-1, Moosehead-1, and Murombe-1 (HRT); Kunene-1 (Sintezneftegaz); Welwitschia-1 (Repsol); Tapir South-1, Kabeljou-1, and Prospect-S (Chariot); and Cormorant-1 (Tullow).
