Namibia has granted Pancontinental Energy’s first renewal for PEL 87 in the Orange Basin from January 23, 2024, to January 22, 2026.
Pancontinental applied for the extension in October 2023.
The licence comes with an exemption from the relinquishment obligation at the end of the initial period.
Pancontinental Energy’s subsidiary Pancontinental Orange Pty Ltd has 75%, Custos Investments (Pty) Ltd 15%, and Namcor 10%.
Woodside has an exclusive option over a 56% participating interest to be derived from Pancontinental Orange’s 75%, while Pancontinental has an option over a 1% participating interest to be derived from the Custos’ participating interest.
Pancontinental received the final PEL 87 3D prestack depth migrated (PSDM) seismic volume from primary processing contractor CGG.
The company said a comprehensive and detailed interpretation of the PEL 87 3D seismic can commence.
The interpretation will include a significant quantitative interpretation (QI) program to identify seismic anomalies that may represent direct hydrocarbon indicators.
This QI program can only commence now that the migrated angle stack gathers are available and will include Amplitude vs Offset analysis.
Given the significant amount of required interpretation and analysis, Pancontinental anticipates that results will be some months away.
The company will, however, provide interim updates as the various hydrocarbon play types identified thus far have matured sufficiently.
PEL 87 is south of PEL 83, where Galp Energia reported a significant oil discovery at the Mopane-1X exploration well.
Pancontinental says it regards the Mopane-1X result as being extremely positive for PEL 87 prospectivity.
