Namibia’s offshore basins — Orange, Lüderitz, Walvis and Namibe — together cover about 825,000 square kilometres of the Atlantic margin, according to Namcor. While Namcor’s own resource briefings highlight significant untapped potential, public estimates vary widely.
Promotional materials from some industry participants put the country’s total offshore resource potential at around 20 billion barrels of oil, but this figure has not been independently confirmed.
A more conservative assessment is presented in a 2024 country report on Namibia, published by Foreign Policy, a Washington, DC–based American magazine known for its global coverage of politics, economics, and diplomacy. The report was produced as part of Foreign Policy’s sponsored “Country Reports” series, which features investment and development profiles created in collaboration with national governments and private-sector partners.
In that Namibia edition, the publication estimated that the country’s combined offshore and onshore basins could hold about 11 billion barrels of oil and 2.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.
While the report is promotional in nature rather than independent newsroom analysis, it reflects how Namibia’s oil and gas potential is increasingly being profiled on major international platforms.
In its latest global deepwater outlook, Rystad reports that approved greenfield investment surpassed US$60 billion in the past year and is expected to rise further as frontier projects, such as Namibia’s, advance toward development.
The consultancy adds that major exploration and production companies have averaged around US$7 billion annually in exploration spending between 2020 and 2024, underscoring the scale of capital now targeting the world’s emerging deepwater provinces.
According to Reuters, Namibia’s newly discovered offshore fields could hold about 11 billion barrels of oil, based on a resource briefing presented by the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor).
The agency’s presentation outlined how cumulative discoveries from TotalEnergies, Shell, and Galp have elevated Namibia into Africa’s top tier of emerging producers.
A separate Reuters report quoting Rystad Energy adds that roughly 2.6 billion barrels of oil have already been confirmed in place this decade, with potential peak production capacity reaching 700,000 barrels per day once developments in the Orange Basin come online.
World Oil provides similar figures, citing Namibia’s Petroleum Commissioner as saying the country “boasts an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil and approximately 2.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.”
The magazine reports that global investors are rapidly increasing capital commitments as the government targets first production by 2029, positioning Namibia to join Africa’s next generation of oil exporters.
Meanwhile, Offshore-Energy.biz highlights the surge in exploration momentum across the Orange, Lüderitz, and Walvis basins.
The outlet reports that the Ministry of Mines and Energy has approved plans for seven new offshore wells to be drilled under the upcoming licensing round, underscoring investor confidence in Namibia’s deepwater frontier.
In another article, Offshore-Energy notes that GEO Exploration has upgraded its unrisked prospective resources in PEL 94—within the Walvis domain—following new seismic interpretation, reflecting the growing technical sophistication of Namibia’s exploration programme.
Orange Basin: The core of the boom
Stretching northward from Oranjemund, the Orange Basin has become Namibia’s most capital-intensive exploration theatre. TotalEnergies’ Venus and Shell’s Graff–Jonker discoveries confirmed a world-class light-oil system that industry analysts say could reshape southern Africa’s energy map. Reuters and the Journal of Petroleum Technology have reported that Venus alone may hold around two billion barrels of recoverable oil, though TotalEnergies and Namcor both stress that appraisal work is still refining those figures.
When TotalEnergies announced Venus-1X in February 2022, the well encountered an 84-metre net oil column in high-quality Lower Cretaceous sands. Namcor hailed the find as “transformational” for Namibia’s future. In subsequent briefings covered by Energy Voice, the company outlined a subsea-to-FPSO development concept designed to produce roughly 150,000 barrels per day. Engineering costs are expected to fall within the single-digit billion-dollar range, and, as Bloomberg and Upstream Online have noted, the joint venture with QatarEnergy, Impact Oil & Gas, and Namcor is targeting a final investment decision in 2026, with first oil production expected before the end of the decade.
Shell’s programme under PEL 39 began with Graff-1, spudded in December 2021, followed by Jonker-1X, La Rona-1X, and Lesedi-1X, all of which confirmed a working light-oil system.
The Financial Times reported that in early 2025, Shell booked a US$400 million impairment on its Namibian assets but reaffirmed its long-term commitment, scheduling a five-well campaign for 2026.
Industry commentators told Energy Voice that this step signals confidence in the commercial potential of the basin despite early complexity.
Further north, Galp Energia’s Mopane complex in PEL 83 added momentum in 2024.
The company stated that its Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X wells achieved test rates exceeding the 14,000 barrels per day regulatory cap, indicating approximately ten billion barrels of oil in place across the structure.
In 2025, World Oil reported that Mopane-3X confirmed stacked pay zones and favourable fluid properties. Following these results, Reuters reported that Galp had initiated a farm-down process to attract a larger development partner.
Among independents, Rhino Resources has emerged as one of the most aggressive new entrants in the industry. According to Energy Intelligence, its Capricornus-1X well flowed more than 11,000 barrels per day of 37° API oil from 38 metres of net pay, while Volans-1X, drilled in 2025, intersected a 26-metre condensate-rich gas zone.
Company reports describe the results as “transformational” for its acreage, positioning Rhino among Namibia’s most promising mid-tier operators.
The cumulative effect of these discoveries has been dramatic. Drilling activity has turned Lüderitz and Walvis Bay into logistics hubs, with rigs cycling continuously between appraisal and new exploration wells. Rystad Energy estimates that the Orange Basin now accounts for the majority of Namibia’s offshore spending, with exploration and appraisal budgets averaging approximately US$1.5 billion per year, a figure also reflected in Energy Intelligence’s 2025 offshore outlook.
Walvis Basin: The return of the independents
A decade before Venus and Graff reshaped Namibia’s energy story, Brazilian explorer HRT Participações drilled the Wingat-1 and Murombe-1 wells in the Walvis Basin, establishing the first clear evidence of a working petroleum system offshore Namibia.
The Wingat-1 well, drilled in 2013, recovered light oil with an API gravity of between 38° and 42°, confirming the presence of mature source rocks and demonstrating active hydrocarbon generation, according to HRT’s results published at the time.
Murombe-1, spudded later that year, intersected the targeted Cretaceous turbidite sands but produced only water in the main reservoir interval, HRT told Oil & Gas Journal.
Although neither achieved commercial success, both were technically significant—they proved source maturity, migration pathways, and reservoir potential—laying the geological foundation for future exploration.
That early groundwork now underpins a new exploration wave led by Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas, Tower Resources, Pancontinental Energy, and Chevron.
Eco Atlantic, one of Namibia’s longest-standing independents, operates four Walvis Basin licences—PEL 97 to PEL 100—covering roughly 20,000 square kilometres.
The company holds working interests ranging from 54 to 85 per cent across these blocks, partnered by Namcor and, in some licences, Tullow Kudu Limited.
Over the past two years, Eco Atlantic has reprocessed 3D seismic across its Cooper, Sharon, Guy, and Tamar blocks, refining amplitude-supported leads in Cretaceous sandstone reservoirs, the company said in its 2025 operational update.
Tower Resources holds PEL 96, which contains the Welwitschia Deep structure, one of the basin’s most technically defined, yet undrilled, prospects.
The company continues to seek a farm-in partner to finance its first exploration well and has upgraded its reservoir model using 3D seismic acquired between 2014 and 2018.
Pancontinental Energy, meanwhile, operates PEL 37, where its Cormorant-1 well in 2018 encountered oil shows that confirmed an active petroleum system, though flow rates were non-commercial.
According to Africa Energy Corp., a former partner in the block, Pancontinental has since reinterpreted 3D seismic and geochemical data to delineate deeper turbidite channels and new structural closures.
In February 2025, Chevron entered PEL 82, taking an 80 per cent operating interest alongside Custos Energy and Namcor, which each hold 10 per cent.
World Oil reported that the agreement marked Chevron’s first major offshore venture in Namibia’s northern basins. The company told Reuters in April 2025 that it plans to spud its first exploration well in 2026, targeting deepwater Cretaceous clastics west of the old HRT acreage.
Industry analysts describe this as the most significant operator-level investment in the Walvis Basin since 2013, signalling renewed global confidence in Namibia’s hydrocarbon potential.
Together, these programmes—valued at an estimated US $1.5 billion through 2027, according to industry estimates compiled by Rystad Energy and Energy Intelligence—are transforming Walvis from a data province into a live exploration theatre.
The basin that once yielded only geological curiosity is now drawing seismic crews, rigs, and majors back to its deepwater frontier.
Namibe Basin: The silent frontier
Namibia’s Namibe Basin, the country’s northernmost offshore frontier, remains one of the least explored yet most geologically promising margins of the South Atlantic. Extending from the Walvis Basin toward the Angolan border, the Namibe forms part of the same rift system that hosts Angola’s prolific Lower Congo and Kwanza basins.
According to Namcor, which serves as the custodian of Namibia’s national petroleum data, the basin is one of the country’s four principal offshore basins. It is covered by multi-client seismic surveys conducted by firms such as TGS, PGS, and Spectrum.
Although no exploration wells have yet been drilled in the Namibian section, regional seismic imaging reveals well-developed rift-fill and post-rift sequences, salt-related structures, and potential stratigraphic traps similar to those that have yielded significant discoveries further north in Angola.
Namcor and Angola’s Sonangol have jointly promoted the Namibe margin to prospective operators as part of regional collaboration efforts aimed at harmonising exploration along the shared deepwater boundary.
While the basin remains undrilled, its scale, structural complexity, and continuity with proven petroleum systems to the north position Namibe as a natural frontier for Namibia’s next phase of offshore exploration.
Onshore: Kavango and Owambo Basins
While the deepwater story dominates headlines, Namibia’s Kavango and Owambo basins are quietly building an onshore counterpoint.
In the Kavango Basin, Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica) operates PEL 73, which covers approximately 25,000 km² across Namibia and Botswana.
The company has drilled three stratigraphic wells — 6-2, 6-1, and 8-2 — confirming the presence of thick, organic-rich shales within Permian–Triassic sequences.
Over 2,200 km of 2D seismic has been acquired, defining structural traps analogous to Kenya’s Lokichar and Uganda’s Albertine Graben. Rystad Energy estimates that ReconAfrica’s cumulative investment to date is US$145 million.
In the Owambo Basin, 88 Energy Limited joined Monitor Exploration and Legend Oil Namibia under PEL 93, earning up to 45 per cent through a three-stage farm-in. The licence covers 18,500 km², and the joint venture has secured an extension to 2026 for gravity, magnetic, and environmental studies. Work has identified several leads, including the prominent “Lead 9” closure.
Together, the Kavango–Owambo corridor represents Namibia’s onshore diversification — lower-cost, pre-discovery acreage with geological continuity to southern Angola and early indications of hydrocarbon potential.
Sources: Rystad Energy (2025), Energy Intelligence (2025), Namcor Briefings 2025, company filings, and investor updates.
