88 Energy’s most clearly documented 2026 programme sits in its Namibian onshore portfolio, where the company is earning into Petroleum Exploration Licence 93 (PEL 93) in the Owambo Basin through a staged farm-in with Monitor Exploration Limited.
The company’s own ASX disclosures frame 2026 less as a drilling year and more as a year of pre-drill technical work, regulatory preparation and budgeting discipline aimed at positioning the joint venture to move quickly once targets are ranked and approvals are in place.
The pivot point for the 2026 timeline is the licence extension secured in 2025.
In an ASX announcement dated 2 July 2025, 88 Energy said a “12-month extension” had been granted by Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, moving the First Renewal Exploration Period expiry from 2 October 2025 to “2 October 2026.”
The company tied that extension directly to a refreshed work programme.
It said a “New Stage 1A Work Program” had been introduced under an amended farmout arrangement, targeting pre-drill de-risking.”
88 Energy also set out the specific work commitments linked to the extension period.
The July 2025 announcement lists acquisition of an “airborne gravity and magnetic survey, supplemented by radiometric data,” integration of datasets to support drill location selection, “Completion of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for drilling,” and “a minimum gross spend of US$800,000.”
These commitments effectively define what the company must achieve before the renewal window closes in October 2026, and they provide the clearest line of sight into how 2026 activity in Namibia is expected to unfold.
On the technical front, 88 Energy’s published work programme anchors around high-resolution geophysics and target maturation in the southern part of PEL 93.
In the same 2 July 2025 ASX release, the company said an airborne gravity survey was “set for H2 CY25” and would focus on the southern area of the licence.
By the following quarter, the company’s September 2025 quarterly report sharpened the 2026 timing.
Under “Namibian Portfolio Highlights”, 88 Energy reported that “a high-resolution gravity survey is planned for Q1 CY26,” covering the southern area of PEL 93, where multiple structural leads have been identified.
The significance of the gravity work lies in how the JV is building its lead inventory and ranking drill candidates.
In its July 2025 update, 88 Energy said “Lead 9 [is] confirmed as a priority target,” describing it as an approximately “~100sqkm anticlinal structure” identified in 2024 2D seismic data, with closure at reservoir and source rock levels.
The company’s positioning is that this is not a single isolated anomaly, but part of a broader structural picture in the southern Owambo Basin that gravity and radiometrics can help refine.
The foundations for that target inventory were set out earlier in the project’s disclosure trail.
In a December 2024 ASX announcement on PEL 93, 88 Energy reported that initial interpretation of 2D seismic had identified “10 significant independent structural closures” within the licence area.
In that release, the company said it had received the seismic products from Monitor and would “aim to independently validate” the operator’s findings while integrating seismic with other datasets, including airborne geophysics and soil geochemistry.
This is important for the 2026 storyline because it shows that the gravity survey and dataset integration are not add-ons; they are the next steps in the JV’s stated process for converting seismic-mapped features into drillable prospects.
The company’s own documents also define what “pre-drill de-risking” means in practical deliverables.
In the July 2025 announcement, 88 Energy said the Stage 1A programme includes “Preparation of a certified prospective resource report,” “Identification of potential drilling locations,” and “Creation of an Authority for Expenditure (AFE) for the proposed well.”
Those items are critical because they serve as the bridge between mapping and committing to a drilling campaign: an independently certified resource framework, a shortlist of locations, and the costed AFE package used for budgeting, partner approvals, and contracting.
Funding mechanics are also explicit in 88 Energy’s disclosures and shape what is realistic in 2026.
The 2 July 2025 announcement states that Stage 1A “will be jointly funded on a 50:50 basis” by 88 Energy and Monitor, subject to “a cost cap of US$1 million,” unless otherwise agreed.
The company reiterated the same structure in its 2025 half-year financial report, stating that Stage 1A is funded 50:50 under a US$1 million cost threshold.
For a 2026 operating lens, that matters because it signals that Namibia’s work is designed to be disciplined and staged, limiting exposure while the JV prepares for a higher-cost drilling decision later.
The 2026 window is also defined by 88 Energy’s stated working interest position and its pathway to increase it. The company’s Namibia project page describes a three-stage farm-in for up to 45% non-operated working interest in PEL 93, with 88 Energy holding 20% at that point.
The December 2024 ASX announcement sets out the farm-in mechanics and the maximum anticipated investment tied to the 2024 work programme.
While those investment caps and stage thresholds span multiple years, the practical 2026 point is that the company’s Namibia focus is on completing the technical and regulatory work required to keep the farm-in pathway alive and preserve the option value of a drilling event.
Put simply, 88 Energy’s own documents describe 2026 in Namibia as the year when the joint venture must convert a prominent licence position and an emerging structural inventory into a properly engineered and permitted drilling proposition.
The gravity/radiometric survey planned for early 2026, the certified prospective resource report and drill location selection work, and the EIA requirement during the extension period form the backbone of that programme.
