Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas is quietly recalibrating its strategy in Namibia as the Orange Basin continues to attract global attention.
While the headlines have focused on the giant discoveries at Venus, Graff, Jonker and Mopane, a minor but strategic reshuffle has been taking place on the fringes of the basin—one that shows how explorers are positioning themselves for the next wave of drilling and investment.
In recent months, Eco Atlantic secured a one-year extension to its initial exploration period across all four of its Namibian Petroleum Exploration Licences.
The extensions give the company breathing room at a time when global interest in Namibian acreage has surged, and the cost of staying competitive in the Orange Basin has risen dramatically.
Each licence sits at a different stage of technical maturity, and extra time allows the company to refine seismic interpretation, risk-rank prospects, and negotiate partnerships from a firmer footing.
Alongside the extensions, Eco Atlantic has farmed out its entire 85% working interest in PEL 98—better known as the Sharon Block, or Block 2213—to Lamda Energy (Pty) Ltd, a wholly Namibian-owned company.
The deal is pending final government approval, but it marks a significant milestone in Namibia’s upstream sector.
Domestic companies have traditionally played supporting roles offshore, overshadowed by multinationals and capital-hungry juniors.
Eco’s decision to transfer its full Eco-held stake to a local firm fits into a broader shift in Namibia’s petroleum landscape, where the government increasingly expects Namibian equity and participation in new acreage.
Eco’s relationship with Namibia dates back more than a decade, when the country’s offshore was still regarded as a frontier of dry holes and thin data.
The company initially built its Namibian position around shallow-water and mid-depth licences in the Walvis Basin, including the Cooper, Guy and Tamar blocks, which were operated in partnership with Azinam before Azinam was absorbed by Eco.
These were patient explorer years, with few believers and little regional calibration.
Then came 2022. TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery rewrote the geological map, followed quickly by Shell’s Graff and La Rona wells.
By 2024 and 2025, Galp Energia’s Mopane discovery confirmed that the Orange Basin stretched into a vast new petroleum province. Companies that had maintained early positions suddenly found themselves holding acreage that had grown in value almost overnight.
Eco Atlantic is now benefiting from that shift.
The company says it has received considerable interest in its Namibian licences and is assessing how to advance exploration programmes through potential farm-outs.
Deepwater Namibia is no longer an environment where small explorers can shoulder the cost of a full exploration well. With estimated well costs commonly ranging from tens of millions of dollars to over US$100 million in deepwater settings, only supermajors and well-funded independents can absorb the risk. For mid-tier explorers, the two viable routes are to partner up or step back.
The Sharon Block deal reflects that reality. By handing its 85% working interest to Lamda Energy, Eco Atlantic reduces its immediate exploration obligations while strengthening relationships with Namibian stakeholders. For Lamda Energy, the transaction is a rare opportunity: controlling ownership of an offshore block in a basin that is now one of the world’s hottest exploration zones.
It may also mark the beginning of a pattern in which Namibian firms take on more meaningful roles in offshore exploration, aligning with the state’s local content ambitions.
Eco retains several other blocks where it believes value can still be unlocked. The revived interest in these licences is tied less to past drilling and more to modern reinterpretations made possible by Venus, Graff, Jonker and Mopane.
Each of those discoveries improves the regional geological model and reduces perceived risk elsewhere. Prospectivity, once considered marginal, is now being reassessed with fresh eyes.
Eco’s long-standing strategy has always been built on timing—mature prospects quietly, wait for the basin to prove itself, and then negotiate farm-outs that shift drilling costs to bigger partners. The approach worked in Guyana. Namibia may now be on the same trajectory.
The licence extensions granted this year give Eco time to execute that plan.
The Sharon Block farm-out demonstrates a willingness to reshape its portfolio to keep pace with a fast-moving basin. And the growing stream of enquiries from potential partners signals that Eco’s slow-burn strategy may be approaching a pivotal moment.
For Namibia’s offshore sector, the bigger story is the gradual emergence of local players in a space once dominated by foreign operators.
If the Lamda Energy transaction receives final approval, it may set a new benchmark for domestic participation in the Orange Basin’s future.
For Eco Atlantic, the message is clear: Namibia is now central to its story, and the company intends to remain embedded in the basin as it moves from exploration to development and, eventually, full-scale production.
