ReconAfrica chief executive officer Brian Reinsborough says production testing at the Kavango-1X well in northeastern Namibia is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026 as the company advances what would be the country’s first onshore oil production test.
Reinsborough said this in a Proactive Investors interview this week.
The testing programme follows Reconnaissance Energy Africa’s recently closed, oversubscribed US$36 million financing, which provides the Canadian-listed explorer with a fully funded operational runway into 2026 across Namibia, Angola and offshore Gabon.
Reinsborough said the capital raise was initially launched as a US$20 million offering before strong demand from investors prompted an increase in size, including the exercise of an overallotment option.
“It was very successful financing. We went out with a US$20 million offering to begin with, and there was very high demand in the market, so we ended up increasing the offering and even that was overallocated,” Reinsborough said.
“What I look at is not just the overall numbers but the content within that. We’re getting some new institutional names into Recon writing sizeable cheques, and that’s exactly where we want to be going forward.”
According to Reinsborough, the financing reflects growing confidence in ReconAfrica’s shift toward a diversified African exploration and development portfolio.
“We made a big pivot last year to diversify our asset base,” he said. “Namibia remains a big component of the company, but we expanded into Angola and then late last year made a major move offshore into Gabon. Investors don’t want a single-point-failure company.”
In Namibia, the company expects operations teams to be on site by the end of the first quarter of 2026 to prepare the Kavango-1X well for testing. The programme includes installing a five-inch production liner to total depth and isolating multiple reservoir intervals for flow testing.
The production test could involve up to seven or eight zones and may run for as long as two months, with oil, gas and water separated at surface, gas flared and liquids stored in tanks.
Procurement is under way, with production casing scheduled to be shipped to Namibia in February and tenders for testing and surface equipment currently being evaluated.
Beyond Namibia, ReconAfrica plans to begin early-stage field sampling and geochemical work in Angola under a memorandum of understanding with local authorities, followed by seismic planning to assess the extension of the fold belt system into the country.
Offshore Gabon, the company is preparing to reprocess historic seismic data over the Nogulu Block using modern imaging techniques, with the six-month project expected to begin in early 2026. Reinsborough said the work is aimed at refining an existing discovery and building a clearer exploration inventory, with a resource report expected after completion and drilling targeted for 2027.
With multiple programmes advancing in parallel, Reinsborough said the latest financing positions ReconAfrica to execute its 2026 work plan without returning to the market in the near term, as it seeks to move from frontier exploration toward appraisal and potential development across its African portfolio.
