General Thoughts, page-2506

New light oil discovery draws attention away from the Orange Basin central axis to northern promise

Mopane-1X "appears to hold both the Late Cretaceous Cenomanian – Turonian (CT) play seen at Graff, and the Lower Cretaceous Albo-Aptian play seen at Venus. A major detachment at Cenomanian level appears to underly high-energy clastics forming combination stratigraphic/structural traps in the CT. Further large build-ups at the base Cretaceous show strong similarities to the basin floor fan play in the Albian, with Aptian source. Galp have since announced major light oil columns at two depths, suggesting perhaps both plays are active.

What could become more significant, is the reference only to light oil, and high-quality reservoir at AVO 2 (the deeper oil leg). If reservoir quality is good here – there are documented references to permeability and chlorite issues at Venus and Jonker – this new discovery at Mopane could be pointing to a more prolific sweetspot in the basin, which in turn draws the explorer’s eyes to the entire northern third of the Orange Basin depocentre."