"TotalEnergies is about to spud another deepwater exploration probe close to its huge Venus oil and gas discovery in Namibia’s prolific Orange basin, targeting a major new prospect. The French supermajor has had significant success in Petroleum Exploration Licence 56 — which covers blocks 2912 and 2913B — since finding Venus in February 2022. In Block 2913B, it has drilled successful appraisal wells on Venus and made two recent discoveries in the northern part of this block close to acreage operated by Chevron. TotalEnergies made a new discovery with the Mangetti-1X well and is understood to have another recent discovery with Tamboti-1X, although this has yet to be confirmed. The only unsuccessful probe drilled by the supermajor is Nara-1X, which was targeting a western extension of Venus and is currently the only probe to be drilled in Block 2912.
Two well-placed sources said TotalEnergies is about to start drilling in the south of Block 2913B, closer to Namibia's maritime boundary with South Africa. They said the new probe will target a prospect called Marula, formerly known as Damara. One knowledgeable exploration source said Marula “is a stratigraphic prospect,” describing it as “an entire deep sea fan lobe, similar to Venus but further south.”
According to marine intelligence provider VesselsValue, the semi-submersible drilling rig Deepsea Mira departed the Tamboti-1X well site on about 1 February and is currently at the Marula-1X drilling location. This drill site is about 25 kilometres southwest of Shell’s Jonker discovery and a little closer to the UK supermajor’s Enigma discovery to the west — both in adjacent Block 2913A — and some 90 kilometres southeast of Mangetti-1X.
Roger Tucker, chief executive of Africa Oil — which has an indirect stake in Marula through its shareholding in Impact Oil & Gas — said in August 2024 that in Block 2913B - and Block 3B/4B in the South African sector of the Orange basin. “We are targeting multi-billion barrel gross prospects by the end of 2025,” he said."
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