Not a bad read here...Oil and gas frontier exploration pushes...

Not a bad read here...

Oil and gas frontier exploration pushes forward in Africa

"Frontier exploration is still shaping investment in Africa even as oil companies divest from mature assets, with Namibia rated as one of the world's most sought-after petroleum regions.

...talk to any international oil executive about the most exciting exploration prospects worldwide and many will identify one new hydrocarbons province above all others: Namibia, where TotalEnergies and Shell are pushing forward with ambitious drilling campaigns in the offshore Orange Basin, with resources measured in the multiple billions of barrels. In the words of Africa Oil CEO Keith Hill, whose company is partnered with TotalEnergies, the Orange Basin is “probably the most sought-after new petroleum region globally”.

Meanwhile, the indications are that the flow rates on Shell’s Graff field off Namibia’s shore have been very impressive and have more than matched expectations, pointing towards very “advantaged” resources – with low production costs.

And as the consultancy Westwood Energy notes, TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery and the opening of the rest of the Orange Basin coincide with a short-term revival in frontier exploration. It said frontier exploration commercial success rates were at record highs in 2022, reaching 25%.

Shell started 2023 with a third light oil discovery at the Jonker-1X well in Namibian offshore licence block PEL 39. This followed on from drilling of Graff-1 and La Rona-1 last year, which led other operators, including Chevron and Woodside Energy, to “farm in” – buying rights to drill in neighbouring blocks.

The potential scale of Namibia’s resource is found in the fact that whereas Guyana, another recent frontier province, saw 15 discoveries before it reached 7bn barrels of reserves, Namibia took just three discoveries to get to that level."