Venus is a “wonderful… giant, light oil discovery.” Forking out...

Venus is a “wonderful… giant, light oil discovery.” Forking out US$820m for further drilling. Positive initial reports from Mangetti also.

TotalEnergies lines up mega-drilling contract to fast-track exploitation of giant Namibian oil discovery

"TotalEnergies has launched a bid process for a contract set to be worth more than $800 million to secure a rig to carry out development drilling on its huge Venus oil discovery offshore Namibia. The move underpins the French supermajor’s plan to fast-track the exploitation of its multi-billion-barrel deep-water oil and gas find on the prolific Orange basin.

The bid process for a drillship was launched recently and, according to one informed source, shows TotalEnergies’ “commitment to the development”. The rig must be available to begin work in November 2024, with the contract due to run through to November 2029. Average drillship rates are approaching $450,000 per day, according to data from S&P Global. This would suggest that TotalEnergies will have to fork out somewhere in the region of $820 million to secure a unit for the planned lease period of more than 1800 days.

Drillship Tungsten Explorer is, meanwhile, drilling ahead on the Mangetti-1X probe. This well is designed to target a prospect located in the north of Block 2913B, amid market talk that it may not be a pure exploration well. One knowledgeable source suggested that there could also be an appraisal element to Mangetti-1X.

Clement Fluery, a senior geophysicist at TotalEnergies, declined to answer an Upstream question on the matter, but told AEW delegates that Venus is a “wonderful… giant, light oil discovery.” Shino categorised the discovery as the “Venus super-trend”, wording that hints at the potential scale of this new play, and said the government wants it brought on stream “as soon as possible.”