General Thoughts, page-4926

Woodside getting a mention being presumptive or are they already actively working with others?

Shell has 'no shortage' of oil and gas in its Namibia discoveries, but questions remain over 'mobility', says chief executive

"Shell's cluster of deepwater discoveries in Namibia's prolific Orange basin are geologically complex and a commercial development is not straightforward, according to chief executive Wael Sawan. The supermajor has made five discoveries in Petroleum Exploration Licence 83 — Enigma, Jonker, Graff, La Rona and Lesedi — and drilled only one unsuccessful exploration well.

However, compared to TotalEnergies' Venus and Mangetti discoveries to the west and Galp Energia's huge Mopane find to the north, which appear to lie in Orange basin sweet spots, Shell's quintet of discoveries seem to have more sub-surface challenges, an issue Sawan has alluded to previously. Having completed its multi-well exploration and appraisal drilling campaign earlier this year, Shell is now getting down to the business of better understanding the structure of the discovered reservoirs, seals and traps, and the characteristics of the hydrocarbons.

A well-placed source told Upstream recently that Enigma, the latest find, is the best on Shell's books so far, followed by Jonker. Both of these discoveries are located just across the border from Venus where TotalEnergies is already pushing ahead with a phased development, while Galp is already talking about a multi-FPSO project at Mopane.

Speaking to analysts in Shell's second-quarter results call on Thursday, Sawan said of PEL 83: "Its a complex subsurface. While there is no shortage of (hydrocarbon) volume, the question is going to be the commercial producibility and the mobility of those molecules." However, he said the studies and activities of other players in the Orange basin — which also include Chevron, Rhino Resources, BW Energy and Woodside — are: "Very helpful; we are all learning as we go to be able to better understand the reservoirs and the contours of the reservoirs."