"Namibia’s transformation from the oil and gas world’s ugly...

"Namibia’s transformation from the oil and gas world’s ugly duckling to its golden child has been remarkable, with one top government official saying that by 2035, the country could be producing more than 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from four floating production, storage and offloading vessels. Just 30 months ago, Namibia was finding it hard to alter perceptions that the nation’s E&P potential was sketchy — based on the inability to develop Kudu, a 50-year-old gas discovery in the Orange basin and some high-profile wildcatting failures by the likes of HRT and Chariot. But, as almost everyone in the industry will now know, in February 2022, Shell and TotalEnergies turned that view on its head, beginning a run of major new oil discoveries it the Orange basin, with Galp Energia joining the exploration success party earlier this year with its huge Mopane find. All told, the resources discovered amount to multi-billions of barrels of oil and many trillions of cubic feet of gas, with the oil now being targeted for development."

"Uanguta continued to be “very confident” that more exploration and appraisal activities which are planned for 2024-2025 “will continue to yield positive results". This in in reference to drilling campaigns planned by Chevron, Galp and Rhino Resources — among others. He said the industry’s learnings from exploring the Orange basin could mean that in future “more discoveries with potentially better fluid and reservoir properties will be coming our way”, adding that these extra recoverable oil and gas reserves could thrust Namibia into the top tier of African producers that currently includes Angola, Libya and Nigeria."