Cape Town-based Rhino Resources has spudded its debut exploration well in Namibia’s prolific Orange basin, targeting a huge prospect that the country’s petroleum commissioner previously described as “amazing”. The privately-owned player, headed by chief executive Travis Smithard, operates Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 85, just south of Galp Energia's huge Mopane discovery in PEL 83, and directly east of the multiple finds Shell has made in PEL 39, including Graff.
The Sagittarius-1X probe is being drilled by the drillship Noble Venturer in a water depth of about 1400 metres and is expected to take some 45 days to drill. Rhino will also drill a second well immediately after Sagittarius and, subject to the well results, possible additional activities that could be triggered. While geographically near to the discoveries of Shell and Galp, Rhino pointed out that the Sagittarius prospect’s multiple stacked reservoirs represent the testing of different elements of the play fairway in an up-dip position within the basin.
Maggy Shino, Petroleum Commissioner at Namibia’s Ministry of Mines & Energy, told delegates at a Windhoek event earlier this year that Sagittarius “is one of the most amazing prospects I have ever seen in Namibia. It does not get better than this.” Smithard was more cautious, saying that while the drilling successes of Galp, Shell and also TotalEnergies have boosted Rhino’s confidence about its drilling programme, ”we remain grounded in our pragmatism given this is frontier exploration.”
Nevertheless, he said: "This is a very exciting moment for Rhino and our partners as we reach the culmination of almost a decade’s worth of work in the region. During that time, we have accelerated investment to progress our understanding of the subsurface, and in parallel, have seen the basin become one of the most exciting postcodes for exploration drilling.” Rhino’s drilling department will be supported by Exceed, a well management specialist which has experience of drilling across the African continent, most recently overseeing the drilling of Galp’s wells on PEL 83. Rhino's partners PEL 85 are Azule Energy (the BP-Eni joint venture), state-owned Namcor and local player Korres Investments.
PCL Price at posting:
1.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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