"TotalEnergies has fired up the environmental approval process on its huge Venus oil project offshore Namibia, making public for possibly the first time the potential scale of the development’s subsea system. Located in 3000 metres of water, Venus will be exploited via subsea wells tied back to a 150,000 barrels per day floating production, storage and offloading vessel. A final investment decision on the ultra-deepwater development is due to be taken in 2025 or 2026, targeting first oil in 2029 or 2030.
A background information document (BID) filed with Namibia’s authorities stated that TotalEnergies and its partners Impact Oil & Gas, Namcor and QatarEnergy want to "move toward the development" of Venus. This big discovery lies 300 kilometres from a helicopter base in Oranjemund, 320 kilometres from Luderitz port and 700 kilometres from the huge Walvis Bay port. The document said the project calls for the drilling of up to 40 subsea wells, some of which will be used to reinject the gas. An indication of the total value of subsea orders that could be awarded at Venus can be gleaned for similar size developments elsewhere, remarks made by officials at subsea contractors and recent presentations.
The chief executives of the three big subsea contractors all name-checked Namibia during their fourth-quarter results calls with analysts at the end of last month. In its quarterly presentation, TechnipFMC estimated that the value of the Venus subsea contract will be upwards of $1 billion, with chief executive Doug Pferdehirt saying: “You're beginning to see tendering activity happen in Namibia.” For comparison, in 2024, TechnipFMC was awarded a contract worth between $500 million and $1 billion to provide a 48-well subsea system for ExxonMobil’s Whiptail project in Guyana, which lies in 2000 metres of water, one kilometre less than Venus. Also focused on Namibia is Saipem, whose chief executive Alessandro Puliti said: “We expect that engineering, procurement and construction works in the country will be tendered in the coming quarters.” Saipem is providing the subsea-umbilical riser and flowlines system for Whiptail and has valued its contract at up to $1.5 billion. Subsea7 chief executive John Evans said: “We've seen Namibia open up this year. There'll be opportunities to build at least two projects in Namibia this year, which is a new province for the industry.” Evans did not name the projects, but they are Venus and Galp Energia’s initial Mopane development.
Based on the contract values for Whiptail, the water depth at Venus and market capacity issues, it appears likely that the subsea orders for Venus, which may be developed in phases, will surpass $2.5 billion. According to the BID, drilling of Venus’ wells and installation of the offshore production facilities is expected to take about five years and then “production will start and last for 20 years plus,” added the documentation. Oil stored on the FPSO will be offloaded to dynamically positioned shuttle tankers which will then transfer the oil to conventional tankers in a nearshore area. Venus, discovered in 2022, is located in Block 2913B."
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