General Thoughts, page-3988

Namibia shows pulling power as Australian players join feeding frenzy

"With majors and others firing up exploration campaigns in the southwest African upstream hotspot, Woodside Energy may be well positioned to firm up its presence in the Orange Basin. Namibia's capacity to attract interest shows no sign of abating, with the most recent bout of announcements from IOCs reinforcing the positive sentiment with fresh billion-barrel oil finds that confirm the country's status as the world's richest hunting ground for global explorers.

The majors have been in the game since February 2022, with the likes of Shell and TotalEnergies making major announcements in the offshore Orange Basin at their respective Graff and Venus blocks. With an estimated 88% drilling success rate claimed in the Orange basin and, notes consultancy Wood Mackenzie, with 230,000 square kilometres of licenced acreage – more than double that of Norway's 100,000 sq km – on offer, Namibia's offshore remains under-explored.

Amid expectations that oil production in Namibia could exceed 500,000 b/d within a decade, none of this has gone unnoticed by Australian E&P players. The ASX-listed junior PanContinental Energy was ahead of the game, taking operatorship in December 2017 of a 75% interest in Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) 87, a large 10,947 sq km area in the Orange Basin one-trend with Shell, TotalEnergies and Galp Energia's acquired interests. PanContinental's hunch was that offshore Namibia is an area with a potential for large oil discoveries that could be profitable at prevailing oil prices and highly profitable at better prices.

Fellow Australian Woodside Energy appeared to agree, announcing in March 2023 a deal granting it an option to take a 56% participating interest in PEL 87, delivered from PanContinental's 75% stake. Galp's recent discoveries suggest that PanContinental's hunch about PEL 87 was right. The Portuguese company announced in April the Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X oil discoveries situated 90km south of PEL 87 hold an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent in-place. Pancontinental regards the Mopane discoveries as being an extremely positive indicator for PEL 87 perspectivity, residing in a similar, intra-slope setting."