While we are waiting to hear of final details of the PCL Namibia licence deal, HRT remain confident that Namibia offshore is similar to offshore Brazil.
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WINDHOEK - It is almost definite that there is oil in Namibia's offshore basin, in deeper water in the Walvis and Orange basins, west of the Kudu gas field.
All tests so far indicate that. The only disappointment would be to find gas fields instead of oil fields.
HRT Africa, a subsidiary of listed Brazilian petroleum exploration firm, HRT Brazil, would soon start drilling to arrive at conclusive results, the company announced over the weekend.
HRT Africa has been using satellite technology to locate thermal activities beneath the ocean for the past five years, and the results have shown oil seeps at the bottom of the ocean just west of Kudu gas fields.
"We found more than 200 oil seeps. There is definitely not only water down there. It can be gas or oil. But it's not only water," Dr Marcio Rocha Mello, chief executive officer for HRT Brazil, confidently announced over the weekend.
Mello is so confident of finding oil that he is promising to give N$10 000 to marine ecosystem preservation by 2013 - a dollar for every oil barrel produced - an indication that the company hopes to produce the first batch of crude oil barrels two years from now.
By 2020, HRT Africa is promising to give N$350 000 a year to marine preservation, again a dollar for every oil barrel produced, which gives a production of 350 000 crude oil barrels per annum estimates.
HRT Africa's faith in the presence of oil at the Walvis and Orange basin is rooted in the fact that the two basins mirror the Santos and Campos basins in Brazil where the biggest crude oil discoveries have been made.
Hundreds of millions of years ago Africa and Brazil were one continent; hence the tectonic plates are the same.
This has been confirmed by HRT Africa's exploration survey using 2D seismic data as well as ultra sound technology.
"There are known analogues that are similar for petroleum systems found at Santos and Campos basin in Brazil," Mello said of the Walvis and Orange basins.
HRT Africa has already raised more than US$400 million (about N$2.7 billion) to fund the drilling and further exploration activities that would provide conclusive results.
Mello said the presence of Kudu gas is already an indication of oil presence, somewhere along the basins, and uses example of child and a mother. "If you find a baby crying you have to look for its mama," he said - the mother being the oil deposits.
HRT's concept of giving a dollar for every barrel produced is similar to the concept it launched early this month in Brazil where it promised to give one Brazilian Real for every barrel produced in the Amazon state.
While that concept is called Green Barrel, the Namibian marine preservation is dubbed the Blue Barrel.
"This is how we decided to celebrate this date, which symbolises, to the utmost, our principles and values. We are a knowledge-based company, which adopts state-of-the art technology, without disregarding the sustained development of the regions where it operates," said the company of its preservation concept.
Mello worked for Brazilian state-owned Petrobras for 25 years before setting up the HRT Brazil Company.
He has developed specialised studies on petroleum systems for sedimentary basins of Latin America and Africa and has published over 200 papers on the geology and geochemistry of these areas.
He is also a professor of petroleum geochemistry and petroleum systems for several universities in Brazil.
HRT Africa held a function to celebrate the opening of its offices in Windhoek over the weekend.
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