Shell has successfully completed its latest deepwater drilling effort offshore Namibia, confirming the presence of hydrocarbons.
The Enigma-1X probe is currently being drilled in Petroleum Exploration Licence 39 by Northern Ocean’s semi-submersible drilling rig, Deepsea Bollsta, managed by Odfjell Drilling.
Further evaluation is required, according to Upstream, to determine commercial potential.
Enigma-1X was spudded at the end of February, approximately 15 kilometres south-southeast of Shell’s Jonker-2A appraisal well.
The PEL-39 Exploration License is held by a consortium comprised of QatarEnergy (45% working interest), Shell (Operator with a 45% working interest), and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) (10% working interest).
This comes as Shell reportedly allocated a quarter of its deep-water exploration budget for 2023 and 2024 to its oil and gas discoveries in Namibia’s Orange Basin.
Namibia has quickly become a highly attractive Exploration & Production market following oil discoveries made in 2022 and 2023 by oil majors TotalEnergies (Venus) and Shell (Graff and Jonker-1X) off the coast of Namibia.
Galp Energia, leading a consortium with Namcor and Custos, has also confirmed oil discoveries off the coast of Namibia.
