The Stena DrillMAX drillship is mobilising to Namibia for a new offshore drilling campaign, with the vessel expected to arrive in the country on 25 October.
The drillship departed Las Palmas on 6 October and is currently heading south towards Namibia’s Orange Basin, although the operator and specific well it will drill have not yet been publicly confirmed.
The mobilisation comes as exploration activity in the Orange Basin continues, with several international oil companies progressing exploration and appraisal programmes following a series of discoveries offshore Namibia.
Stena Drilling’s Health, Safety and Environment team has already deployed to Namibia, where it is conducting SafeStart workshops with crew members to prepare for the upcoming drilling campaign.
While Shell has been linked to the Stena DrillMAX’s Namibia campaign, neither the drilling contractor nor the oil major has publicly confirmed that the vessel has been contracted for Shell’s operations.
Shell is currently continuing exploration and appraisal work on Petroleum Exploration Licence 39 (PEL 39), where it is assessing the Merlin discovery.
The Merlin-1X exploration well was spudded on 8 April 2026 and delivered what Shell described as its most promising subsurface results to date on the licence, encountering a good-quality reservoir containing light oil with limited associated gas.
Shell operates PEL 39 alongside QatarEnergy and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR).
Following its Namibia campaign, the Stena DrillMAX is scheduled to undertake a drilling programme for Energean in the Mediterranean during 2027.
The programme is expected to include the Asopos-1 exploration well on Block 2 in the north-western Ionian Sea offshore Greece, followed by development and exploration drilling offshore Israel.
Before mobilising to Namibia, the Stena DrillMAX was active during 2025 and early 2026 on exploration and appraisal campaigns in South America, including drilling offshore Suriname.
The UK-flagged drillship was built in 2007 and is designed for deepwater drilling operations.
