Mines Energy minister Tom Alweendo says oil discoveries off the coast of Namibia by two oil majors are of commercial quantities, likely in the billions of barrels, with production expected in four years.
“Companies are cautious, but have spoken of commercial quantities in billions of barrels. The marketability is there. They basically want to make sure that before they commit to production investments, they know what exact quantities are there, “ Alweendo told Reuters on the sidelines of an oil conference in Dakar, Senegal
“Both companies want to speed up the production process and both have mentioned that in four years they should start producing. It’s not something we’ve imposed, but it’s something we’ve discussed.”
The two companies, TotalEnergies and Shell announced earlier this year that they had made “significant” discoveries off Namibia, and according to Alweendo are in the process of drilling their second and third wells, and by the end of the year they would have done the appraisals and have estimated figures.
This announcement by the Energy minister comes as The Brief revealed that Shell has contracted Northern Ocean’s Deepsea Bollsta to carry out drilling offshore Namibia under a 12-month contract.
Northern Ocean said the contract is expected to begin in the middle of the fourth quarter this year and has an estimated duration of one year, plus one six-month option.
Shell, which is partnering the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor)and Qatar Energy, are said to have discovered a working petroleum system for light oil in the Orange Basin, 270 km from the town of Oranjemund, where drilling operations commenced in early December 2021 and were safely completed in early February 2022.
TotalEnergies, alongside QatarEnergy, and Impact Oil and Gas’s Venus-1X discovery is located approximately 290 kilometres off the coast of Namibia, in the deep-water offshore exploration Block 2913B, which covers approximately 8,215 km².
Namcor estimates that Namibia could generate US$5.6 billion in revenue for the country at peak production from its two oil finds, which have the potential to double the country’s economy, which Bloomberg estimates at US$11 billion by 2040.
