Shell has started drilling a second appraisal probe on its multibillion-barrel Jonker oil discovery in Namibia’s Orange basin, a staggering 23 kilometres from the discovery well.
The Jonker-2A well is to test the limit of the 2.5 billion barrel Orange basin field after the ‘successful’ Jonker-1A probe.
According to Upstream marine intelligence provider VesselValue, the semi-submersible rig Deepsea Bollsta spudded the latest delineation well last week, fresh from completing what a Shell spokesperson said was a “successful” operation on the Jonker-1A appraisal probe.
This comes as Shell plans to drill two more wells in Namibia over the next six to nine months, with the energy giant citing “encouraging data” for the possible development of a new oil basin in the country.
Shell plans to drill one exploration well, one appraisal well, and conduct one flow test at its exploration licences offshore Namibia.
Shell has made four significant discoveries in Namibia to date: Graff, La Rona, Lesedi, and Jonker.
“We continue to like what we see. What’s particularly pleasing is that all of those wells drilled have been top quartile across every benchmark that we find in the wells space. So, as important as making a discovery is, making sure that we can actually outcompete when we drill those wells is a key area that we’re focused on… leveraging significant learnings we have across our global deepwater portfolio,” Sawan said.
The French oil major, TotalEnergies, has allocated almost 50% of its global exploration budget of N$5.5 billion (US$300 million) to Namibia this year as it hopes to confirm a multibillion-barrel discovery on Block 2913b within the Orange Basin. – miningandenergy.com.na/Upstream
