Sintana Energy Inc. has announced the start of its second exploration campaign on Petroleum Exploration License 83 (PEL 83) in Namibia’s Orange Basin.
The campaign’s first well, Mopane-2A (#4), has spudded in the AVO-3 area, with plans for a second well, Mopane-3X (#5), scheduled for early 2025 in the stacked AVO-10 and AVO-13 prospects.
The drilling efforts leverage newly processed 3D seismic data.
The campaign, operated by Galp Energia’s subsidiary, retains the Santorini drillship to minimize remobilization costs.
The drillship will also support a high-density, high-resolution 3D seismic survey over the Mopane complex starting in December.
Robert Bose, CEO of Sintana Energy, highlighted the accelerated operations as a sign of progress.
“We look forward to the exploration and appraisal activities anticipated over the coming months to further unveil the world-class scale and quality of Mopane,” he said.
The new campaign builds on promising results from the Mopane-1A (#3) appraisal well, announced on December 2.
The well confirmed the presence of light oil and gas-condensate in high-quality, reservoir-bearing sands. It demonstrated strong porosity, high permeability, and high-pressure conditions, with low-viscosity oil and minimal CO2 and H2S content.
These findings, along with earlier results from the Mopane-1X (#1) and Mopane-2X (#2) wells, validate the exploration focus on AVO-1 and support the decision to accelerate drilling operations.
The Mopane-1A well, the first of four planned appraisal wells, is critical to understanding the discovery’s scale and quality. The ongoing campaign, covering blocks 2813A and 2814B, is expected to last three months.
Sintana maintains an indirect 49% interest in Custos Energy (Pty) Ltd. Custos, owns a 10% working interest in PEL 83. NAMCOR, the National Petroleum Company of Namibia, also maintains a 10% working interest.
