TotalEnergies has appointed Mariam Kane-Garcia as TotalEnergies Exploration & Production Namibia Managing Director and Country Chair, replacing Laurent Roché.
The appointment places Kane-Garcia at the helm of the group’s upstream operations in Namibia, as well as its overall country leadership, as offshore oil and gas activity in the Orange Basin continues to gather momentum.
In her new role, she will oversee TotalEnergies’ exploration and appraisal activities offshore Namibia and lead engagement with government, joint-venture partners and other stakeholders.
Prior to this appointment, Kane-Garcia served for five years as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Total South Africa, alongside her role as Executive Vice President for Southern Africa within TotalEnergies Marketing & Services. During that period, she was based in Johannesburg.
TotalEnergies EP Namibia B.V., in partnership with Impact Oil & Gas, NAMCOR and QatarEnergy, plans to develop the Venus oilfield in Namibia’s Orange Basin, according to the company’s draft Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report.
The proposed development would involve drilling up to 40 subsea wells, with oil production, storage and offloading handled by a floating production, storage and offloading vessel.
The Venus Field lies in Block 2913B, about 300 kilometres offshore from Oranjemund and roughly 320 kilometres from Lüderitz, in water depths of around 3,000 metres, following the discovery and appraisal of hydrocarbons in 2022.
According to the report, oil will be separated and stored on the FPSO before being transferred to tankers for export, while associated gas will be re-injected into the reservoir to maintain pressure and support long-term production.
Construction, drilling and installation activities are expected to take between four and six years, with production projected to continue for more than 20 years. No onshore production facilities are planned.
