French oil major TotalEnergies has received the Discovery of the Year award for the Venus oil discovery offshore Namibia in Wood Mackenzie’s annual Exploration Survey.
The Namibia Venus discovery potentially contains more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in place, with estimated recoverable resources of 3 billion boe.
TotalEnergies is the operator with a 40% working interest, alongside QatarEnergy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%), and state-owned NAMCOR (10%).
“The Venus discovery made in 3,000 meters of water off Namibia is truly a game-changer that has the entire industry very excited. If this project moves forward, it will establish an important new industry for Namibia,” said Dr. Andrew Latham, Wood Mackenzie’s Senior Vice President of Energy Research.
TotalEnergies was also named the upstream industry’s most admired explorer.
“For the third time in our industry-leading survey, TotalEnergies has received the illustrious recognition of being named the most admired explorer. I would like to congratulate the company’s long-standing head of exploration, Kevin McLachlan, and his team for a well-deserved win,” Latham said.
“The industry continues to admire operators who can not only open new frontiers but also find large volumes of advantaged resources. TotalEnergies’ recent efforts and discoveries have been excellent examples of both trends.”
This is the 15th Wood Mackenzie Exploration Survey, which gathers views from across the exploration sector and asks respondents to identify the explorer they most admire, excluding their own company.
Wood Mackenzie has suggested that first oil could flow from Venus by 2028, via more than 35 production wells tied back to a leased floating production system (FPSO).
If developed, Venus would surpass Shell’s Stones field in the US Gulf of Mexico as the world’s deepest water development, with the FPSO moored at a water depth of 2895.6 meters.
