Galp, a Portuguese oil and gas company, has discovered light oil and gas condensate in its second exploration and appraisal program in Namibia’s Orange Basin. The find, near Shell and TotalEnergies’ previous discoveries, builds on successes from its first campaign in license PEL 83.
Saipem’s Santorini drillship spudded the Mopane 1-A appraisal well (well #3) in blocks 2813A and 2814B, situated in the heart of Namibia’s Orange Basin, which is gaining recognition as one of the world’s most promising oil and gas regions.
This is the first of up to four wells that are part of a campaign potentially consisting of two exploration wells and two appraisal wells. In an update on Friday, November 29, Galp confirmed that it had drilled, cored, and logged the Mopane-1A appraisal well in PEL83.
According to the company, the well encountered light oil and gas condensate in high-quality reservoir-bearing sands. The Portuguese player underlines that this once again indicates good porosities, high permeabilities, and high pressures, as well as low oil viscosity characteristics with minimum CO2 and no H2S concentrations.
Therefore, Galp concludes that this appraisal well confirms the extension and quality of AVO-1, together with the Mopane-1X (well #1) and Mopane-2X (well #2) findings.
As a result, the firm (80% stake, operator), alongside its partners NAMCOR and Custos with 10% interest each, will continue to analyze and integrate all newly acquired data while progressing the upcoming activities.
These activities entail exploration and appraisal wells and a high-resolution proprietary 3D seismic campaign, which is set to start in December 2024.
The PEL 83 license is located immediately north of Shell’s PEL 39, where the basin-opening discoveries at Graff-1, La Rona-1, and Jonker-1 were drilled, and close to TotalEnergies’ multi-billion-barrel Venus-1 oil discovery on PEL 56.
Interest in Namibia’s Orange Basin continues to grow, highlighted by recent developments in the oil and gas sector. Africa Oil Corp. has increased its ownership in Impact Oil & Gas, securing a larger stake in the block containing the Venus oil discovery.
