Martin Endjala
The National Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) and its partners Shell Namibia Upstream B.V and Qatar Energy, have today announced a commercially viable discovery of light oil in both primary and secondary targets at the Graff-1 deep water exploration well.
This was confirmed by the marketing, communication and public manager Paulo Coelho of NAMCOR in a media press release.
It is reported that Graff-1 has proved to have a working petroleum system for light oil in the Orange Basin, offshore of Namibia, about 271 kilometers from the town of Oranjemund. The drilling operations that commenced in early December 2021, were safely completed early February 2022.
In the coming months, the partners plan extensive laboratory analysis to be undertaken to better understand the reservoir quality and potential flow rates recoverable.
In the meantime, a great deal can be learned from the rest of Graff-1, according to the media release. “We anticipate that further exploration activity including a second exploration well, will be required to determine the size and recoverable potential of the identified hydrocarbons”, says Coelho.
“We hope that this discovery puts to rest doubts about the hydrocarbon potential of Namibia, and opens a new dawn in the country’s future prosperity,” said the managing director of Namcor Immanuel Mulunga.
Shakwa Nyambe, an international natural resource lawyer, told Windhoek Observer today that the discovery of light oil by Shell and partners is a sign that they are getting closer to a commercial discovery of oil and gas in Namibia.
It’s great news that light oil has been discovered in Namibia, “‘but ‘we now need to afford Shell Namibia and partners sometime to collect more data analysis, and possible drilling of more wells, to determine if the discovery is commercial for production”, Nyambe said.
Attempts to get comments from the Ministry of Mines and Energy on their thoughts about the discovery proved futile.
