ExxonMobil Corp. plans to explore the frontier Namibe basin offshore Namibia through an agreement with the government of Namibia and the National Petroleum Corp. (NAMCOR). ExxonMobil acquired 7 million net acres offshore Namibia in April 2019.
The company already held 40% interest in PEL 82 license offshore Namibia, covering 2.8 million gross acres.
Namibia has no proved oil reserves. NAMCOR in 2018 issued 48 offshore and onshore licenses to Namibian and international oil and gas companies.
ExxonMobil’s new acreage includes Blocks 1710 and 1810 as well as farm-in agreements with NAMCOR for Blocks 1711 and 1811A. The blocks extend about 135 miles offshore Namibia in up to 13,000 ft of water.
Terms call for ExxonMobil to operate Blocks 1710 and 1810 with 90% interest while NAMCOR will hold 10% interest. ExxonMobil said it will assign 5% of its interest to a Namibian company.
The US major also will operate Blocks 1711 and 1811A with 85% interest. NAMCOR will retain 15% interest.
Earlier efforts
Chevron Corp. discovered Kudu gas field in 1974 with Kudu 9A 1 NFW, the first well drilled offshore Namibia. BW Offshore subsidiary, BW Kudu, became operator of the Kudu license in 2017 with a 56% stake. NAMCOR holds 44%.
Tullow Oil PLC abandoned its Cormorant-1 wildcat well on PEL 37 offshore Namibia in September 2018, saying it was noncommercial. Cormorant-1 was in the Walvis basin. Tullow was the operator with 35%. Pancontinental Namibia Pty. Ltd. held 30%, ONGC Videsh Ltd. 30%, and Namibian company Paragon Oil & Gas Pty. Ltd. 5%.
Pancontinental said the wildcat found some gas indicators in an overlying shale section. Well data supported the presence of at least one active source rock system, Pancontinental said.
Additional interest
Total also is exploring offshore Namibia. WoodMackenzie Ltd. has said Total’s Venus-1 well offshore Namibia could be the largest discovery of 2019. As of May 15, Venus-1 had yet to spud. Total suggested it could set a deepwater drilling record for Africa with its Venus-1 well in 3,000 m (9,842 ft) of water.
In February, Total announced the Brulpadda-1AX well off southern South Africa encountered 57 m of net gas condensate pay in Lower Cretaceous reservoirs. Brulpadda opened a new frontier oil and gas play, Total said.
The ultra-deepwater Venus off Namibia will target 2 billion bbl of oil in a giant Cretaceous fan play in Orange basin, close to the South African maritime boundary.
Standard Bank issued a note saying sustained Brent crude oil prices above $60/bbl will support exploration investment in Namibia. Analysts estimate only 16 wells have been drilled in Namibia during the last 50 years, more than half of them in the last 4 years.
The figure shows Namibia is on the southern West African deepwater play fairway. Fan or mounded features combined with forecast of oil-mature source rocks suggest deepwater Namibia could prove as prospective as Angola and Gabon (OGJ, Feb. 1, 1999, p. 67).
The basins of the West African margin formed in response to continental separation. A thick wedge of mid-Cretaceous to Tertiary sediments build out over an early Cretaceous rifted terrain, forming a major basin system extending from the Douala and Rio Muni basins in the north to those of Namibia and South Africa in the south.
The Namibian margin is intersected in the north by the Walvis Ridge, a volcanic feature believed to have been created by plume impingement during the early Cretaceous.
Compared with Brazil
A team of researchers led by Marcio Rocha Meillo, former president of the Brazilian Association of Petroleum Geologists, said condensate from Kudu field in Namibia was similar to oils from marine and lacustrine sources in Brazil, indicating Kudu condensates derived from at least two different source rocks.
The geochemical analysis also indicated offshore Namibia’s Orange basin has similar source rocks with its northern neighbors and Brazil, offering exploration potential in Africa’s southern South Atlantic.1
Lack of discoveries south of the Walvis Ridge has cast doubts about the presence of prolific Lower Cretaceous lacustrine and marine source rock systems that are well known in Greater Campos basin and offshore Angola. But Meillo’s team said oils and condensates from the basins south and north of the Walvis Ridge exhibit geochemical similarities that suggest source rocks comparable with what has been found off Brazil.
Reference
1. Mello, M., Filho, N., Bender, A., Barbanti, S., Mohriak, W., Schmitt, P., and De Jesus, C., “The Namibian and Brazilian southern South Atlantic petroleum systems: are they comparable analogues?” Geological Society, London, Special Publication, No. 369, pp. 249-266, Aug. 22, 2012.
