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AfrOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES AfrOil

TotalEnergies to launch multi-well

drilling programme offshore Namibia

NAMIBIA TOTALENERGIES (France) is set to launch a waters and had arrived in Walvis Bay on Feb-
multi-well deepwater drilling programme off- ruary 19.
shore Namibia in the near future with the aim of As of press time, TotalEnergies had not com-
determining the extent of its discoveries at PEL mented publicly on the matter. However, Siraj
56, a licence area that includes Block 2913B in Ahmed, Impact’s CEO, said he was looking for-
the Orange basin. ward to viewing the results of the drilling pro-
According to a statement published on Feb- gramme. “Following a transformational 2022
ruary 22 by Impact Oil & Gas (UK), a non-op- for Impact, we are excited to see both the Tung-
erating partner in the project, TotalEnergies will sten Explorer and the Deepsea Mira embark on
sink up to four wells at PEL 56, which includes this extensive drilling programme, designed to
the Venus find announced in early 2022. The accelerate the appraisal of the Venus field and
first of these will be Venus-1A, the first appraisal drill the first exploration well in our neighbour-
well to be drilled at Block 2913B. The French ing licence, Block 2912,” he remarked. “This pro-
major intends to spud Venus-1A with the gramme will provide vital information that will
Tungsten Explorer drillship and will then use hopefully enable the joint venture to press ahead
a semi-submersible drilling and service vessel, with development.”
the Deepsea Mira, to carry out drill stem testing. Phil Birch, Impact’s executive director,
Once the Deepsea Mira wraps up drill stem agreed that the drilling programme had the
testing at Venus-1A, Impact continued, it will potential to help launch upstream development
re-enter Venus-1X, the well where TotalEner- in the Orange basin offshore Namibia. “This
gies made its initial discovery of hydrocarbons exciting and active 2023 work programme is
(light crude oil and gas condensate). At that sec- aimed at proving the flow potential of the Venus
ond site, it will drill a side-track and carry out reservoir and investigate a potentially material
another round of drill stem testing. This will extension into the adjacent licence,” he said. “If
allow it “to further evaluate the Venus reservoir successful, it will result in two potentially fully
and deliver dynamic data,” Impact said. appraised early production centres, one on
Block 2913B and the second on Block 2912.”
Westward extension Equity in PEL 56 in split between TotalEner-
The third target of the programme will be the gies with 40%, QatarEnergy with 30%, Impact
Nara-1X exploration well at Block 2912, which with 20% and Namibia’s national oil company
is part of PEL 91, a licence area adjacent to PEL (NOC) NAMCOR with 10%. Meanwhile, equity
56, Impact said. If hydrocarbons are found at in PEL 91 is divided between TotalEnergies with
the Nara-1X site, TotalEnergies will move for- 37.78%, QatarEnergy with 28.33%, Impact with
ward with drilling and flow testing work on the 18.89% and NAMCOR with 15%. ™
Nara-1A appraisal well at Block 2912. The com-
pany will use the Tungsten Explorer for these
two wells, which are meant to help delineate the
size and extent of the Venus reservoir.
TotalEnergies is keen to explore Block 2912
in light of previous assumptions that Nara,
which was previously dubbed Venus West, was
once thought to be directly connected to the
Venus discovery. Indeed, Nara may prove to
“contain a highly material westerly extension of
the Venus field,” Impact noted in its statement.
Work on this part of the drilling programme
is slated to begin around the middle of 2023, it
added.
Impact said the French major was aiming
to spud the first of the four wells included in its
drilling programme before the end of February
but did not provide a specific target date for the
start of work on Venus-1A. On February 22,
Upstream Online reported, citing data from the
marine intelligence service VesselsValue, that
the Tungsten Explorer was already in Namibian Nara may be a westward extension of the Venus discovery (Image: Impact Oil & Gas)

Week 08 23•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P15