By:Staff writer
Shell’s Jonker-1 exploration well is “going very well”, Namibia Petroleum Commissioner Maggy Shino said last week Thursday, highlighting the country’s potential.
Shell and TotalEnergies made discoveries offshore Namibia at Graff and Venus in 2022.
“I am proud to inform you we have commenced appraisal work on these two [discoveries],” Shino said, speaking at the Africa Energy Chamber (AEC) event in London.
Shell spudded the Jonker well in December. “I’m not saying anything apart from to say it is going well, it is going very well,” Shino said to applause.
The Deepsea Bollsta is working on Shell’s Jonker well, while Total has charted the Tungsten Explorer for its appraisal work. The French company has also chartered the Deepsea Mira – the sister ship of the Bollsta – to begin work in Namibia in the second quarter.
PGS (Petroleum Geo-Services) and Searcher Seismic are working on acquiring data in the area, she said, suggesting there were more discoveries to come.
“We are able to give you our commitment to accelerate and develop those fields at a much faster pace,” she continued.
Shino said it was not just the Orange Basin, “the whole of offshore Namibia is ready. In terms of deepwater potential, the Luderitz Basin is calling for you, the Walvis Basin, the Namib Basin, and onshore, in the Owambo Basin and the Karoo have shown their potential. All of these have possibilities.
“Shell and Total are using the port of Luderitz as a hub for their activities,” Shino said.
Gas pipelines could come onshore around Luderitz, she said, including the long-neglected Kudu field. Among the options available for development, she included mini LNG plants and even blue hydrogen.
Namibia has made the development of hydrogen a priority. The country has a number of projects it is working on. The Hyphen project is aiming for first production – of green hydrogen – in 2026-27.
Hydrogen Commissioner James Mnyupe followed Shino’s speech with comments on securing investment in green hydrogen. Namibia launched a financing platform at COP27 to stimulate investments in this area.
“It’s the first of its kind in Africa. We’re going to build a $1 billion fund that will invest in all these different things … pipelines, transmission lines, desalination plants and of course electrolysers. It’s one of the easiest ways for anyone in the financial sector to express their interest,” Mnyupe said.
The commissioner set out a vision of bringing in support from its neighbours. This could include PEM electrolysers from South Africa and copper wire from Zambia.
“That creates industrialisation opportunities not just for Namibia but the wider region as a whole,” he said. Mnyupe went on to highlight South Africa’s power challenges with Eskom, which has an impact across the region.
Shell’s Graff-1 well has made a “significant” discovery offshore Namibia, Reuters has reported citing three industry sources. Picture shows; Namibian President Hage Geingob. Namibia. Supplied by Namibian Presidency Date; 25/11/2021
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Shell’s Graff-1 well has made a “significant” discovery offshore Namibia last year. The well appears to have discovered two reservoirs. One has at least 60 metres of hydrocarbons, with an estimated 250-300 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Upstream reported earlier in January 2022 that Shell had found liquids in the Cretaceous reservoir.
The industry publication cited four sources as saying the Graff-1 had found light oil. It said Shell was focusing on two targets in the Upper Cretaceous sands. The company had found oil in a younger Cenomanian age reservoir.
Shell is drilling the Namibian frontier well with the Valaris DS-10 rig. It began drilling the well, on Block 2913A, on December 8, in around 2,000 metres of water.
Shell is the operator and has a 45% stake in the area, while QatarEnergy (QE) has 45% and Namibia’s state-owned Namcor has 10%. The partners acquired 7,500 square km of 3D seismic offshore Namibia in 2019.
It is not yet clear how much oil Shell would have to discover to make it commercial.
IHS Mark it said Shell needed to find “at least” 210 million barrels of recoverable oil. The consultancy also said that there were more prospects nearby, should Graff be successful.
“Finally we might be seeing some positive news from the deepwater players in Namibia,” said Gneiss Energy director Douglas Rycroft. “The history has been one of major disappointment over the last decade with a string of players attempting to unlock frontier plays in the Orange sub-basin.”
If the discovery is between 250-300mn boe, “the key now remains to be seen if a discovery of that size will be large enough to justify a standalone development by Shell. That said, given the comparative failures in many prominent exploration attempts in Namibia over the last few years it will certainly revive interest in the country.”
TotalEnergies is also drilling the Venus-1 well in Namibia’s Orange Basin. The French company began drilling a week before Shell but is thought to be having some difficulties.
The two wells are independent of each other and testing different play concepts.
Rycroft went on to say Shell and TotalEnergies’ activity “feels like a seminal moment for the country’s oil and gas industry and a long line of hopeful explorers who have placed their bet on its prospectivity.”