WINDHOEK, FEB 4 – State-owned oil company, National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) and its partners, Shell Namibia Upstream B.V and Qatar Energy, on Friday announced that the Graff-1 deep-water exploration well has made a discovery of light oil in both primary and secondary targets.
In a statement issued by Paulo Coehlo, Marketing Manager at NAMCOR, the Graff-1 well has proved a working petroleum system for light oil in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia, 270 km from the town of Oranjemund.
“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,” NAMCOR Managing Director Immanuel Mulunga.
Drilling operations commenced in early December 2021 and were safely completed in early February 2022.
“In the coming months, we will perform extensive laboratory analyses to gain a better understanding of the reservoir quality and potential flow rates achievable. Whilst we can learn a great deal from the results of Graff-1, 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,” Coehlo.
Managing Director Immanuel Mulunga said:“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.”
Earlier this year in January, Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy said it was conducting work to determine viability of an offshore active petroleum system following reports that Shell (RDSa.L) had made a significant oil and gas discovery.
“Shell started exploring for oil offshore last year. Regarding the reports circulating in the media of the alleged/speculated discovery of oil in Namibia. The Ministry would like to inform your office that operations for the Graff-1 well are still ongoing. It is the objective of the project and of Government, (through Namcor), to safely execute the operations and collect quality data, to enable a thorough assessment of the prospect potential,” said the Ministry at the time. – musa@namibiadailynews.info
