oa The Next Oil Frontier: Namibia’s Promising Hydrocarbon Plays

Large portions of the African Atlantic margin and its conjugate in Brazil have witnessed significant petroleum exploration and production over the last century. However, for the past 50 years, only one gas field has been discovered in Namibia (1974), which proved economically unviable for production at the time. There have been intermittent periods of exploration, but it wasn’t until February 2022 when the next new discovery was announced by NAMCOR alongside Shell in their Graff-1 Well in the Orange Basin. In the same month, another substantial discovery was made by TotalEnergies in their Venus-1 well, sparking increased interest in Namibia. Both wells proved an oil-mature source, in contrast to gas found in the Kudu Field. More oil discoveries will be needed to support development hundreds of kilometres offshore, in 2 to 3 km of water depths.

The appetite for deepwater exploration in high-risk, high-reward scenarios has significantly increased, particularly focusing on deeper stratigraphic intervals (Cretaceous) in the distal parts of the basins and in close proximity to the source rocks to minimize the risks associated with long-distance hydrocarbon migration. We have identified similar leads within the Aptian-Albian and Santonian-Campanian ages, extending through the deep-water Lüderitz and Walvis basins.