CONSIDER the distance between Windhoek and Mariental, approximately 270 kilometres. That's roughly the same distance from the Namibian shore where oil was again discovered by Shell, Qatar Energy and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor).
The three are in a joint venture; Shell Namibia B.V (45%), QatarEnergy (45%) and Namcor (10%), and are exploring for oil on their PEL0039.
According to the three entities, a light oil discovery was made in the Jonker-1X deep-water exploration well.
The well was drilled in Block 2913A and 2914B, following drilling operations which commenced in December 2022 and completed safely early this month.
The Jonker-1X discovery is the third well drilled on the licence held by Shell within a year.
The Odfjell Deepsea Bollsta semi-submersible rig drilled the well to a total depth of 6 168 metres in a water depth of 2 210 metres.
The acquired data is reportedly being evaluated, and further appraisal drilling is planned to determine the size and recoverable resources potential of the discovery.
Commenting on the discovery, Namcor managing director Immanuel Mulunga said the discovery has proven the exciting and world-class potential of the deep-water Orange Basin.
It is not yet clear whether the discovery is commercial, and Namcor's executive for upstream exploration, Victoria Sibeya, said the company is looking forward to the appraisal activities and its collaborative relationship with the joint venture partners and the Namibian government as a shareholder, to fully assess the commercial potential of this major oil discovery.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Qatar minister of state for energy affairs and the president and chief executive of QatarEnergy, said he was pleased with the encouraging discovery, which is Namibia's third.
"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our partners Shell and Namcor, and to congratulate and thank the Government of the Republic of Namibia, which has been very supportive of this exploration effort," he said.
This announcement follows two similar announcements by QatarEnergy in February 2022 of oil discoveries in the Graff-1 well and in the Venus-1X prospect, both located in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia.
In addition to the PEL-39 Exploration Licence, QatarEnergy also holds interests in PEL-56 (30%) and PEL-91 (28,33%) in offshore Namibia covering a total area of 28 327 km2.
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