Namibia grants extension to offshore Orange Basin exploration license
Namibia’s Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy has extended the current term for the second renewal exploration period for PEL 79 by 12 months.
State-owned Namcor operates the license, which covers offshore blocks 2815 and 2915 in the Orange Basin, in partnership with Giraffe Energy Investments. The concession is inboard to licenses containing oil and gas discoveries, operated by BW Energy, Rhino Resources and Shell.
According to Sintana Energy, which has a 49% interest in Giraffe, PEL 79 has various identified prospects, with more than 4,760 km of 2D seismic coverage and 1,137 sq km of 3D seismic. One well, drilled previously by Chevron, had gas shows intersecting the Kudu source rock.
To the west is the BW Energy-operated PEL 3 but as yet undeveloped Kudu gas field. The Barremian Aptian source rock (Kudu shale) is mature, Sintana said, and it is thought to be within the oil mature window across PEL 79.
Initial interpretation of the block led to identification of three potential targets in Upper Cretatceous deltaics and Lower Cretaceous deltaics, with potential for the extension of the Kudu trend.
The Syn-rift graben clastics play suggests a working petroleum system in the non-marine part of the syn-rift succession. Chevron’s well also validated the succession of shale intercalated with thin fluvial deltaic sandstones, Sintana added.
In additional, PEL 79 is said to be adjacent to an emerging microregional dynamic with potential for oil prospectivity.
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