Woodside sanctions 3D survey on prospective offshore Namibia license

TORONTO, Canada— Pancontinental Energy has granted Woodside Energy an option to take a 56% interest in the deepwater PEL87 exploration license in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia.

The 10,970-sq-km concession, which contains the extensive Saturn turbidite complex, is on trend with Total and Shell’s recent Venus, Graff, La Rona and Jonker oil discoveries, and adjacent to acreage held by Chevron and Galp.

Woodside will cover the cost of a $35-million 3D seismic survey over an area of at least 5,000 sq km and will in addition pay Pancontinental $1.5 million in cash. If it exercises the option, Woodside will drill the first exploration well, carrying the costs of the existing partners.

Acquisition of the survey is set to start this month, with fast-track processed results to be delivered in June.

Pancontinental has reportedly also paid $1.5 million to enter an option agreement with another of the licensees, Custos Investments, on acquiring an additional 1% interest, lifting Pancontinental’s share in PEL87 (post-completion of the transaction with Woodside) to 20%.

Toronto-based Sintana Energy, which has an indirect interest in Custos, said that while the license area had been mapped previously with good quality technical data, the new survey would allow the identified prospects to be matured for drilling.

The semisub Deepsea Bolllstar reportedly made the Jonker-1 Cretaceous light oil discovery earlier this year. TotalEnergies is preparing to drill further exploration and appraisal wells on its Namibian deepwater permits in the next few months.

PGS is mobilizing its Ramform Titan vessel for a new 3D exploration/acquisition survey offshore Namibia, which the company expects to complete in late May.

03.03.2023