Shell advances exploration in Namibia’s Orange Basin with latest well results
Shell, alongside its partners QatarEnergy and NAMCOR, has reported encouraging exploration results from its Merlin-1X exploration well in Petroleum Exploration License No. 0039 (PEL 0039), offshore Namibia, further advancing its evaluation of this Orange Basin block.
The Merlin-1X well, spudded on April 8, 2026, is the tenth well drilled in the license, which is operated by Shell. It successfully penetrated the Coniacian play and has delivered the most promising subsurface results to date in PEL 0039. This indicates good reservoir quality with light oil and limited associated gas, compared to prior results within the license.
Shell says that the results enhance its understanding of the basin and support continued evaluation of the resource and its commercial potential across the license. Further drilling later in 2026 is under consideration as part of a broader exploratory appraisal program.
Merlin-1X is delivering “the most promising subsurface results to date,” QatarEnergy reported earlier this week, with “good reservoir quality, light oil, and limited associated gas.”
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Bruce Beaubouef
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Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.