TotalEnergies makes Venus oil discovery in Orange Basin, Namibia

Venus oil discovery : French energy giant TotalEnergies (formerly Total) has pulled off a light oil discovery in block 2913B, Petroleum Exploration Licence 56 (PEL56) in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia through the drilling of the Venus 1-X exploration well.

The Venus oil discovery with associated gas was made when the well encountered approximately 84m of net oil pay in the sandstone reservoir of Lower Cretaceous age when drilled to a depth of 6,296m.

Drilling of the Venus 1-X exploration well began in December 2021 by using Maersk Drilling’s Maersk Voyager drillship in a water depth of 3,000m.

The Venus oil discovery is located approximately 290km off the Namibian coast.

TotalEnergies makes Venus oil discovery in Orange Basin, Namibia. Map courtesy of TotalEnergies.

Commenting on the Venus oil discovery in the Orange Basin, Kevin McLachlan — Senior Vice President Exploration at TotalEnergies, said: “This discovery offshore Namibia and the very promising initial results prove the potential of this play in the Orange Basin, on which TotalEnergies owns an important position both in Namibia and South Africa.”

“A comprehensive coring and logging program has been completed. This will enable the preparation of appraisal operations designed to assess the commerciality of this discovery.”

TotalEnergies has an operating stake of 40% in block 2913B. The French oil and gas giant’s partners in the offshore Namibian block are QatarEnergy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%), and National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR), which owns a stake of 10%.

Located offshore southern Namibia, block 2913B spans an area of around 8,215sqkm.

Siraj Ahmed — CEO of Impact Oil and Gas, commenting on the Venus oil discovery in the Orange Basin, said: “We are excited to announce the results of this world-class discovery, which has exceeded our pre-drill expectations.

“As Namibia’s second important discovery in recent weeks, it confirms the enormous potential of the Orange Basin as an emerging major hydrocarbon province. We congratulate TotalEnergies, as operator, for safely drilling the Venus-1X deep-water well.”