TotalEnergies has reported a significant discovery of light oil with associated gas on the Venus prospect, located in block 2913B in the Orange Basin, offshore southern Namibia. 

The Venus 1-X well encountered approx. 84 meters of net oil pay in a good quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir. 

"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" said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at TotalEnergies. "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."

Block 2913B covers approx. 8,215 sq km in deep offshore Namibia. TotalEnergies is the operator with a 40% working interest, alongside QatarEnergy (30%), Impact Oil and Gas (20%) and NAMCOR (10%).

Siraj Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of Impact, commented: 
“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. We would also like to congratulate our partners QatarEnergy and NAMCOR, as well as the Ministry of Mines and Energy for their steadfast support over the years. We look forward to continuing this collaborative relationship with our joint venture partners, as we evaluate the next phase of the programme to unlock the full potential of this acreage.”

Philip Birch, Impact’s Exploration Director, commented: 
“This play-opening discovery firmly places the deep-water Orange Basin as one of the world’s most exciting areas for hydrocarbon exploration, and validates Impact’s focus on the highly prospective Southern Africa Cretaceous oil and gas play, which extends from southern-most Namibia to the east coast of South Africa.”

KeyFacts Energy: Impact Namibia country profile   l   KeyFacts Energy: TotalEnergies Namibia country profile