Canadian oil & gas player enlarges stake in Namibia’s Orange Basin

Canada’s oil and gas company Africa Oil Corp. has boosted its ownership interest in Impact Oil & Gas, an Africa-focused exploration player with hydrocarbon exploration and appraisal assets in the Orange Basin off the coast of Namibia. This enables the Canadian firm to get a larger stake in a block with giant oil discovery and exploration opportunities in other blocks.

Africa Oil made a play in August 2024 to bolster its interest in Impact through a call and put option agreement with three shareholders to purchase a material 7% interest and raise its shareholding to 39.5%. According to the Canadian player, the acquisition of the additional interest in Impact has been completed.

Dr Roger Tucker, Africa Oil’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “With this purchase we have achieved a key strategic objective of materially increasing Africa Oil’s ownership in Impact, enhancing our rights and influence over a core strategic asset and value driver for the company.

“We have greater exposure to an exciting opportunity set in Namibia’s Orange Basin, including the Venus oil development, and a highly prospective exploration program on Blocks 2912 and 2913B including the Tamboti exploration well that is currently drilling.”

Located within the northern part of the Orange Basin, blocks 2912 and 2913B are said to be in an area that has attracted significant interest and excitement within the exploration community, following the Venus discovery situated approximately 290 kilometers off the coast of Namibia.

In February 2022, TotalEnergies drilled the Venus-1X well to a total depth of 6,296 m, discovering light, sweet oil, with associated gas within an Albian basin floor fan deposit. Initial analyses from the Venus-1X well suggest that the discovery has confirmed or, in most cases, exceeded pre-drill metrics.

Impact claims that the discovery of Shell’s Graff field within the neighboring 2913A block proves the potential for further exploration upside within the Upper Cretaceous interval above the Venus discovery.

The enlarged stake in Impact comes after Africa Oil secured regulatory approval to consolidate its shareholdings in Prime Oil & Gas Coöperatief, an investee company with deepwater assets located offshore Nigeria.

The move followed the sale of some of its participating interests in Block 3B/4B offshore South Africa to TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy.