Galp’s drilling ops offshore Namibia bring ‘preliminary’ signs of hydrocarbons

Portuguese oil and gas company Galp is currently drilling a well in license PEL 83 offshore Namibia, located close to Shell’s Graff and TotalEnergies’ Venus discoveries. 

Galp, as the operator of PEL 83, secured an extension for the license last year. The company holds an 80% interest in this asset while its partners, National Petroleum Company of Namibia (Namcor) and Custos Investments, each hold a 10% stake. Sintana has a 49% indirect interest in Custos.

The Portuguese player set the stage to drill a well in license PEL 83 in the heart of Namibia’s Orange Basin after entering into a contract with SFL Corporation for the Odfjell Drilling-managed Hercules rig in May 2023. The 115-day contract is for two wells plus optional well testing.

The Mopane prospect, which was spudded on November 17, 2023, is located at the southern end of PEL 83. This exploration well is the first of two wells that are scheduled to be drilled by the Hercules semi-submersible rig.

According to Galp, the Mopane-1X well indicates preliminary signs of hydrocarbon presence. However, drilling and data acquisition campaigns are still underway, making any conclusion premature before operations are completed and results assessed.

This license is located immediately north of Shell’s PEL 39 where the basin opening discoveries at Graff-1, La Rona-1 and Jonker-1 were drilled, and close to TotalEnergies’ multi-billion-barrel Venus-1 oil discovery on PEL 56.

The 2008-built Hercules sixth-generation deepwater and harsh environment semi-submersible rig, which is of GVA 7500 design, was constructed by DSME in South Korea and can accommodate 180 people. The rig can operate in water depths of 10,000 ft and its maximum drilling depth is 35,000 ft.

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