Saipem rig kicks off second drilling campaign off Namibia after first one yielded oil discoveries

Portuguese oil and gas company Galp has embarked on its second exploration and appraisal program in the Orange Basin where oil discoveries were made during the first campaign within license PEL 83 off the coast of Namibia, close to discoveries made by Shell and TotalEnergies. 

After Saipem’s Santorini drillship arrived on location, the Mopane 1-A appraisal well was spud on October 23, 2024, on blocks 2813A and 2814B located in the heart of Namibia’s Orange Basin, said to be emerging as one of the world’s most prospective oil and gas regions. The well is described as the first of up to four that are part of a campaign potentially consisting of two exploration wells and two appraisal wells.

Santorini is a seventh-generation drillship – acquired by Saipem in December 2022 – equipped with two seven-cavity anti-eruption devices (blow-out preventer or BOP) and capable of operating at water depths of up to 12,000 feet (over 3,500 meters). Eni exercised a two-year contract extension for the rig in April 2023.

Last year, Galp began to drill a well in license PEL 83 with the SFL Corporation-owned and the Odfjell Drilling-managed Hercules sixth-generation deepwater and harsh environment semi-submersible rig by spudding the Mopane-1X prospect in November 2023, which was the first of two wells planned to be drilled.

Shortly after the Mopane-1X well showed preliminary signs of hydrocarbon presence, the Portuguese player disclosed a significant discovery of light oil in reservoir-bearing sands of high quality at two different levels and the 2008-built Hercules rig moved to the Mopane-2X well location to evaluate the extent of the Mopane discoveries, encountering a significant column with light oil in high-quality reservoir sands across exploration and appraisal targets.

The conclusion of the Mopane-1X well testing operations marked the end of the Mopane exploration campaign’s first phase for Galp (80%, operator) and its partners NAMCOR and Custos (each holding 10% respectively), in which Sintana Energy maintains an indirect 49% interest. The reservoir log measures confirmed good porosities, high pressures, and high permeabilities in large hydrocarbon columns.

Therefore, Sintana underlines that the inaugural two-well exploration campaign that resulted in multiple discoveries of significant columns of light oil in high-quality reservoir sands provided an initial estimate of original oil in place (OOIP) of 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent. A drill stem test was also conducted resulting in an infrastructure-constrained flow of 14,000 boe/d.

The initial analysis is interpreted to suggest the reservoirs have good porosities, high pressures, and high permeabilities in large hydrocarbon columns with very low oil viscosity, and no CO2 nor H2S. As a result, Sintana highlights that the flows achieved during the well test have reached the maximum allowed limits, positioning Mopane as an important potential commercial discovery. 

Robert Bose, Chief Executive Officer of Sintana, commented: “We look forward to the continuing progress on PEL 83, further unveiling of the potential and quality of the Mopane complex. These efforts should provide additional insights into this world class opportunity and into our broader Orange Basin portfolio located at the heart of this emerging hydrocarbon province.”

According to Sintana, the second campaign on PEL 83 is focused on providing additional insights into the scope and quality of the Mopane complex. The PEL 83 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.