Another Strike in Namibia Orange Basin15 Mar 2024 12:21
Galp Energia’s share price surged almost 7% on Friday following news it has drilled a successful appraisal and exploration probe on its significant Mopane light oil find in Namibia’s Orange basin and is now set to return to the discovery well to carry out crucial production tests.
The Lisbon-based player has not yet revealed the size of Mopane, but the fact that the appraisal well lies eight kilometres from the discovery probe gives a good indication of the find’s big areal extent.
The company’s stock price increased 6.67% from Thursday's close to hit €15.55 ($16.93) on Friday morning at the time of publication.
Namibia’s Orange basin is a hive of drilling activity at the moment, with Shell having recently spudded an exploration probe called Enigma-1, while TotalEnergies is still on site at its successful Mangetti-1X well and also continuing operations on its Venus-2A appraisal well.
Galp said its Mopane-2X probe in Petroleum Exploration Licence 83 hit a “significant column of light oil in reservoirs of high quality”.
The well had three goals – to appraise the original discovery, drill an exploration target and to drill a deeper objective.
According to Galp’s brief statement, the “AVO-3 exploration target, the AVO-1 appraisal target and a deeper target were fully cored and logged”.
Namibia President Nangolo Mbumba — who assumed office after the death last month of his predecessor Hage Geingob — will hope the Orange basin keeps on giving.
It stressed that the appraisal target found “the same pressure regime as in the Mopane-1X discovery well located approximately eight kilometres to the east, confirming its lateral extension”.
Jefferies analyst Giacomo Romeo said Mopane is valued at €1.9 per share based on net recoverable resources of 800 million barrels of oil equivalent and a net present value of $4 per barrel, with a 50% risking.
Knowledge Katti, chief executive of Namibian player Custos, a partner in Mopane, said: “The continuing success of the exploration campaign further demonstrates the scope and potential of PEL 83.”
Maggy Shino, Petroleum Commission at Namibia’s Ministry of Mines & Energy, said: “The announcement of another significant discovery and the appraisal success at the upper target is further testament to the hard work and dedication of the partners involved, as well as another demonstration of the potential for further growth in our oil industry.
“With this discovery, we are one step closer to harnessing the full potential of this campaign.”
Robert Bose, chief executive of Sintana and indirect stakeholder in PEL 83, added that “this third light oil discovery in the Mopane complex and the appraisal results at the AVO-1 reservoir … provide further evidence of the scale and quality of our exploration portfolio held through our local partners, including Custos”.
PEL 83 lies immediately north of Shell’s PEL 39 and is north and east of Tota