Shell scores big find off Namibia

Shell’s Graff-1 well has made a “significant” discovery offshore Namibia, Reuters has reported citing three industry sources.

The news agency reported that Namibia would make an announcement next week on the results.

The well appears to have discovered two reservoirs. One has at least 60 metres of hydrocarbons, with an estimated 250-300 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Upstream reported earlier in January that Shell had found liquids in the Cretaceous reservoir.

The industry publication cited four sources as saying the Graff-1 had found light oil. It said Shell was focusing on two targets in the Upper Cretaceous sands. The company had found oil in a younger Cenomanian age reservoir.

Shell is drilling the Namibian frontier well with the Valaris DS-10 rig. It began drilling the well, on Block 2913A, on December 8, in around 2,000 metres of water.

Shell is the operator and has a 45% stake in the area, while QatarEnergy (QE) has 45% and Namibia’s state-owned Namcor has 10%. The partners acquired 7,500 square km of 3D seismic offshore Namibia in 2019.

It is not yet clear how much oil Shell would have to discover to make it commercial.

IHS Markit, in a note in December, said Shell needed to find “at least” 210 million barrels of recoverable oil. The consultancy also said that there were more prospects nearby, should Graff be successful.

TotalEnergies is also drilling the Venus-1 well in Namibia’s Orange Basin. The French company began drilling a week before Shell but is thought to be having some difficulties.

The two wells are independent of each other and testing different play concepts. – (Energy Voice)