By Sérgio Gonçalves
LISBON (Reuters) – Portuguese oil company Galp Energia said on Sunday that it had completed the first phase of exploration of the Mopane field, off the coast of Namibia, and estimated that it could hold at least 10 billion barrels of oil.
Galp said it carried out test operations on the Mopane-1X well in January and the Mopane-2X well in March. In both wells, which are 8 kilometers apart, it said “significant columns of light oil were discovered in high-quality reservoir sands.”
The Mopane field is located in the Orange Basin, along the coast of the southern African country, where Shell and France’s TotalEnergies have made several oil and gas discoveries.
Galp said flows achieved during testing reached the maximum permitted limit of 14,000 barrels per day, potentially positioning Mopane as an important commercial discovery.
“In the Mopane complex alone, and before the drilling of additional exploration and appraisal wells, in-situ hydrocarbon estimates are 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or higher,” Galp said.
Galp holds an 80% stake in Petroleum Exploration License 83 (PEL 83), which covers an area of almost 10,000 square kilometers in the Orange Basin.
Namibia could become a new source of revenue for Galp, which currently has strong investments on the coast of Brazil and is also present in a natural gas project in the Rovuma basin, in Mozambique.
Galp has previously indicated that it could launch a process to attract other investors to its projects in Namibia, as they could reach a large scale.
Oil producer group OPEC+, having lost Angola and other players in recent years, is eyeing Namibia for possible membership as it establishes what could be Africa’s fourth-largest production over the next decade, a senior official told Reuters. responsible for African industry.
(Reporting by Sergio Gonçalves; Editing by Christina Fincher)
