QatarEnergy has announced an agreement to acquire from Chevron Corp. a 27.5 percent stake in Block 2813B offshore Namibia in the Orange Basin.

Harmattan Energy Ltd., the Chevron subsidiary making the divestment, will retain 52.5 percent. The other partners are the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) and Trago Energy Ltd., each owning 10 percent.

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to continue expanding our upstream footprint in Namibia, and the strengthening of our partnership with our valued partner Chevron”, QatarEnergy president and chief executive Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said in a statement.

“Following successful drilling operations in our other acreage in Namibia, we look forward to soon begin drilling the first exploration well on this block”, added Al-Kaabi, who is also Qatar’s energy affairs minister.

Spanning 5,433 square kilometers (2,097.69 square miles), Block 2813B, or Petroleum Exploration License (PEL) 90, lies about 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) from the Venus discovery, state-owned QatarEnergy noted.

Last month QatarEnergy announced an agreement to acquire from TotalEnergies SE additional interests in two offshore blocks on the Namibian side of the Orange Basin.

QatarEnergy’s purchase of 5.25 percent in Block 2913B License (PEL 56) and 4.695 percent in Block 2912 (PEL 91) will increase its ownership to 35.25 percent and 33.025 percent respectively, QatarEnergy said in a press release November 24.

“This agreement marks another important step in working collaboratively with our partners towards the development of the Venus discovery located on block 2913B”, Al-Kaabi said then.

The Venus 1X oil discovery was announced February 24, 2022. Drilling encountered about 84 meters (275.59 feet) of net oil pay “in a good quality Lower Cretaceous reservoir”, TotalEnergies said at the time, calling the discovery “significant”.

Earlier this year TotalEnergies bought additional stakes of 10.5 percent in 2913B and 9.39 percent in 2912 from Impact Oil and Gas Namibia (Pty.) Ltd. These have raised TotalEnergies’ ownership to 45.25 percent in 2913B and 42.5 percent in 2912. NAMCOR owns a 10 percent stake in 2913B and 15 percent in 2912.

Discoveries on the Namibian side of the Orange Basin over the last two years amount to recoverable reserves of over 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, according to Rystad Energy.

“Discoveries in both Namibia and Guyana have seen industry players flocking to these countries to secure exploration blocks”, Rystad wrote July 10. “Following the success of majors Shell and TotalEnergies in Namibia, peers BP, Eni and Chevron are now farming into the country’s exploration blocks, with a series of wells to be drilled over the next few years, which would leave ExxonMobil as the only major not present in the basin.

“Additionally, Galp Energia’s Mopane discovery [in Namibia], announced earlier this year with a postulated resource potential of about 10 billion barrels of oil, has attracted industry attention, with about 12 major oil and gas companies reported to have expressed interest in acquiring 50 percent of the Portuguese operator’s 80 percent interest in the tract. Additionally, with numerous wells planned to be drilled, Namibia could be on track to replicating Guyana’s success, at least in terms of resource potential, primarily due to success of exploration across different blocks compared to Guyana, where success has been limited to Stabroek”.

TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy are also partners on the South African side of the basin.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com