United Kingdom-based global oil and gas major Shell’s Cullinan-1X exploration well offshore Namibia did not make a commercial oil and gas discovery, the company said on Thursday.
According to a Reuters report, Namibia, which has yet to produce any oil and gas, has attracted strong interest from international companies after Shell and TotalEnergies recently made discoveries off the coast of the country.
“The well did not make a discovery, however, we are encouraged to have found indications of a working petroleum system in this previously untested area of our licence,” Shell said in a statement.
The company said the well was plugged and abandoned and Shell will now analyse the data gathered before deciding on any follow-up activity, it said.
Shell and its partners QatarEnergy and Namibia’s National Oil Company (Namcor) made four oil discoveries in the southern African country in recent years and its head of upstream Zoë Yujnovich said on 14 June that results from drilling tests so far were encouraging.
According to Energy Capital and Power online publication, Shell has already made four oil discovery in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia after the completion of drilling at Lesedi-1X well confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons, bringing the total oil discoveries in the basin to five in less than two years.
The discovery follows successful finds made by Shell at the Graff-1X, La Rona and Jonker-1X wells in 2022 and 2023, as well as by French-based energy major TotalEnergies at the Venus-1X well.
While hydrocarbon deposits were confirmed at the Lesedi-1X probe in July, a statement released by Shell then stated that “further evaluation is required to determine development potential”.
Shell’s other three discoveries in the Orange Basin are estimated to hold an equivalent of up to 1,7 billion barrels in reserves.
In March, Shell and its partners in the Orange Basin – including Qatar Energy and Namcor – announced plans to drill two more exploration wells in Namibia by the third quarter of this year.
The parties have been granted a permit by the Namibian government to drill 10 exploration and appraisals wells in the country.
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na
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