ReconAfrica still not willing to call it quits
Share price tumbles, yet 12 more wells planned
While ReconAfrica's plans in Botswana are forging ahead, the company's low share price doesn't seem to be stopping the company from wanting to drill a significant number of additional test wells - 12 in number - in the Western Kavango region of Namibia.
Although the share price dropped to 2.06 Canadian dollars on 6 November and a week later dipped below the two-dollar mark where it has been hovering ever since, according to YahooFinance, the Canadian gas and oil exploration company, Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica), which has been controversially exploring for oil in the Kavango region for the past two years, has now filed another application, based on which it wants to drill more test wells.ReconAfrica had announced earlier this year that it would need further capital if it was to continue after drilling the third well at Makandia and completing the second phase of seismic surveys. How the company envisions capitalizing remains unknown, as does the possibility that it has reserves after all.
That the Namibian government has long since ceased trying to keep its promise – to only allow ReconAfrica to drill two exploration wells in the Kavango region – following advertisements in various media.
According to the advertisement, the equally controversial company Risk-Based Solutions (RBS), on behalf of ReconAfrica's Namibian subsidiary, Reconnaissance Energy Namibia (REN), is now calls on the public to submit their objections and comments before 16 December 2022.
The application is for an “Environmental Compatibility Certificate (ECC) for the drilling of several exploration and reconnaissance wells with associated infrastructure such as prospect pits, access roads and related services in the Kavango Sedimentary Basin”.
While Bennett Kahuure, the Director of Parks and Wildlife Management in the Ministry of Environment, is awarding Max Muyemburuko, the Chairman of the Association of Game Reserves and Communal Forests in the Eastern and Western Kavango Regions (KEWRCCFA), the title of “Best Conservationist 2022”, his colleague, Namibian Environment Commissioner Timoteus Mufeti, is now to issue another ECC for the highly controversial oil exploration in this conservation area.
ReconAfrica is also no longer beating around the bush, having applied for permission to drill wells D1 to D6 and G1 to G6 in the Kavango Basin. Priority is given to drill sites D5 and D6 (south of Gcwatjinga) and G5 and G6 (southeast of Kawe and Makandia, halfway to Khaudum National Park).