TotalEnergies expands in Orange Basin
Sikonathi Mantshantsha - French energy giant TotalEnergies has signed an agreement to acquire participating interests in another gas exploration block off the west coast of South Africa.The acquisition, from Africa Oil South Africa, expands the French energy company's exploration activities on the Orange Basin in South African waters where it already owns the DWON block with QatarEnergy.
TotalEnergies said yesterday it will own a third of participating interests and operate Block 3B/4B, while Qatar's state-owned oil company will hold a 24% share.
Current licence holders Africa Oil SA, which is part-owned by the JSE-listed Hosken Consolidated Investments, will hold 17% while Ricocure will own a fifth. The remaining 6.25% interest is held by Canada's Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas.
TotalEnergies already owns other exploration licences up the coast in Namibia, where it operates two exploration blocks.
"Following the Venus success in Namibia, TotalEnergies is continuing to progress its exploration effort in the Orange Basin, by entering this promising exploration license in South Africa," said Kevin McLachlan, senior vice-president for exploration at the French company, in a statement.
The latest acquisition is adjacent to TotalEnergies' DWON (Deep Water Orange Basin) block on the South African side of the basin.
Namibia
TotalEnergies' Namibian assets include a 45.25% share of Block 2913B, which includes the deep water Venus oil discovery. The French energy company operates the asset.
Together with QatarEnergy and other partners, it drilled and made vast discoveries of oil off the Namibian waters in 2022. The Venus find is estimated at 11 billion barrels of oil, one of the biggest deep water oil discoveries.
TotalEnergies is currently processing flow tests from the Venus wells, which it says is a potential new golden block.
The results will reveal the amount of oil resources trapped under the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in that part while giving an indicator of the potential of surrounding exploration blocks.
Neither Namibia nor South Africa currently produce any oil from the Orange Basin.
Shell
Should the Venus prove as rich as it is estimated, it could transform Namibia into a major oil producer.
British multinational Shell has also made discoveries in Namibia's side of the Orange Basin during the last two years, including the 2022 find at the Jonker-1X well.
After drilling four wells at the Lesedi-1X exploration site last year, Shell is still evaluating the data, which it said showed a presence of hydrocarbons. – Fin24