Galp’s new discovery offshore Namibia has been successfully tested, with flows from the Mopane-1X well hitting the maximum limit of 14,000 barrels oil equivalent per day in a test.
The Portuguese oil major, in a statement on Sunday, described Mopane as ‘potentially an important commercial discovery’.
Galp reckons the discovered Mopane complex alone could contain hydrocarbon in-place in excess of 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent. It also sees possible additional exploration and appraisal wells in the project’s vicinity.
“All acquired data from the current Mopane drilling campaign will be analysed and integrated into an updated reservoir model. The model will serve as the basis to refine Galp´s near-term drilling plan to further explore, appraise and develop the wider Mopane complex,” the company said in a statement.
Galp owns 80% of the project where it drilled the Mopane-1X well and made the initial discovery in January.
Mopane-1X unearthed significant oil columns containing light oil in high-quality reservoir sands at two different levels.
It followed it up immediately with the Mopane-2X well which, in March, similarly found significant light oil columns were discovered in high-quality reservoir sands across exploration and appraisal targets.
Data gathered from the wells show good porosities, high pressures and high permeabilities in large hydrocarbon columns.
Galp’s discovery adds to the emerging new oil frontier. Namibia has long been recognised in the industry as a territory with high oil and gas potential, though the latest round of drilling successes have propelled progress significantly.
These discoveries have come in the Orange basin – and along with Galp’s Mopane, are Shell Plc's (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) Graff discovery and TotalEnergies' (NYSE:TOT, EPA:TTE) Venus.
Explorers like Africa Oil Corp (TSX:AOI), Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas Ltd (AIM:ECO, TSX-V:EOG), Sintana Energy Inc (TSX-V:SEI, OTCQB:SEUSF), 88 Energy Ltd (AIM:88E, ASX:88E, OTC:EEENF) and Westmount Energy Limited (AIM:WTE, OTCQB:WMELF) meanwhile offer investors exposure to earlier stage, high-impact potential projects.