Yet another major oil and gas player wants in on Namibia’s Orange Basin: Brazil’s Petrobras (NYSE:PBR).
It was revealed last week that state-owned Petrobras had made a non-binding offer to purchase a major stake in Galp Energia’s Mopane oil and gas field, offshore Namibia.
If Petrobras’ bid is successful, it would make it the operator of Mopane, which hosts an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
"We are the best deepwater operators. If [Galp] don't choose us, it's their loss,” Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) exploration and production director Sylvia dos Anjos told Reuters.
Portugal-based Galp owns an 80% stake in the Petroleum Exploration License 83 (PEL 83), which covers almost 10,000 square kilometers including the Mopane discovery in the Orange Basin.
In April 2024, Galp launched a sale process for half of its interest in the block (40%), and more than a dozen oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM, ETR:XONA), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX, ETR:CHV), TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TOT, EPA:TTE), Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX:WDS, LSE:WDS, OTC:WOPEF), and Apache Energy have reportedly expressed interest in the sale.
Namibia’s national oil company NAMCOR (National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia) owns 10% of PEL 83 and the remaining 10% is held by Custos Energy, in which Canadian-headquartered Sintana Energy Inc (TSX-V:SEI, OTCQB:SEUSF) maintains an indirect 49% interest.
Namibia’s coast an oil discovery hotspot
Large-scale discoveries over the last few years have renewed interest in Namibia’s oil potential, including Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) at Graff, La Rona, Jonker and Lesedi, TotalEnergies at Mangetti and Venus, and Galp at Mopane.
In August 2023, NAMCOR stated that 11 billion barrels of oil had been discovered to date in the Orange Basin.
NAMCOR also estimated that, between Shell and TotalEnergies, almost 9 trillion cubic feet of gas had been found.
Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) is just the latest energy giant to seek exposure to the Orange Basin and other prospective basins in the region in the wake of these significant discoveries.
Earlier this month, Norway-listed BW Energy signed a deal to acquire up to a 20% non-operating interest in onshore PEL 73 in northeast Namibia held by Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd (TSX-V:RECO, OTCQX:RECAF).
Chevron also recently expanded its position in the country with its subsidiary Chevron Namibia Exploration assuming an 80% working interest and operatorship of PEL 82, the license governing blocks 2112B and 2212A located in the Walvis Basin.
The company re-entered Namibia in 2022 by taking an 80% interest in PEL 90, an offshore block in the Orange Basin, through a farm-in agreement with NAMCOR and Inter Oil, after walking away from the Kudu gas project in 2003.
Also in April, Sintana Energy announced it is entering a new license offshore Namibia by acquiring a stake in Giraffe Energy Investments.
Sintana Energy can earn up to a 67% stake in Giraffe Energy, which owns PEL 79. This license governs blocks 2815 and 2915 located close to the Mopane discovery and blocks operated by BW Energy, Rhino Resources, and Shell.
“We are absolutely thrilled to expand our exposure to the Orange Basin through this acquisition,” Sintana Energy CEO Robert Bose told Proactive in a recent interview. “It gives us the opportunity to take a much more active role in unleashing the geologic and commercial opportunity at PEL 79.”
As major oil and gas firms and independents alike bolster investment in Namibia's Orange Basin and surrounds, the region is primed for additional discoveries.