Equinor Eyes Big find

Wonder Guchu
  • 7 Hours Ago

Equinor is hoping Chevron’s planned Nabba-1X exploration well offshore Namibia will deliver a “pretty big” oil discovery comparable to the major finds already made in the Orange Basin, as the Norwegian energy group prepares to participate in its first deepwater exploration well in the country later this year.


The company has now narrowed the expected drilling window for Nabba-1X to the southern hemisphere spring. The well is expected to be drilled in water depths of more than 2,000 metres on Petroleum Exploration Licence 90 (PEL 90), directly north of TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery.


Equinor executive vice-president for Exploration and Production International, Philippe Mathieu, told the Offshore Northern Seas conference in Stavanger this week that the company hoped the Chevron-operated prospect could produce a result comparable to the large discoveries that have driven international interest in Namibia.


“We’re hoping for something similar,” Mathieu said, referring to Venus, although he cautioned that the well remained a high-risk exploration investment.


He said the probability of finding hydrocarbons was relatively low, as is typical of frontier exploration, “but if we find resources, then it could be pretty big”.


Mathieu declined to disclose Equinor’s estimate of the prospective resources targeted by Nabba-1X, but said the potential prize was large enough to justify the company’s decision to establish an upstream position in Namibia.


“It is attractive enough for us [to] warrant … a country entry, or at least a re-entry,” he said.


The reference to a re-entry reflects Equinor’s earlier history in Namibia. Its predecessor, Statoil, was awarded Namibia’s first offshore exploration block in 1991. The acquisition of an interest in PEL 90 therefore represents a return to a country where the company explored more than three decades ago.


Equinor announced on 18 August that it had agreed to acquire a 17.4% participating interest in PEL 90 from Chevron subsidiary Harmattan Energy Limited, giving it exposure to the Nabba prospect shortly before drilling. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and other completion processes.


Once completed, Chevron’s interest will fall from 52.5% to 35.1%, while QatarEnergy will retain 27.5%, Trago Energy 10%, and state-owned Namcor 10%.


Chevron had previously indicated that Nabba-1X would be drilled before the end of 2026, but Equinor’s comments at the ONS conference provide a more specific indication of when the partners expect the drilling campaign to begin.


The well is significant because PEL 90 lies immediately north of the acreage containing TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery, placing Nabba in a part of the Orange Basin where exploration companies are seeking to establish how widely the petroleum systems responsible for Namibia’s major discoveries extend.