By Sergio Gonçalves
LISBON (Reuters) – Portuguese oil company Galp Energia announced on Sunday that it had completed the first phase of exploration at the Mopane field off the coast of Namibia and estimates it could hold at least 10 billion barrels of oil.
Galp said it conducted test operations at the Mopane-1X well in January and the Mopane-2X well in March. In the two wells, 8 kilometers apart, “significant columns of light oil were discovered in high-quality reservoir sands.”
The Mopane field is located in the Orange Basin along the coast of the southern African country, where Shell and French company TotalEnergies have made several oil and gas discoveries.
Galp said the flow rates achieved during testing reached the maximum allowable limit of 14,000 barrels per day, potentially positioning Mopane as a significant commercial discovery.
“In the Mopane complex alone, and before drilling additional exploration and evaluation wells, estimates of hydrocarbons in place are 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or more,” Galp said.
Galp holds an 80% interest in Oil Exploration Permit 83 (PEL 83), which covers an area of nearly 10,000 square kilometers in the Orange Basin.
Namibia could become a new source of income for Galp, which currently has strong investments offshore Brazil and is also present in a natural gas project in the Rovuma basin in Mozambique.
Galp had previously indicated that it may launch a process to attract other investors to its projects in Namibia, as these could reach a large scale.
The OPEC+ group of oil producers, which has lost Angola and other players in recent years, is eyeing possible Namibia membership as it builds what could become the fourth-largest production of Africa by the next decade, an African industry official told Reuters.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Christina Fincher)