Namibia adjusts estimated reserves at key exploration fields

WINDHOEK, January 25, 2024 – Namibia has downsized anticipated recoverable reserves at two of its large offshore exploration fields, Upstream Online reported on Wednesday.

According to Namibia’s Petroleum Commissioner Maggy Shino, the Jonker and Graff fields operated by Shell are now estimated to contain recoverable oil reserves of 300 million barrels and ranging from 200 million barrels, respectively.

Previous estimates had the Orange Basin holding 11 billion barrels of oil-in-place with 5.1 billion barrels found at TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery, 2.5 billion barrels at the Jonker play and 2.7 billion at the Graff field.

Recoverable oil reserves were formerly announced to be around 2 billion barrels at the Venus field, between 300 million barrels to 400 million barrels at the Jonker discovery and between 250 million barrels and 400 million barrels at the Graff play.

Preliminary estimates at TotalEnergies’ Venus field remain unchanged in latest estimates.

Figures continue to be subject to change as studies were ongoing.

“We are making ongoing evaluations to determine the exact size of these fields and continuously improve our estimates to determine commerciality,” said Shino in a statement with Energy Capital & Power.

In January 2023, TotalEnergies agreed to up its stake in the Venus field for USD 99 million.

In November 2023, Shell announced it had allocated a quarter of its 2023 and 2024 offshore deepwater exploration spending in Namibia.

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