TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy enter South Africa licence

TotalEnergies and partner QatarEnergy have together acquired a majority stake in an exploration licence in the prolific Orange Basin offshore South Africa, the French energy giant said on Wednesday.

TotalEnergies has acquired a 33% participating interest in Block 3B/4B and will assume operatorship, while QatarEnergy has taken a 24% interest.

The stakes were acquired from Africa Oil South Africa, Azinam and Ricocure. The remainder of the stakes are now held by Africa Oil (17%), Ricocure (19.75%) and Azinam (6.25%).

Block 3B/4B, located 200 kilometres off the South African coast, covers an area of 17,581 square kilometres.

“Following the Venus success in Namibia, TotalEnergies is continuing to progress its exploration effort in the Orange Basin, by entering this promising exploration license in South Africa”, said Kevin McLachlan, senior vice-president of exploration of TotalEnergies.

The company holds a 45.25% stake in the Venus discovery, where it also works alongside QatarEnergy.

In February 2022, TotalEnergies encountered 84 metres of net oil pay at the Orange Basin’s Venus 1-X well, with pre-drill estimates indicating the find could contain around 1.5 billion barrels of oil. Since then, the company has drilled several test wells in the region with positive results and is currently assessing the play for development.