Portugal’s Galp says the field near Namibia could hold 10 billion barrels of oil

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) – Portuguese oil company Galp Energia said on Sunday it had completed the first phase of exploration in the Mopane field off Namibia and estimated it could have at least 10 billion barrels of oil.

Galp said it conducted test operations at the Mopane-1X well in January and at the Mopane-2X well in March. In both wells, which are five miles apart, it said “significant light oil columns were discovered in high-quality reservoir sand.”

The Mopane field is located in the Orange Basin, along the coast of the southern African country, where Shell and France’s TotalEnergies have made several oil and gas discoveries.

Galp said the flows achieved during the tests reached the maximum allowable limit of 14,000 barrels per day, potentially positioning Mopane as a major 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 higher,” Galp said.

Galp has an 80% interest in Petroleum Exploration License 83 (PEL 83), which covers an area of ​​almost 10,000 square kilometers in the Orange Basin.

Namibia could become a new source of income for Galp, which currently has strong investments off the coast of Brazil and is also present in a natural gas project in Mozambique’s Rovuma basin.

Galp has previously indicated that it could launch a process to attract other investors for its projects in Namibia as they could reach a large scale.

Oil producers group OPEC+, which has lost Angola and other players in recent years, is eyeing Namibia’s possible membership as the country will set up Africa’s fourth-largest production in the next decade, an African industry official told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Christina Fincher)