FRENCH global multi-energy company TotalEnergies, which made oil and gas discoveries off-shore Namibia in 2022, has confirmed positive appraisal results from its Venus-1A well and a “positive flow test” at its Venus-1X well.
Energy Voice, a leading global oil publication, said Total provided details on progress off-shore Namibia at it investor day on Wednesday, saying it hopes to confirm this with the upcoming flow test at the Venus-1A well.
According to chief executive Patrick Pouyanne, the company, which has two rigs working in Namibia, was continuing its activities in the Orange Basin, which he previously compared to the highly productive Block 17 in Angola.
“The next step is a flow test on Venus-1A,” he told investors, predicting the company would go ahead with an oil development on Venus as well as further exploration in the licence beyond the Venus discovery. The Venus prospect is located in block 2913B in the Orange Basin, offshore southern Namibia. TotalEnergies is the operator, with a 40% working interest, alongside QatarEnergy with 30%, Impact Oil and Gas at 20% and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) with 10% stake.
Impact Oil and Gas also told Energy Voice the group had drilled the Venus-1X in 2022, and a drill stem test was carried out in early September and produced positive results. According to Energy Voice, while there has been substantial interest in Namibia, Total was keen to highlight its broader portfolio – and its ability to churn out cash and energy. The company expects to increase its oil and gas production by 2-3% per year to 2028, with liquefied natural gas playing the largest role.
It is currently working on projects in Qatar, Papua New Guinea, the US and Mozambique and considering another near-term final investment decision in Angola, on Block 20.
Energy Voice said Total’s oil and gas business should generate more than US$3 billion (N$60 billion) of additional cash flow by 2028. However, one area of concern is higher costs in the supply chain and Pouyanne said some of the drilling companies had learnt from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and “preferred to keep some rigs stacked”, rather than offer them to the market.
Despite this, Total is confident that it can stick to its targets of US$20 per barrel for capital and operating expenditure. According to a Reuters report, analysts at the investor day were keen to hear more about Total’s recent exploration activity offshore Namibia, which has no oil and gas output now, but could become one of the top 15 oil producers by 2035.
“Namibia could become the largest ever deep-offshore discovery for TotalEnergies, potentially surpassing Block 17 in Angola – the last ‘golden’ block of TotalEnergies,” Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Bertrand Hodée said.
He estimates that two new blocks in Namibia, where Shell has also announced offshore oil and gas discoveries, could hold 4 billion barrels of reserves. That would take the total at the Venus field to 12 billion barrels, with a potential value of US$4,1 billion for the French group. While rivals BP and Shell reportedly aim to cut or maintain steady oil output by the end of the decade, TotalEnergies aims to grow production by 1,5% by 2027.
The French company, which booked a record profit in 2022, has also been investing in renewables and low carbon energy and has a significantly higher wind and solar power generation capacity than rivals. Yet TotalEnergies expects its absolute emissions to remain at around 400 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year by 2030.
Scientists say the world needs to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 from 2019 levels to stand any chance of meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement.
TotalEnergies aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050 at the same time producing around one million barrels of oil equivalent per day with gas taking the lion’s share.
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