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CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Recent offshore oil discoveries in Namibia are estimated at around 11 billion barrels, state oil company NAMCOR said in a presentation of preliminary data.
The southern African country, which has not yet produced any oil or gas, is the object of envy after the deep-sea discoveries made by Shell and TotalEnergies over the past two years.
According to NAMCOR’s presentation, a copy of which was seen by Reuters on Wednesday, TotalEnergies’ Venus-1X well contains about 5.1 billion barrels of oil, while Shell’s Graff-1X and Jonker-1X contain 5.1 billion barrels of oil, respectively. 2.38 billion and 2.5 billion.
Oil companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and Galp Energia also carry out exploration activities.
According to NAMCOR, this series of discoveries could make Namibia one of the top 15 oil producers by 2035, and could double the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in less than a decade.
These wells are still being evaluated and a final reserve estimate could be published later this year.
The development of Venus and Jonker was done through an “incremental, multi-phase approach,” said NAMCOR, which has a 10% interest in the discoveries. There is no development concept yet for Shell’s Graff and Le Rona wells, she added.
“Early estimates show that Graff and Venus have the potential to nearly double Namibia’s GDP by 2040, to nearly $37 billion,” NAMCOR estimates.
(Reportage Wendell Roelf, Kate Entringer, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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