Oil and gas company Sintana Energy said Friday that over 50% of 3D seismic survey data has been gathered from Petroleum Exploration License 87 (“PEL 87”) and the surrounding area in the Orange Basin offshore Namibia.
To remind, Australian oil giant Woodside in March signed an option agreement to acquire at least a 56% interest in the PEL 87, with the decision to exercise the option to follow after the evaluation of seismic data acquired as part of the agreement.
Sintana Energy said Friday that the initial processed results were expected to be available and interpreted by the end of August 2023.
According to Sintana, PEL 87 includes the very large Saturn turbidite complex that has been mapped.
"This complex shares many geologic characteristics and is on-trend with the Venus oil discovery made by TotalEnergies in February 2022. The core features of Saturn, covering approximately 2,400 square kilometers, lie entirely within the PEL 87 area,"Sintana said.
"Survey activities on PEL 87 are well advanced and we remain confident that the results will confirm that we are on trend with the recent massive discoveries in the basin, and will further demonstrate that Saturn Turbidite Complex is a significant offshore deep water oil opportunity.” said Robert Bose, President and Director of Sintana.
As mentioned earlier, Woodside's has the option to acquire a 56% stake in the PEL 87 offshore block in consideration for, among other things, paying the full cost of a 3-D seismic survey covering an area of at least 5,000 square kilometers within the PEL 87.
Woodside has a period of at least 180 days after delivery of the survey to exercise its option. If the option is exercised, Woodside has agreed to enter a farm-out agreement under which it will carry existing joint venture partners for the full cost of drilling the first exploration well.
"Custos Investments (Pty) Ltd. (“Custos”) retains a 15% interest in PEL 87 and benefits from this carry and other elements related to the farmout and joint venture agreements. Sintana owns an indirect 49% interest in Custos," Sintana said.
Namibia was placed on the global oil and gas exploration map last year with two giant oil discoveries made by TotalEnergies (Venus) and Shell (Graff). In March 2023, Shell also made a discovery at the Jonker-1X deep-water exploration well in PEL-39 Exploration License, offshore Namibia,