Namibia: Tower Resources in talks with oil major over potential cooperation

Africa-focused Tower Resources has engaged in talks with a “major international oil company” with regards to its blocks offshore Namibia.

Tower said on Thursday it had disclosed technical and commercial information to a major international oil company, to explore the potential to co-operate in respect of Tower’s Namibian Blocks,  1910A, 1911, and 1912B, Tower’s Namibia blocks cover 23,297 km² of the northern Walvis Basin and Dolphin Graben offshore Namibia.

The oil company said Thursday that the companies had held preliminary discussions – initiated by the oil major – earlier this summer.

Tower’s website shows that its Namibian blocks are located in under-explored region in which recent drilling results have proven the presence of a working oil-prone petroleum system, along with good quality turbidite and carbonate reservoirs. The blocks are located directly to the north of licenses in which ExxonMobil (‘Exxon’) and Africa Energy Corp have acquired interests. In addition, Tower’s website shows, Kosmos Energy have also recently farmed into Shell operated PEL39 in the deep-water Orange Basin.

Commenting on the company’s talks with the unnamed oil major, Jeremy Asher, Tower’s Chairman and CEO, said: “This process is at a very early stage, and may not lead to any agreement. However, it does provide a timely reminder that, in addition to our Cameroon appraisal and development project, the Company has two extremely attractive exploration opportunities in Namibia and South Africa.”

Asher said that the company’s Namibian Blocks, in which Tower has an 80% interest as the operator, include two giant four-way dip closures in the West and four large structures in the Dolphin Graben where the 1994 Norsk Hydro well 1911/15-1 encountered three source rock intervals and recovered oil from Albian carbonate core samples.

He also said that  Algoa-Gamtoos license in South Africa, operated by NewAge, where Tower’s interest is 50%, adjoins Total’s license where it made its recent 1-billion boe Brulpadda gas-condensate discovery in the Outeniqua basin, and that Algoa-Gamtoos license includes a 364 million boe prospect identified by NewAge in the same Outeniqua basin.”

While the year 2018 was unrewarding when it comes to offshore exploration in Namibia, as Tullow and Chariot’s wells Cormorant and Prospect S, came up dry, Namibian offshore acreage holders will be closely watching at France’s Total and its Venus well in Namibia’s ultra-deep offshore that is expected to be spud later this year.

According to a report earlier this year by Wood Mackenzie, the ultra-deepwater wildcat will target 2 billion barrels of oil in a giant Cretaceous fan play, close to the South African maritime boundary. Rystad Energy, a Norwegian energy intelligence firm, has said that the Venus will be the deepest well ever drilled in Africa, and is considered to be the largest prospect ever in Namibia. The well was slated for spud in Q3, 2019.  Offshore Energy has reached out to Total, seeking info on the status of the Venus operations. We will update the article if we receive any response.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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