The Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, NJ Ayuk, highlighted the significant potential of the Orange Basin, suggesting it could hold up to three billion barrels of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, Ayuk emphasized that, for countries like Namibia, having substantial reserves is just the beginning.
Ayuk stated, “As far as oil and gas companies are concerned, Namibia is not the only game in town.” He cautioned that while the excitement around petroleum resources is high, there is no guarantee that it will translate into fully realizing socioeconomic opportunities, such as eradicating energy poverty and boosting the economy.
Guyana, Namibia to remain key exploration hotspots for the foreseeable future – S&P
OilNOW
According to Ayuk, attracting and retaining energy companies’ interest necessitates deliberate, strategic measures by the country’s leadership. While acknowledging Namibia’s efforts in creating an enabling environment for upstream activity and updating tax laws, Ayuk stressed the need for continuous efforts to demonstrate investor-friendliness.
Ayuk praised Guyana’s triumph in this regard, noting, “That’s what Guyana has been achieving quite successfully.” He urged Namibia to emulate Guyana’s approach to ensure ongoing exploration and production activities.
Guyana and Namibia have similarities in their oil exploration paths. Their oil reserves are estimated to be identical at 11 billion barrels. According to the state-owned National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR), the bulk of Namibia’s resources are from TotalEnergies’ Venus-1X discovery, which it said accounted for nearly half of this reserve. While Namibia’s resource count is spread over three finds, Guyana’s is the accumulation of more than 30 discoveries in the Stabroek Block alone.
The Graff-X1 and Venus-X1 Namibia finds, according to Westwood Global Energy Group, share similarities with the Guyana-Suriname basin play.
The energy market intelligence platform said the discoveries have proven the presence of an extensive, prolific oil kitchen, and that its analysis suggests that “the Lower Cretaceous Venus play has a potential extent of up to ~58,000km², comparable to that of the Upper Cretaceous of Suriname-Guyana.”
It said a Suriname-Guyana scale oil province is “certainly possible”, “provided that the traps are present and the deepwater reservoirs are widespread and of good enough quality.”
Westwood had also named Guyana and Namibia among oil exploration and production jurisdictions where high-impact exploration has proven successful.
