CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Canada’s Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica) has found indications of oil at its Naingopo onshore exploration well and will look to accelerate drilling in the region, its chief executive said on Thursday.
Exploring close to the environmentally sensitive Okavango Delta in Namibia, ReconAfrica has faced years of criticism from Namibian environmentalists and communities, but has the government’s backing to continue drilling in the vast acreage it holds. The company has environmental authorization to drill multiple wells.
“We are excited about the results of this well, which opens the play and demonstrates a working petroleum system within the Damara Fold Belt,” ReconAfrica CEO Brian Reinsborough said in a statement.
“The importance of finding over 50 metres of net reservoir with indications of oil in this well is significant,” he said.
Namibia is a global exploration hotspot but has experienced a slight blip this year after Shell halted field developments, considering them commercially unviable, and Chevron’s first offshore well in the Orange Basin also didn’t yield any commercial oil or gas.
Reinsborough said multiple indications of oil in the Naingopo well will be further analysed, and based on the technical data the company plans to drill another well, Prospect 1, ahead of its Kambundu well.
Operator ReconAfrica holds a 70% stake in the massive PEL 73 block, with Norway’s BW Energy having 20% and Namibia’s national oil company Namcor a 10% working interest.
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
