Australian Oil Firm Makes Move to Acquire Share in Namibia’s Offshore Block

(Credit: Grand Gulf Energy)

Australia-based oil exploration and production company Grand Gulf Energy has entered into a binding option agreement to acquire 100% of Wrangel, which is an applicant for a 70% working interest in a license at Walvis Basin, offshore Namibia.

Wrangel is an applicant for a 70% working interest in a Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) for block 2312 in the Walvis Basin, in partnership with Namibian-based oil and gas company TSE Oil and Gas, holding 20% working interest, and the state-owned National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR), with 10% stake.

Under the terms of the agreement, consideration is only payable upon the successful granting of the PEL, offering Grand Gulf a low-cost entry into one of the world’s most prospective frontier basins.

Offshore Namibia has seen a series of recent significant oil discoveries resulting in over 11 billion barrels of oil discovered to date with global oil and gas super-majors such as Shell, Chevron, TotalEnergies and GALP all active in the area, with seven wells scheduled to be drilled in 2025.

Block 2312 covers an area of 16,800km2 in water depths ranging from 1,400m to 2,000m and lies to the south of the Murombe-1 and Wingat-1 wells, which were instrumental in establishing the prospectivity of offshore Namibia.

There is a total of approximately 6,100 km2 of 3D seismic in the north of the block and 4,700 line kilometres of 2D seismic with an average line spacing of 8-10km.

Grand Gulf has undertaken a comprehensive technical review of all available data which has confirmed the prospectivity of block 2312.

Technical work going forward will include a focused re-evaluation of the seismic characteristics of the Prospect S reservoir and nearby features, aimed at assessing the ability of seismic attributes to reliably predict hydrocarbon presence across the block’s most prospective targets.