Grand Gulf Energy joins Shell, Chevron, and TotalEnergies in exploring the offshore Namibia play by agreeing to acquire a controlling stake in a large block in the Walvis Basin.
The company has entered into a binding option agreement to take full ownership of Wrangel Pty Ltd., which has applied for a 70% working interest in the Block 2312 exploration permit.
In this venture, Wrangel is partnering with TSE Oil and Gas (20%) and the state-owned National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (10%).
Block 2312 lies south of Chevron’s operated PEL 82 and spans approximately 16,800 square kilometers, with water depths ranging from 1,400m to 2,000m.
AIM-listed Chariot, the previous operator of the block, conducted a 3D seismic survey covering 2,600 sq km in 2016, building on data from a 1,700km 2D seismic survey conducted in 2015.
The company processed the new seismic data alongside 3,500 sq km of legacy 3D data, using the combined 6,100 sq km to map multiple structural prospects.
Chariot identified two well-developed source rocks, rich in organic carbon, and several oil-saturated sandy reservoirs during the Wingat-1 drilling in 2013.
The company estimated a mean prospective resource of 1.1 billion barrels of oil at the site.
Global oil and gas super-majors have recently joined the rush to offshore Namibia following a series of successful discoveries.
Since 2022, the Orange Basin has seen a success rate exceeding 80%, with over 11 billion barrels of oil found.
To advance its Namibian efforts, Grand Gulf has secured $700,000 in commitments through a placement to professional and sophisticated investors, which will primarily fund further evaluation of Block 2312.
Grand Gulf has also appointed Havoc Services as its corporate and technical advisor to help assess the Block 2312 opportunity and assist in identifying additional frontier basin opportunities worldwide.
Havoc’s subsidiary, Harmattan Energy, previously operated PEL 90 in Namibia and sold it to Chevron in 2022.
source:smallcaps.com.a
