The Energy Republic February Edition 2022

TOP STORY
He explained, "Operators need to explore the
possibilities through collaboration with
relevant government agencies of which the
NCDMB has a critical role.
“
TotalEnergies remains
proudly committed to
Nigerian Content and
we will continue to act
in ways that promote
these ideals.
“But it is now time to venture beyond Nigeria
and foster intra-Africa business relations to
consolidate on the gains of Nigerian Content.
Nigeria can earn foreign exchange through the
exportation of local content capacities,
infrastructure, and competencies within the
continent of Africa".
In another report, the World Economic Forum
(WEF) describes AfCFTA as a “global gamechanger”,
adding that AfCFTA will boost
regional income by 7% or $450 billion, speed
up wage growth for women, and lift 30 million
people out of extreme poverty by 2035.
WEF disclosed that it is estimated that the
AfCFTA will increase Africa’s exports by $560
billion, mostly in manufacturing. Intracontinental
exports would also increase by
81%, while the increase to non-African
countries would be 19%.
According to the WEF forecast, AFCFTA is an
opportunity to promote good governance both
globally and across Africa, through the concept
of “Trade Integrity” to ensure the legitimacy of
the global trading system.
Furthermore, the United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (UNECA) estimates that
AfCFTA will boost intra-African trade by 52.3%
once import duties and non-tariff barriers are
eliminated. It will diversify intra-African trade
as it would encourage more industrial goods as
opposed to extractive goods and natural
resources. More than 75% of African exports
outside of the continent consisted of extractive
commodities whereas only 40% of intra-
African trade were extractive.
UNECA report reveals that the elimination of
import duties will open up trading activities to
small businesses in the regional markets and
boost industrialization. The AfCFTA is expected
to foster competitive manufacturing, which
means Africa’s manufacturing sector will have
the potential to double in size from $500 billion
in 2015 to $1 trillion in 2025, creating 14 million
stable jobs.
Going forward, IHS Markit has published a list
of eight high-impact wells that are being drilled
28
Mrs. Maggy Shino, Petroleum Commissioner of Namibia's Ministry of Mines and Energy
and expected to continue drilling campaigns in
2022, which are listed below:
3Eni's Baleine 1 discovery in Cote d'Ivoire, in
the Cote d'Ivoire Basin
3TotalEnergies' Ondjaba-1 well in Angola, in
the Congo Fan
3Petronas's Jove Marine-1 well in Gabon
(geologically, an extension of the Lower Congo
Basin deep-water pre-salt play last tested by
Petronas with the Boudji 1 well)
3Shell's Graff-1 well in Namibia, in the frontier
Orange sub-basin
3TotalEnergies's Venus-1 well in South Africa,
in the frontier Orange sub-basin
3AziNam's Gazania-1 in South Africa, in the
frontier Orange sub-basin
3Galp/Shell's Jaca 1 in Sao Tome Principe, in
the Gabon-Douala Deep-Sea Basin
3Eni and Exxon testing in Mozambique, in the
deepwater Zambezi Delta
NAMIBIA
Namibia has been positioned as Southern
Africa’s new exploration frontier following
Shell's discovery of oil and gas at the Graff-1
well offshore Namibia. The country aims to fasttrack
the development of its first oilfield to
commence production by 2026. Shell holds a
45% stake in the offshore Petroleum
Exploration License (PEL 39) with a 45% interest
held by Qatar Petroleum and a 10% held by the
National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia
(NAMCOR).
Interestingly, TotalEnergies has made a
significant discovery of light oil with associated
gas on the Venus prospect, located in block
2913B in the Orange Basin, offshore southern
Namibia.
The company used Maersk Drilling’s Maersk
Voyager drillship in water depths of 3,000
meters, which will potentially revolutionize the
energy industry of the southern African
country. Block 2913B is operated by
TotalEnergies (40%), Impact Oil & Gas (20%),
Qatari state-owned petroleum company, Qatar
Energy (30%), and Namibian state oil company,
Namcor (10%).
Mrs. Maggy Shino, Petroleum Commissioner of
Namibia's Ministry of Mines and Energy
commented, "Namibia is a frontier nation and
hasn't yet entered into an oil and gas
production, adding that the country is focused
on exploration activities.
"It is quite an exciting time for us in Namibia as
we are happy to discover these resources. The
basin is quite large and it covers almost the
entire country from the Eastern side to the
Western side.
"While we are drilling the wells, we will be able
to see the commercial viability of the
discoveries that we have made.
"We will be unlocking the full potential of the
Kavango Basin and generate economic benefits
that will propel the Namibian economy going
forward.
"After we have assessed the commercial
viability of the wells, we will be able to enter
into production.
"Namibia is a very large country that is
underexplored. The country has about six
basins with two onshore basins, which are the
Kavango Basin and Namibe basin.
“
In offshore, we have four
more basins which are
the Luderitz, Owambo,
Walvis basin and Orange
basin.
"We only have 32 wells which have been drilled
in total and 15 of it are exploration wells. 10 of
the wells are undergoing deepsea programs
which are just for technical studies and the 7
wells are part of the wells that are within our
discovery in the Orange basin.
"In total, we have onshore and some number of
wells that have been drilled while others are
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