Rhino Resources to begin drilling in Namibia's Orange Basin

South Africa's privately owned oil exploration company Rhino Resources is set to begin its first drilling campaign in Namibia's Orange Basin by the first quarter of 2025 after a decade of exploration in the country, according to joint project stakeholder NAMCOR.

Speaking to delegates at Africa Energy Week in Cape Town Nov. 5, Victoria Sibeya, Executive Exploration Upstream at NAMCOR, Namibia's state oil firm, said Rhino Resources will be among three of its partners drilling new wells in the next four months, as Galp has begun activities in PEL 83 and Chevron promises to follow suit at PEL 90 by the end of 2024.

The lesser-known Rhino plans to drill two high-impact wells in its shallow water block in PEL 85, also situated in the coveted Orange Basin off Namibia, and has previously shared targets to begin drilling by the end of 2024. The company holds an 85% operating stake in Block 2914A, with local company Korres Investments and Namcor holding minority stakes of 5% and 10%.

Less than 20 km away from Galp's massive Mopane discovery, Rhino has expressed confidence in "multiple play types" and an "abundance of drillable prospects" in its block after promising seismic surveys and analysis. The company was not available for comment on its latest timelines to begin drilling.

S&P Global Commodity Insights analysts said that prospects for the two Rhino wells could be similar to Shell's discoveries in 2022, which kickstarted the surge in activity around Namibian oil fields over the past two years.

Farm-out prospects

The Rhino block has been no exception to the clamor for Namibian upstream assets among industry heavyweights, with Azule Energy, a joint venture between Eni and BP, pursuing a 42.5% stake in Block 2914A.

In what would be Azule's first venture outside of Angola since its creation in 2022, the proposed farm-in agreement would also provide the option for it to become the operator of PEL 85, it announced in a statement May 3.

In the statement, Rhino Resources CEO Travis Smithard called the partnership an opportunity to deliver barrels in the shortest timeframe possible, providing access to Azule's technical and financial resources.

At the time of the announcement, the transaction was still pending approvals from the Namibian authorities and joint venture partners. Neither Azule nor Rhino were immediately available to confirm progress on the deal.

Portugal's Galp has also dangled a farm-out of up to half of its 80% stake in PEL 83, but dashed hopes for quick access to the project Oct. 28, when it ruled out seeking partners before the end of 2025.

Commodity Insights forecasts suggest the Orange Basin's Venus development will deliver Namibia's first oil around 2030, with the country's crude volumes expected to plateau at around 180,000 b/d in 2032.

Meanwhile as the Orange Basin has caught the attention of the world's major oil producers, NAMCOR has stressed the benefit of a multi-pronged approach.

Victoria Sibeya said the company is finalizing a transaction with Chevron to enter the Walvis Basin and plans to drill more wells in the Namibe Basin (Block 1711), while attention has been reserved for the Luderitz Basin in the north.

"We continue to do more work in our least explored basin, the Luderitz, where we are seeing many prospective hydrocarbons and flows from our seismic data," she said.