Shell’s Partner Confirms Oil Discovery at Graff-1 Well Offshore Namibia

Following recent reports that Shell has made an oil discovery offshore Namibia, the confirmation came Friday from its partner QatarEnergy.

QatarEnergy, until recently known as Qatar Petroleum, confirmed that an oil discovery had been made in a deepwater exploration well drilled in the PEL-39 license located in the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia.

“The consortium partners comprising QatarEnergy (45% interest), Shell (operator, 45% interest) and National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia “NAMCOR” (10% interest), have successfully concluded drilling operations of the Graff-1 well establishing the presence of a working petroleum system with light oil. The partners will conduct analysis on the well data and further exploration activity to determine the full size and recoverable resource potential,” QatarEnergy said.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, said: “We are encouraged by the Graff-1 well results, which enhance the potential of our exploration acreage in Namibia’s offshore. 

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate our partners Shell and NAMCOR, and my colleagues in QatarEnergy for their great efforts that led to this discovery, in a safe and efficient manner. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the government of Namibia on the next steps, following this discovery.”

The Graff-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 5,376 meters in water depths of approximately 2,000 meters in the PEL-39 license area, which covers a total area of 12,299 km2.