Galp has announced that the Mopane field off the coast of Namibia is estimated to hold more than ten billion barrels of oil.  

The Portuguese oil and gas company’s announcement follows the competition of the first exploration phase, revealing promising results from two wells, Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X. 

The Mopane field is part of the Orange Basin within petroleum exploration licence 83 (PEL 83), a region that has recently seen several major oil and gas finds. 

In January and March, Galp conducted tests at the Mopane-1X and Mopane-2X wells, respectively, located 8km apart.  

Both wells uncovered "significant light oil columns in high-quality reservoir sands", the company said.  

The reservoir logs confirmed good porosities, high pressures and high permeabilities in large hydrocarbon columns. Fluid samples indicated very low oil viscosity, minimal CO² and no H2S concentrations. 

During the well tests, the flows reached the maximum allowed limits of 14,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, suggesting that Mopane could be an important commercial discovery.  

“In the Mopane complex alone, and before drilling additional exploration and appraisal wells, hydrocarbon in-place estimates are ten billion barrels of oil equivalent, or higher,” Galp noted.  

Galp is now set to integrate the acquired data from the Mopane drilling campaign into an updated reservoir model.  

This model will refine the company's near-term drilling plans to further explore, appraise and develop the wider Mopane complex. 

Galp holds an 80% stake as the operator of PEL 83, with the National Petroleum Company of Namibia (NAMCOR) and Custos Energy each holding a 10% share.  

PEL 83 is immediately north of PEL 39, which includes Shell's notable discoveries at Graff-1, La Rona-1 and Jonker-1.  

Additionally, it lies adjacent to PEL 56, block 2913B, where TotalEnergies reported a substantial oil find at the Venus-1 well.