Equinor plans to drill Namibia's PEL 90 block within the year

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 25, Equinor Executive Vice President Philippe Mathieu stated that the company hopes to make a major oil and gas discovery within the PEL 90 petroleum exploration license offshore Namibia. The license includes a drill-ready exploration target, with drilling tests planned to be conducted before the end of 2026, and resource size will be further assessed based on drilling results.

PEL 90 is located in Block 2813B of the Orange Basin in Namibia, with Chevron serving as operator. Equinor signed an agreement with Chevron's Harmattan Energy Limited on August 18 to acquire a 17.4% participating interest in the license. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and the completion of relevant closing procedures.

Upon completion of the transaction, Chevron's interest in PEL 90 will decrease from 52.5% to 35.1%, with QatarEnergy holding 27.5%, Equinor holding 17.4%, and Trago Energy and Namibia's national oil company NAMCOR each holding 10%.

The planned Nabba-1X well will become the second exploration well deployed by Chevron in Namibian waters. Its first well, Kapana-1X, completed geological data acquisition but did not discover commercially viable oil and gas resources. The southern boundary of PEL 90 is approximately 60 kilometers from the Venus-1 oil field discovery operated by TotalEnergies and Shell's Graff oil and gas discovery.